If you have any of these wonderful brassicas growing in your plot over the next few months, there are a few things you can do to keep your plants healthy and thriving.
- Protect them from slugs and snails – this is likely to be the number one problem for these brassicas now. You’ll find little slugs and snails bury right into the leaves and do quite a lot of damage, especially to sprouts and cabbages. Do what you can to keep them protected by using slug beer traps, laying down wool pellets and grit, using copper mesh tape if growing in containers and so on.
- Pull off the lower yellow leaves – as older, outer leaves die off, they begin to turn yellow. At this point the yellowing leaves both attract slugs and snails, and become easy targets for fungal and bacterial diseases. Removing them will really help to keep the plants healthier and will discourage slugs and snails.
- Firm down and earth up taller plants – brassicas do not do well when their roots are disturbed, and stronger winds over the next few months can cause the plants to rock which makes their roots rock as well. Stamp your foot around the base of plants to firm them in really well, and then earth them up (surround the base with soil, a little like a molehill, to prevent them from swaying around so much) or stake them and tie in. (If you have sprouts that open up like a fluffy cabbage, loose roots may well be the cause.)
- Keep them netted against pigeons – this is particularly important for the younger, more tender brassicas that you might be growing, like any purple sprouting broccoli or kale planted in autumn, for example.
- Let frosts sweeten them up – you can happily harvest cabbages and sprouts as soon as they reach maturity, but letting the frosty nights sweeten them up a bit is well worth it.
And a few harvesting tips: When harvesting brussels sprouts, start with the larger sprouts at the bottom of the stalk and work your way up. For harvesting kale, pull the larger/medium leaves firmly downward to pull them off the stalk. Leave the smaller, baby leaves to keep growing. Cabbages can be harvested once they reach maturity and after a few frosts, and broccoli probably won’t start producing spears until early spring.