Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera “Sanda”
Sanda Brussels sprout, sprout cabbage, rosette cabbage: its small heads are not fruits but axillary buds, one in each leaf axil along the stem. An improvement on the Rosny variety, Sanda is mid-season, highly cold-resistant, and produces 20 to 75 small sprouts per plant.
Characteristics:
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Very productive: 20 to 75 sprouts per plant, reaching maturity relatively evenly.
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Medium-tall growth: easier to stake than tall varieties, with purple petioles.
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Firm heads: tight and solid, they store well.
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Highly cold-resistant: it can be harvested in the middle of winter, when the vegetable garden is dormant.
Sowing advice:
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Exposure: sunny.
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Soil: deep, cool, rich, and above all well-compacted. This is the distinctive feature of Brussels sprouts: in soil that is too loose or too rich in nitrogen, the heads remain loose and “leafy” instead of tightening. Avoid fresh manure; use compost applied the previous autumn instead.
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Method: sow from April to May in a nursery, 1 cm deep. The growing cycle is long: sow early for a winter harvest. See how to sow your seeds.
Planting advice:
- Transplant at the 5- or 6-leaf stage, spacing plants 60 to 70 cm apart. Bury them up to the first leaves, mound soil around them, and firmly compact the soil around the base — a poorly anchored plant will topple under the weight and produce poorly.
Care advice:
- Water regularly during growth. An insect-proof mesh installed at planting time will prevent cabbage whites and cabbage flies.
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Late-season tip: pinch out the plant’s growing tip in October. The sap will then be redirected to the sprouts, which will enlarge and tighten within a few weeks.
Harvesting advice:
- Harvest in late autumn and throughout winter, in several passes, starting with the sprouts at the bottom, which mature first. Detach them with a twisting motion.
- If possible, wait for the first frosts: the cold converts starch into sugars and significantly sweetens their flavor.
Beneficial companion plants:
Benefits for biodiversity:
- Its long presence in the vegetable garden, from spring to the end of winter, maintains permanent plant cover that protects the soil and shelters beneficial insects.
- If left to flower in its second year, it produces clusters of highly nectar-rich yellow flowers, valuable in early spring.
Uses:
- Steam then sauté in a pan with bacon or hazelnuts, roast in the oven after cutting in half, or finely slice raw into a salad. Avoid prolonged boiling, which is responsible for their poor reputation.
Harvesting your own seeds:
As a biennial, it goes to seed in its second year: leave one plant in the ground after harvesting, and it will flower in spring. Harvest the brown, dry seed pods. Be careful: Brassica oleracea varieties cross-pollinate very easily with one another, so isolate your seed plant. See how to save your seeds.
Commitment to Quality: at SemiSauvage - Permaculture, we grow and select our seeds with respect for living organisms as our guiding principle. Based near the Auvergne Volcanoes, we choose open-pollinated, non-hybrid varieties, tested for their germination rate, carefully sorted and packaged, with no chemical treatments. Our conviction: to give gardeners back the ability to resow, year after year, seeds that truly belong to them.
Up to 75 small sprouts per plant, harvested in the middle of winter.
