Purple Sprouting Broccolli

louise_1981

Bought these last night, with various other seeds. Before I sow them, I want to know if Any one has had any experience of them as there is very few instructions on them... I really liked the stuff that was on sale at our local farmer market, it just went off too quickly.

Louise

mistah

Sow the seeds now in pots or trays and plant out in July. The trouble is that you have to leave them in the ground until next March April before the plants mature and produce broccoli heads. Also bear in mind that they are big plants when mature and need to be planted approx two feet apart.

I am experimenting with a hybrid version called Bordeaux F1 this year which you grow in exactly the same way but reaches maturity much earlier (September/October).

Debt_Free_Chick

Protect from rabbits & caterpillars!

malamala

I have sowed seeds in March along with many other different seeds such as pepper, aubergine, tomato, lettuce etc.

All doing very well other than Purple Sprouting Brocolli, the leaves went pale and became very weak. I am sowing a few more and see if they will survive.

Sharra

We were given some baby PSB plants from someone on freecycle last year, they are now over 3 foot high and massive! We just stuck them in a spare bit of ground and watered them a fair amount. We've had a good amount from them so far, although I think we are coming to the end now.

ben500

Read the title as people sprouting broccolli and thought "damn well knew those gm crops would have consequences"

Dustykitten

I am trying these for the first time. They germinated so i put them in the cold frame and they went a bit leggy so have transplanted into individual pots and planted a bit deeper to see what happens - mine are T&M annual summer sprouting and say sow March - June and harvest June Unitl Dec.

Fruball

You can buy a summer purple sprouting variety now too - I have started some off and they should be ready at the end of the summer and keep going until the first frost... apparently !

lisa_cee

oh my neighbour gave me a whole load of seeds and one of the packs was the purple sprouting brocolli they look good

ribenagirl

urrgghgggghh my PSB has been nothing but trouble - last late summer / autumn it was smothered in stripy fat caterpillars that made me feel ill to look at them, and now (it has just finished sprouting) it's covered in aphids!!

Trying to do it organically meant that I couldn't spray them like my dad suggested, but I was too squeamish to pick the caterpillars off by hand, I blasted them with the hosepipe but they just crawled back!

I had nightmares about those damn caterpillars!!!

jap200

In my opinion these are well worth growing as they crop in early spring (Feb - now) when there is little else cropping.

Follow the instructions above, but use an old net curtain (always available cheaply in charity shops) or other small-hole net (such as environmesh) to lay loosely over the plants - just anchor down with rocks on the corners and loosen it off every now and then as they grow. This will stop/reduce the caterpillar attack.

I have not had any problems with aphids, but then I do use the environmesh over the plants, which probably keeps these at bay too.

I tend to keep mine in pots until after I have dug up enough early potatoes to plant them in the ground. The plants are big, but 4 plants is plenty for a family of 5.

I have grown Wilko own brand 'Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli' for the last couple of years - just 39p!