0:14 [Music]
0:15 well hello everyone and welcome to
0:18 another absolutely beautiful day here in
0:20 the Mi Gardener Garden hopefully you all
0:22 are going to enjoy this episode this one
0:24 is going to be complete growing guide on
0:25 brussels sprouts this has been one of
0:27 our most requested growing guides for
0:30 this year and I wanted to make sure that
0:33 uh that they were ready to really show
0:35 that's why it's taken a while to get to
0:38 this uh to get to this episode because
0:40 uh really brussels sprouts are Brasa
0:42 much like broccoli and cauliflower and
0:44 cabbage and we have growing guides on
0:48 those that pertains to uh to Brussels
0:50 sprouts as well so I'm going to go very
0:52 quickly through that episode or through
0:54 that part of the the growing guide
0:57 getting it to this stage because it is a
0:58 very easy one to grow and we have lots
1:00 of videos that go more into adapting
1:02 growing brasas um but there's one
1:05 specific step to getting brussel sprouts
1:08 to grow that does not apply to to the
1:10 other ones because um they're just you
1:11 know they're unique like like all
1:14 vegetables are um but these are a little
1:16 exceptionally unique cuz it takes a one
1:19 extra step so uh what we want to do
1:21 first is talk about you know nutrients
1:24 sunlight water uh soil stuff like that
1:26 that we talk about you know in all the
1:28 growing guides because I wanted to be a
1:30 complete growing guide so these are cold
1:32 weather crop meaning that you can grow
1:35 these from Spring until the last frost
1:37 in fact it's actually advised to let
1:39 them go that long brussels sprouts are
1:42 very long-term grow they do not uh
1:45 mature very quickly we're talking 110 to
1:48 13 days for brussels sprouts solely for
1:50 the fact that you want to get the plant
1:53 built up this is a huge plant by the way
1:55 this is a massive brussel sprout plant
1:58 and the leaves on this thing are just
2:01 insane so uh look really good but um you
2:04 want to give it a long time to mature
2:06 next thing you want to do is you want to
2:08 give it between 5 and 7 hours of Sun I
2:10 find that the more sun you give it the
2:13 bigger the plant will get and the faster
2:14 it start it will start to produce
2:16 brussel sprouts that means the faster it
2:18 starts producing brussels sprouts the
2:21 larger they will get because brussel
2:23 sprouts are actually side shoots and
2:26 I'll show you what I mean uh in a second
2:29 brussel sprouts grow in between the leaf
2:31 nodes of your Brussels sprout plant so
2:33 the taller you can get it the more
2:36 brussel sprouts you can get and
2:37 obviously the sooner the Brussels
2:39 sprouts start forming the bigger they
2:41 get so if you have a really tall really
2:42 early plant you're going to get a
2:45 Bountiful Harvest of Brussels sprouts
2:48 now what I will say is that uh they are
2:50 nitrogen hogging these are some of the
2:51 most nitrogen hogging plants in the
2:53 garden you got to give them nitrogen if
2:54 you don't they're not going to produce
2:55 the nice green leaves they're not going
2:56 to grow as fast they're not going to
2:58 produce the brussel sprouts which you
3:01 are obviously eating so lots of nitrogen
3:02 we give that Trifecta plus just so we
3:04 can do everything in the garden it loves
3:07 it what we do is we also follow up
3:09 Midway through the season we don't do
3:11 this typically because Trifecta actually
3:13 feeds all season long but we like to
3:15 keep the really high potent nutrients
3:18 the fast acting ones um in the soil for
3:19 these so we'll actually come back about
3:23 midseason around mid to late uh mid to
3:25 late July and follow up with uh some
3:27 more Trifecta to get these plants
3:29 boosted again so we actually feed these
3:32 twice a year here and um and it
3:34 absolutely loves it so uh the next thing
3:37 is the soil type you want a very loose
3:38 well- draining soil but you don't want
3:41 it too loose because these are brassas
3:43 and brassas are very prone to Club root
3:46 we talk about this a lot very much in
3:48 depth in uh in the broccoli growing
3:51 guide that we've done because clubroot
3:55 plagues um both uh the uh the
3:58 cauliflower broccoli and um and cabbage
4:00 as well as the Brussels Sprouts all the
4:03 same the way to alleviate that is by
4:06 packing down the soil when you plant
4:07 your plants you want to pack down the
4:08 soil whether you're starting from seed
4:11 or from start you want to press the soil
4:13 down and I actually show you how to do
4:15 that in that grun guide so I recommend
4:16 you going and check it out but I
4:19 actually take my foot and step the soil
4:21 down if you have the right type of soil
4:23 it won't actually compact to the point
4:25 where it's harmful for the plant it will
4:27 just get rid of those air pockets which
4:29 are one of the ways that plants can uh
4:32 can dri Club rout so um there's that now
4:34 the next thing is watering we really do
4:36 not water that often here in the garden
4:37 because we use what's called core
4:39 gardening I've got a couple videos
4:41 coming up on that and core gardening is
4:44 essentially where we where we uh dig a a
4:47 trench about 8 to 10 in deep fill it
4:50 with straw rotting straw and then and
4:53 then uh pile it back up and play on top
4:55 of that and what it does is it holds in
4:58 that moisture so we don't have to water
4:59 that often if you use that method don't
5:01 think you'll have to water as often
5:02 either depending on your climate and
5:06 your location but uh I I think um we
