✻Forecast FarmClimate · Cultivation · Consequence
Cool-season vegetable · Brassica

Brussels Sprouts

Brassica oleracea var. gemmifera · Cruciferae

Brussels Sprouts is a cool-temperate herbaceous crop that grows best in the 12–20°C range with 900–1600 mm of rain, cropping over a 100–130-day season.

Optimal temp
12–20 °C
Annual rain
900–1600 mm
Max altitude
2,000 m
Cold limit
7°C
Growing cycle
100–130 d
Climate-fit land
5 % world

How it grows

Brussels Sprouts
Photo: Emmanuel.revah · CC BY-SA 4.0
Brussels Sprouts
Photo: Zacatillo1 · CC BY-SA 4.0
🥦 A head, above ground

Brussels Sprouts forms a single dense head that sits at the ground.

Where Earth's climate suits brussels sprouts

Global climatic suitability map for Brussels Sprouts
marginal suitable good excellent unsuitable land
5% of world land

Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).

Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it

Actual production
FAOSTAT reports this crop only inside a broader category, so standalone country tonnage is not shown.
Climatic fit · computed
Where the climate suits it best
China
Brazil
Angola
Ethiopia
Zambia
Japan
Mexico
Dem. Rep. Congo
Ranked by suitable land area (EcoCrop×AgroClim). Climate permits far more than is farmed — economics and history decide the rest.

Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop

Temperatureoptimum 12–20°C · tolerates 7–25°C
-5°C45°C
Annual rainfalloptimum 900–1600 mm · tolerates 500–3000 mm
0 mm4500 mm
Soil pHoptimum 4.5–7.8 · tolerates 4.5–7.8
3.09.0

Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±60° · soil pH 4.5–7.8.

Growing calendar & hazards

Season

An annual cycle of roughly 100–130 days from sowing to harvest, so it is timed to fall within the frost-free, adequately-wet part of the year for the location.

What threatens the crop
  • Hard freeze. Tolerant of chill but killed once temperatures fall below about -5°C.
  • Drought. Relatively drought-hardy, but a failed rainy season still cuts yield sharply where irrigation is absent.
  • Heat. A cool-season crop that bolts or fails in summer heat; best grown in the shoulder seasons or at altitude.

Related crops