Brussels Sprouts
Dates below are counted from the average last spring frost or the average first fall frost. Enter a ZIP in the calendar for NOAA 1991–2020 station averages, or pick a zone and use the zone table.
When to plant
Soil and site
Grow them in fertile, well-drained soil that still holds moisture, with a pH of 6 to 7. They are a long, cool-season crop. Hot, dry weather at maturity makes loose or bitter sprouts. Keep the bed watered through summer heat.
Seedlings
Maryland says to set 4–6 week old transplants in the garden 90–100 days before the first fall frost, and to add about 20 days if you direct-sow instead. This calendar follows the transplant path. The outdoor date is the middle of that 90–100 day range, and the indoor date is five weeks earlier, the middle of the 4–6 week transplant age. Sow seed ¼–½ inch deep. Direct-seeded plants can take as much as three more weeks than transplants.
In the garden
Space plants 18–24 inches in the row. Illinois also calls fall production the practical crop in most of the country and says to allow at least 90–100 days before the first frost. A published spring transplant schedule was not used here. Top the plant when the lowest sprouts are about ½–1 inch across so the upper sprouts size up.
Picking
Days to maturity are 80–100 from transplanting, which is Maryland's maturity range and not the same figure as the 90–100 day lead time before frost. Pick hard, compact, deep green sprouts about 1–1½ inches across. The lowest sprouts mature first. Flavor is best after frosty weather. A week count for how long picking continues was not published in the guides used here.
Harvest
First harvest is about 80–100 days after transplanting.
Pick hard, compact, deep green sprouts about 1–1½ inches across. Twist or snap them from the stalk. The lowest sprouts are ready first, and flavor is better after frost. A length for the picking season was not in the extension pages used here, so none is shown.
Preserving
There is no tested USDA process for canning plain Brussels sprouts. Do not can them in a boiling-water canner. Freezing is the tested way to keep them plain. The boiling-water recipe is a vinegar pickle, and it is not a substitute for canning plain sprouts.
Pickled Brussels sprouts are a tested boiling-water recipe, the same process NCHFP uses for pickled cauliflower. Follow that recipe without substitutions. It does not cover plain sprouts.
National Center for Home Food Preservation: Pickled cauliflower or Brussels sprouts →Freeze firm sprouts with the NCHFP method, including the blanch and cooling steps on that page.
National Center for Home Food Preservation: Freezing Brussels sprouts →A home freeze-dryer can dry this crop, but USDA has not published a canning-style time for it. Follow the appliance manual for load and cycle length, then store the dry food sealed. Freeze-drying is not a substitute for a tested canning process.
Appliance manual (no USDA process time)
Canning, pickling, and fermenting notes here are summaries of tested USDA and National Center for Home Food Preservation methods. Times, pressures, and amounts live only on those pages. This site does not publish home-invented processing times.
Gear placeholders
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- Placeholder: seeds for Brussels Sprouts
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- Placeholder: home freeze dryer
Dates by zone
These pages turn the same frost offsets into calendar dates for each zone the calendar covers.