These might not be the best example

but that's kind of what they look like

I've never grown brussel sprouts before,

but I've certainly eaten quite a few,

and i've always enjoyed that. So that I would give them a try

when I saw them for sale as sprouts

at the nursery this last spring.

Tried growing them in several different environments and most of them

really didn't do well here in the yard

discovered uh...

that there are these little white moths

that are incredibly attracted to any and all cabbages.

And Brussels Sprouts are

a member of the cabbage family.

Normally I'm happy try anything I've grown

but I'm just

not going to go there with these.

However for interest sake,

I thought I'd show you just what we've got here,

take a look at the Brussels Sprout

plant that i've got here,

and just talk a little bit about how it grows.

I've never grown brussel sprouts before so this is

definitely the best job i've ever done

but i'm still gonna classify this as a big

fail for this year.

That doesn't mean I'm not and try again next year. That just means, I'm going to go about

I'm just going to go about things,

completely different.

The Brussels Sprout has been a very interesting plant to watch grow over the

last few months.

It forms in

little cabbage head that I think we're all quite familiar with,

and those heads just grow up

the stock of the plant as you can see here,

and form

at the base of the leaves.

When grown properly,

which, again I emphasize, this was not

they can produce up to three pounds of these Brussel Sprouts per plant,

sometimes numbering over a hundred individual sprouts per plant.

Now these are wonderfully good for you high in fiber,

lots of Vitamin A, lots of Vitamin C

Certain foodies suggest that Brussels Sprouts might even help prevent

certain cancers.

I can't prove any of that, but I find it very interesting.

Let's take a closer look at this plant.

As we get closer and take a better look, it will soon become quite obvious why

i'm not going to eat this planet

As you can see,

it's covered with little bugs

and i'm just of the school that there's not enough cleaning to make that

safe to eat.

Not quite sure what those little bugs are

we tend to think aphids,

but I haven't looked it up.

One of the things that went terribly wrong with our

Brussels Sprouts this year,

is that all the leaves

seemed to brown,

and kind of fall off

into the ground

which I suspect is why these particular sprouts are so stunted

but as you can see

they grow in amongst the leaves right on the stem,

and the top of the plant

very much reminds one of a cabbage.

Which makes sense because, again

they're a member of the cabbage family.

One thing that's kinda interesting about the Brussels Sprouts is that you don't have

to harvest the whole stock at once.

If you just want a few off the bottom,

assuming of course they're healthy to eat,

you just pluck off the ones you want

and the rest of it will continue growing.

I'm just going to harvest these and find out how many I got, for curiosity sake.

While that may not be a lot,

but considering how stunted they are, and the fact that it's from a single plant,

that's not bad.

And more than enough to feed the average family, considering kids

don't usually like them.

On that note,

with a little cheese sauce, I think these things are fantastic

Aside from all those moths, which I was

completely not prepared for,

I think one place I went terribly wrong with these guys this year was just too much water!

Apparently Brussel Sprouts do like a nice soil thats got a good

moisture content,

something like compost that will really hold the moisture well

but at the same time they want to be fairly well drained.

I'm not sure a flooded wicking bucket is the place to grow these.

I'll definitely be growing these again next year,

trying a few different systems for it

making sure their soil drains better

trying to keep those bugs away

this has been JT Bear, at Clean Valley Farms,

with, "Trying to grow Brussels Sprouts."

Thanks for watching,

have a great day!