THE festive season is over and I’ve had my one sprout to remind myself why I don’t like them.

My mother would chop them up and pretend they were cabbages.

I like cabbages, I do not like sprouts. However, now is the time to be making sure you’ve ordered your seeds.

If you are new to seed sowing, to ensure you have a strong plant for the coming Christmas you need to sow in late February. Alternatively you can buy plants in April, however, with seed you will have a considerably larger choice of varieties.

A casual search of any seed catalogue will show in the region of 10 different sprout varieties and each supplier will have a different selection.

I will go through good seed sowing next month but for now order your seed.

I would recommend an F1 hybrid seed like Trafalgar; these F1’s have a tendency to mature at the same time but do hold their button for some time. I would also buy an old variety like Bedford Fillbasket.

These tend to produce mature sprouts over a longer period of time but the buttons go over and blow quicker.

I have been told that if you eat something you do not like 10 times your taste can be changed. I’m not going to try that one, not with sprouts. I will grow them but it will be for others to force feed them to their children.

In the greengrocers, early shedforced rhubarb will soon be with us but you can force your own.

Ideally you need two crowns of rhubarb. Place a traditional rhubarb forcer or any heavy container of about two feet height on the first crown and leave it covered for at least six weeks.

To speed up the process, you can bury the forcer in two feet of fresh farmyard manure. It has to be fresh to generate enough heat. Using a traditional forcer comes into its own here as it is easy to locate the lid under the manure and check on progress.

Harvest when the stems are brilliant red and reaching the top of the forcer and remove the forcer.

The manure can stay as this will help feed the crown. It is important now not to take any more rhubarb from the forced crown.

Harvest rhubarb only from the second crown to give the first time to recover. I prefer to take no more that 20 per cent of the plant away per week as this keeps the crown strong and healthy.

Traditionally, you stop taking rhubarb when the gooseberries are ready as this allows both crowns to recover. This is also the time to give both crowns a general feed.

This feed gives the plant the nutrition it needs to allow the root system to build up strength ready for forcing and harvesting next year.

The manure gives valuable minor nutrients and trace elements. In year two put the forcer over the second crown to ensure a good early harvest.