(The Minnesota Star Tribune)
Overwintering vegetables?
Can overwintered Brussels sprouts produce? Help a fellow gardener with advice.
By marthabuns
May 10, 2013 at 3:18PM
Green Girl commenter BertieW has this question for veteran Brussels sprouts growers. Since my main knowledge of Brussels sprouts is that they're really tasty with bacon, I'm certain I'm not the best person to offer guidance. I know they're technically biennials generally grown as annuals with the harvest usually in the first season, but haven't run into the situation below:
BertieW's sprouts did not produce last fall, so he covered them with a healthy layer of leaves and figured the worst that could happen was they wouldn't make it. So BertieW was quite presently surprised when he dug around the leaves yesterday and discovered green, growing Brussels sprout plants. His question is how does one deal with overwintered vegetables? Could they actually produce? Can they be dug up and replanted elsewhere? Has BertieW confused the plants sufficiently to get Brussels sprouts in June?
What advice can you offer BertieW? Should he leave the science project in place and see if sprouts result in cold weather, then dig them out and plant summer crops in their place? Or is this a pipe dream?
Photo credit: Tom Wallace
about the writer
marthabuns
Several home watch businesses joined together in the Minnesota Home Watch Collaborative to stay vigilant across the whole state.