Hate sprouts? Growing your own might change your mind

RESEARCH suggests Brussels sprouts could disappear from the Christmas dinner plate by 2020. But gardeners who grow them say the flavour of a home-grown sprout is so much more intense than shop-bought and an essential accompaniment to festive fare.

So if you really want to save the humble sprout, learn how to harvest your own ready for Christmas 2019.

Work in plenty of compost in the autumn and choose a sheltered and sunny spot for the crop. The ground mustn’t be acidic, so add lime if necessary in winter. You need firm soil for sprouts, so dig it over in autumn, not immediately before planting.

PREPARE THE SOIL:

Sow indoors at 13°C-16°C in February and March. Seeds for late varieties which will be ready for Christmas should be sown in April and planted out in June.

They need a lot of space, so plant around 80cm apart. Seedlings, should be thinned to around 8cm apart and transplanted when they are around 15cm high, watering the rows the day before moving to their new positions.

After watering in well, you’ll need to hoe regularly, water in dry weather and protect seedlings from birds.

Give your crop a top-up feed or a general purpose organic fertiliser in August and water it in. In autumn, stake tall varieties and earth up around the stems.

WHEN TO SOW: KEEP THE CROP GOING:

grown in the ground, dug up and stuck in a pot can also struggle long term. Because of the stress, there is a risk they won’t survive replanting afterwards.

If you are choosing a cut tree, it is great to know a little bit about the varieties on offer and how to get the best out of them when they are up.

There are three main types of tree you are likely to see on sale – Norway spruce (Picea abies), Nordmann fir (Abies nordmanniana), and the blue spruce (Picea pungens).

HARVEST TIME: WHICH SPROUT, WHEN?: TROUBLESHOOTING: BY HANNAH STEPHENSON

The Norway spruce is the traditional tree for British homes.

It is the one Prince Albert put up in Windsor Castle and the one everyone had when I was a kid. It has bundles of thin branches covered in dainty dark green needles and comes with that gorgeous pine scent that, as far as I’m concerned, is the smell of Christmas.

Because it is a fast grower, the Norway spruce is cheaper than other varieties and is still a solid favourite across the UK.

Of course, anyone who has ever seen a Norway spruce has probably also seen a bald Norway spruce as this variety has a horrible habit of

Begin when the sprouts at the base of the stem have reached walnut size and are still closed tightly. Snap them off or cut them with a sharp knife.

For a Christmas crop, choose a late variety such as ‘Topline’, ‘Braveheart’ or ‘Citadel’. ‘Trafalgar’ is said to be more child-friendly as it’s sweeter-tasting and produces heavy crops December to March.

Sprouts are generally pretty easy to grow but can suffer from being ‘blown’, when they open into small, flattened ‘blown’ rosettes, caused by being grown in loose soil or shaken loose by winds. Growth can also suffer if not watered enough in hot weather.