5:08 also got rain here too we the the uh
5:11 water that the Brussels sprouts did get
5:13 is just rainwater um and we did water in
5:16 the early season as well um to kind of
5:19 charge the core of the uh of the core
5:22 gardening uh the beds and so we did
5:25 water um and I would have to say maybe
5:26 like a half a gallon a week if I was
5:29 being honest so um not that much water
5:30 at all
5:32 and uh and the plants are doing fine so
5:34 now we've talked about all those I want
5:37 to talk about um oh and spacing um
5:39 spacing is a little important just
5:41 because you don't want them to get
5:43 powdery mildew or rot and uh and the
5:46 thing is that the the plants they look
5:48 very close together here that's just
5:49 because they've grown up very close we
5:51 grow very high intensity here the high
5:53 intensity gardening method is by far the
5:55 most productive method but you have to
5:57 be careful not to space them too close
5:59 because otherwise you're going to
6:01 actually end up hurting your plants so
6:05 we've spaced ours about I'd say 10 in
6:08 apart no more than that uh yeah right
6:11 about 10 10 to 11 in I guess um to be
6:15 fair so um that's spacing now I want to
6:16 talk about the specific step here
6:18 because it's very important and it's
6:19 very crucial to getting your brussels
6:21 sprouts to form so come on in close I'll
6:23 show you what brussels sprouts are when
6:25 they're just teeny tiny and what they
6:27 look like and uh and how to get them to
6:28 start forming because there's a very
6:30 simple tip that I know all of you will
6:31 be able to benefit from that are looking
6:33 to grow your brussel sprouts come in
6:34 close check this out now general rule of
6:37 Thum is about 50 to 60 days before your
6:40 first Frost you want to do this so if
6:42 obviously you've waited later that's
6:44 fine um you might not get as large of BR
6:47 brussel sprouts but the general rule is
6:50 about 50 to 60 days and what that what
6:52 that basically does is it signals to the
6:54 plant that it is in shock and it is
6:57 going to come under Shock by leaf
6:59 removal and what you want to do you want
7:01 to come through here and just snap these
7:05 leaves off snap them off don't snap too
7:08 close to the stem because you'll break
7:11 those brussel sprouts I typically break
7:15 about a/2 in away from this from the
7:18 stem and uh essentially where the plant
7:20 naturally breaks I just bend I grab it
7:24 here and bend it and wherever it breaks
7:26 that's where uh that's where I let it
7:28 break and you want to break them all the
7:32 way up the plant leaving just the top uh
7:37 I guess the top 2 3 in of of leaves and
7:39 so you can see there's a couple little
7:41 tiny brussel sprouts there but those are
7:43 too immature to form anyways so I leave
7:45 those and this produces energy for the
7:47 plant this still allows the plant to
7:49 stay alive and so I figured I'd close by
7:51 this plant that I did about oh 30 days
7:54 ago or so and um so we were a little bit
7:56 in the late late in the game for those
7:58 plants over there but I did this uh I
8:00 did this plant about 30 days ago and you
8:03 can see that the Brussels sprouts are
8:06 about double in size so I definitely
8:08 think that uh that we're going to have
8:10 some nice brussel sprouts this year this
8:12 plant was exceptionally large as you can
8:16 see and um man I I love brussel sprouts
8:18 brazed in some red wine it's just the
8:22 way to go and uh man nothing beats the
8:24 flavor so hopefully all enjoyed
8:26 hopefully you all try brussels sprouts I
8:28 think it is something that gets a really
8:31 bad rep because is you cannot taste them
8:33 Frozen you got to taste them fresh and
8:34 you got to taste them from the garden
8:38 because nothing ever tastes fresh and is
8:40 awesome as it does right from the garden
8:42 so please do not taste it frozen from
8:44 the store if you did get taste it if you
8:46 did taste it frozen from the store I
8:49 apologize it probably tainted your idea
8:51 of them it certainly tainted mine
8:53 because uh I used to I used to be forced
8:56 to eat brussels sprouts frozen from the
8:59 uh Frozen from the store and um tasted
9:01 them a couple times and absolutely hated
9:04 it for life uh until I decided I would
9:07 just buck up and just try some fresh
9:09 ones that were served to me uh at a
9:10 restaurant because I didn't want to be
9:13 rude to my date AKA
9:16 Cindy and so I just kind of I was like
9:21 oh man so I tried them and I loved them
9:23 so you got to try them fresh you got to
9:24 try them Farm Fresh it's just the only
9:26 way to go so anyways hopefully you all
9:27 enjoyed hopefully you all learned
9:28 something new let me know in the
9:30 comments box below if you'd enjoyed this
9:31 one and also remember to check out our
9:34 other growing guides we have over 20 I
9:36 think 25 of them now like we have a ton
9:38 of growing guides go check them out onig
9:40 gardner.com under the media section you
9:42 have videos and then growing guides
9:44 you're going to check them all out there
9:46 or we have a playlist here on YouTube
9:48 that you can check out as well uh on our
9:51 main page that's just uh the uh
9:54 youtube.com/ Garder uh where you're see
9:55 essentially where you're seeing this
9:58 video on um go there we have a playlist
9:59 and uh and it's somewhere on the
10:01 homepage there and you can find it and
10:02 it will hopefully help you out grow more
10:05 food at home have more fun doing it and
10:08 grow more food successfully all right
10:09 I'll catch you later remember to gr
