Once they've gotten their true leaves, you can tell them apart IFF you know what your varieties are supposed to look like.

Broccoli leaves are palmate with deep indentations on the margins. Brussel sprouts are rounded and not intended. But collards can be variable in shape. If you can eliminate the others, what's left are the collards, which may be more elongated than the sprouts.

Maybe you could post photos

Amy, that sounds like something I would do. I planted some plants and seeds about a month ago. I was very smart and wrote the name of what I planted in the soil with my finger, planning on bringing stakes and tags from the shop to mark the plants. Its been a month and they are not marked yet, you can guess where all my writing went with all the rain I have had.

LOL, Larry, that sounds like something I would do. Labeling is tedius. My first batch of seedlings this spring had carefully made markers for every plant. As the seanson went on there were fewer and fewer markers. Industrial sharpies will mark the cups I start them in, but then the cup is destroyed when transplanted. I did pretty good at mapping though, but my plan for those beds got changed by hubby's desire for collards. Plus it was trying to rain, so I took my notebook inside.

Itilton, they all look alike to me. Some, the ones I think are broccoli, seem to have tighter leaf clusters at the stem. I've never grown brussells sprouts before either, so no reference for them. I will try to take pics tomorrow.

Amy, in my opinion, the collards would be wonderful with "cooking to death", assuming you added some bacon, vinegar, s&p, maybe some hot pepper sauce, etc. Too bad you don't have some mustard and/ or turnip greens to go along with it. Course, if you're like my Montana wife, you won't like it but your husband will. Take the time to vein them and you might like, also.

They are all in the same family so they will look a like until they start making true leaves. They will have to get 3-4 inches tall before you can tell which they are. Broccoli will taste like broccoli and Brussels sprouts will taste like Brussels sprouts, ( I guess?) I've never tasted any. Collards taste similar to mustard greens and are very good.

Pictures

Another

Three

The top and bottom one both look like broccoli to me; the middle one is collards. I haven't raised sprouts for so long I don't remember what it looks like but I'm guessing it looks like broccoli from your pics.

What ever they are it looks like it is time to start eating greens to me. You can cut the outer leaves off with scissors and the broccoli will go ahead and make a head. At least mine did last year.

I'd say #1 is broccoli, #2 is Brussels sprouts, and #3 is collards, plus maybe some broccoli.

Thank you all.

If 2 is brussels sprouts, I wonder if you even have collards. Come back with another pic when you know please so we can know too.

I do think #2 looks like brussels sprouts. I last grew them in 2013 and the ones in photo 2 look like what I remember. I think that #1 is broccoli, and I hate to even guess #3 because it could be broc or collards at this point.

If you knew specifically which variety of each you were growing, we probably could figure it out. Collards can be variable, and especially when young, can be almost impossible to ID because some varieties look a lot like broccoli plants when young.

The good news is that broccoli leaves are just as tasty as collards, so you can pick and eat either or both.

Next year, can you make this harder for us by adding cabbage and cauliflower plants to the mix? (grin)

When I plant brassicas, I try to put them in separate beds, in alphabetical order, from south to north (just because that's the way I choose to do it....not that they have to be from south to north). That way, I know the first bed has broccoli, the second one brussels sprouts, the third one cabbage and the fourth one collards (and the fifth one often is kale). I also label and make maps, so that I have 3 ways of knowing what is what. I have to use multiple methods because the cats, the birds or the wind always seem to move around labels. It won't matter when the plants are a couple of months old, but it helps eliminate the confusion in the early weeks when they all look somewhat similar.

Sometimes I make it even more complicated by throwing cauliflower into the mix, though that is more common in fall than in spring, and as long as I stick to planting each row with only one type and I do it in alphabetical order, I still can tell which one is which.....most of the time.

In the thread from another forum that I've linked below, Farmerdill posted two great photos that illustrate the difference between broccoli and collards.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Previous Brassica Thread

Here's a pic of one of the collards. It is little because it sat in it's little 9 pack for quite some time after the others were planted, I was going to put them in 5 gal buckets, but that got delayed. I have a map of what I planned to plant, but I was going to plant cabbage and we got collards instead. I'm not 100% sure I followed the map.

I made a detailed map of my garlic planting (I just planted things I got at the farmers market.) When it was all done there was one clove sitting on top that never got planted...I know where I stuck it, but have no idea what it was, sigh.