EFFECTS OF VARIETY, PLANT DENSITY, STOPPING TIME AND HARVEST DATE ON DRILLED BRUSSELS SPROUTS FOR PROCESSING

In 1979/8o the early variety ‘Predora’ produced significantly lower yields than the other two varieties.
The differences between the midseason variety ‘Cor’ and the later maturing ‘Rampart’ in freezer size yield and total yield in both years was small but ‘Cor’ had the advantage particularly for total yield.

In effect of plant density on yield components was complex.
The yield of freezer sized sprouts was highest at the close spacing 5.3 m² for all varieties in both years.
However the converse was true for sprouts greater in size than 30 mm diameter.
These effects counteracted one another, and in this experiment plant density had no effect on total marketable yield of untrimmed sprouts in either year.

Harvest date had significant effects on yield of the varieties (P = 0.05). In 1979/8o total yields for ‘Predora’ had reached an optimum by the third harvest on 11 October 8 weeks after stopping but for ‘Cor’ and ‘Rampart’, total yields were still increasing 11 weeks after stopping in both years.
This means that ‘Cor’ had not reached optimum total yield by mid December and ‘Rampart’ by mid January.

There was an interaction between plant density, variety and harvest date on the yield of freezer sprouts.
In 1979/ 8o harvest date had no effect on the yield of 12–30 mm size sprouts for the variety ‘Cor’, and the same was true for ‘Rampart’ in 1980/81. At high plant density (5.3 m²) harvest date had no significant effect on the yield of freezer grade sprouts for all three varieties in 1979/80.

Symposium on Timing of Field Production of Vegetables

J.D. Whitwell, D. Senior, G.E.L. Morris

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1981.122.17