Brussels Sprouts and Books

An experiment. I read (in The Vegetable Garden Displayed, 1961, RHS) that Brussels Sprouts sometimes don't make sprouts if there's too much nitrogren (or organic matter?) in the soil, and that you can tear leaves off to stimulate sprout formation. Well, the sprouts in the garden aren't forming, so I tore off the lower 2/3 of leaves on two of the plants, and left the back plant alone. Experiment! We'll see if we get some sprouts.

[NOTE as of Nov17: I F*ed up. I mistook the green plants to be the Brussels Sprouts and the purple plants to be the Purple Sprouting Broccoli. I tore the leaves off broccoli plants. We are now starting to get little Brussels Sprouts on the purple Falstaff Brussels Sprouts plants. I'm sure we will see less yield from the broccoli early spring, which is a bummer.]

Also, the transplanted chard is taking. Lost a few of their bigger leaves, but new, firm ones coming up. The mustard has sprouted. The lettuce is thinned and about 8" across, some of it, but growing very slowly at this point.

Another good book my dad has: The New England Vegetable Garden: A complete handbook for year round gardening in the Northeast, Don Kerr, 1957. Amazon has a 1980 printing.