Cabbage Loopers or Imported Cabbage Worms. Normally you'll find them on the back of the leaves. Bt is the answer.

Brussels sprouts, by the way, are a cool-season crop and yours are unlikely to produce sprouts unless you baby them along through the July and August heat, which is almost impossible because they don't like heat. The plants won't produce sprouts at all in hot weather.

The best time to plant Brussels Sprouts in our hot climate is in the fall, 8 to 10 weeks before the date of your average first fall frost. They prefer to grow in cool conditions and the sprouts are best when they mature while daytime highs are in the 55-65 degree range. It is hard to get a good harvest from spring-planted Brussels Sprouts here because our temperatures go from "too cold" to "too hot" too fast. (Have you noticed how often I use that too cold/too hot phrase? I can't help it. It's true.)

Sometimes I can get them to mature in spring if I plant them in early February, and if the weather cooperates, and it I can protect them from late freezes. They're hard to grow successfully here because you're always at the mercy of the weather (and the worms).

Dawn

I had realized, like most things, my timing was way off on these. I just couldn't throw them away, so I stuck them in the ground. So, I know how you feel about just yanking out a plant. But if it won't produce then why shouldn't I yank them. I still have hope but I don''t want whatever is affecting them to get to my other plants. Will they? Why is it just the brussels? Everything else is just right there next to them. I haven't seen any worms. I looked under the leaves. Do they only come out at night or do they know my work schedule, when I'm not at home! LOL!

Thanks Dawn!
Kristy

Kristy,

Well, if they were mine, I'd yank them out and put in something in that space that likes the heat, but I thought you might like to grow them on more as an experiment just to see what the heat would do to them. (It's all a good learning experience, but maybe you've learned all you need to know about B.S. plants in the heat!)

Cabbage loopers and Imported Cabbage Worms will eat anything in the cole family, so normally you'll see them on cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, cauliflower and kohlrabi. Often, in my garden they'll go sequentially from one cole crop to another but won't be on all of them at the same time Usually, they start on broccoli and end up on cabbage. I don't know why. Maybe they like some things more than others.

I don't know if you will see them only at night or if they are also out during the day. I tend to find them on the backs of leaves early in the morning.....but that's also when I tend to be out there.

If you find them early in the season before they are present in very large numbers, you can hand pick them (I wear latex gloves to do this because I don't like touching bugs) and drop them into soapy water to drown. I like to take 'em and feed 'em to the chickens.

Dawn

I tried Brussels sprouts for the first time last spring, planting them very early. It was a wetter and cooler spring than normal and they did produce but not enough to devote space to them again this spring. I may try in the fall sometime.

It is hard to yank out a non-producing plant but why waste time and water on it. I will be yanking about 1/3 of my broccoli plants in the next few days. They never produced at all. Another third produced fair size heads and the remaining third buttonheaded. But it is just too hot and dry so out they come. They will go to heat up the compost pile. I will be raising fall broccoli this year from the seed the company sent me a full month after they said they would. And I will never again plant Calabrese even if the seed pk said it was "early." Was not.

From my experience, and this is experience only and therefore anecdotal, not statistical, the best place to grow brussels sprouts is (a)the pallisades along the southern California coastline (i.e., the area between the surf-line and the first row of cliffs that stop the summertime fog from going further inland); and (b) along the east coast of England around Great Yarmouth, where the summer weather is much the same as the coastal pallisade region.

P.S., Great Yarmouth is right across the channel from Brussels. Maybe there is a connection.

If Dawn says they can be grown here in the fall then by all means try it, because she certainly knows what she is doing. If you are anything like me, however, and take the path of least resistance and grow what is most suited to the area you happen to be living in at the time (whether Great Yarmouth, England; Point Loma in San Diego; or the wilds of Oklahoma), then go with the flow and don't try the exotic stuff.

;-)

By the way, you couldn't grow okra in Great Yarmouth, either, or Cherokee tomatoes in Aberdeen, Scotland, to their great loss. I say let them eat Brussels Sprouts.

--Robert

Dorothy,

I will be planting broccoli again for fall too, but may try some of the sprouting and overwintering types. I tend to get stuck in a rut and grow the same things over and over again, so I need to branch out. Well, except for tomatoes....I have been very adventurous and have tried lots and lots of different tomato varieties over the years.

This was the most disappointing spring....all the wrong weather at all the wrong times! I guess we can hope for a lovely fall, because it is already clear the summer weather is trying to roast us alive.

Robert, Thank you for your kind comments. I'm just an experimenter in the garden, you know, trying to figure out what works and what doesn't and why or why not.

Someday, when you have time to write about your gardening adventures in San Diego (which I visited as a child and thoroughly adored) and Aberdeen, I'd love to hear about them!

As far as the wilds of Oklahoma.....LOL. I refer to where we live as "the Oklahoma Outback" simply because it is so wild here. We're not far off the interstate as the crow flies (much farther by road!) but there's so much wild life and so many native plants that I feel lost in the Outback and far from civilization at times....especially in the evening around sunset when the coyotes start howling.

Dawn

I thought about it all afternoon yesterday and I went home and pulled the brussels and broccoli. They were both doing very bad. So I plan to use that space for something else. Haven't decided yet. Something for the fall.
Kristy

P.S. Thanks for all of the advice everyone!
Kinda made me sad a little...I LOVE LOVE LOVE FRIED Brussel Sprouts:(

Kristy,

There's always a 'second chance' for broc and b.s. in the fall garden. Remember, every learning experience is good, and NOTHING tastes as good as fresh produce grown by you in your garden in the most healthy and most natural way possible. There's not a grocery store brussel sprout in Oklahoma that can compare to the flavor of those straight from your garden.

One of the hardest things about gardening in Oklahoma is raising cool-season crops and it is primarily because our fall and spring cool-seasons are relatively short and often interrupted by (a) late freezes (in spring) or early freezes (in fall) with VERY cold nights--colder than cool season crops like, (b) an occasional hot spell too early in spring or extra late in fall that messes with the biennials by sending them mixed signals, (c) tornadoes, late snow or sleet in spring or the same stuff too early in the fall, dust storms, wind storms, wildfire,etc. It can be VERY hard to get the timing of cool-season crops to work here and even very experienced gardeners get frustrated with weather that refuses to meet the needs of their cool-season crops.

So, hang in there, and give brussels sprouts and broccoli another chance somewhere down the road so you can enjoy them straight from the gardening.

One thing about gardening....when it doesn't work out "this time", then.....there's always next year.

Dawn

Dawn-
Have you already started germinating broccoli and b.s. seeds yet for the fall garden?
When should I start or an I too late AGAIN!!!!!
Kristy

Kristy,

Nope, I'm not doing anything with cool season crops yet and you're not too late at all.

I usually start seed of cool-season crops like broccoi and brussels sprouts the first week of August. (I start mine in paper cups so I can control the moisture, but some people here direct-seed them.) Then, I transplant them into the veggie garden in the first 10 days or so in September. Since you're further north, you might want to start your seeds a week to 10 days earlier than I do, and transplant a week to 10 days earlier than I do.

It will seem impossible to start seeds in August, but it isn't. However, I do have better luck if I pre-soak the seed in water for 12-24 hrs. before I sow it, and I keep the young seedlings in dappled shade or in morning sun/afternoon shade so the August heat won't kill them before they really get started.

If you don't have seed for fall, you have plenty of time to find it at the stores that still have seeds out (our Wal-Marts and Lowe's here have pulled their seeds already, but Home Depot still has theirs out) or you can order some online.

Dawn