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Sprouting broccoi

Baggies2Baggies2 Posts: 31
in The potting shed
When should you sow spouting broccoli

Posts

  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 88,147
    I usually sow mine in May
    ... we’re picking it now ... delicious 



    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • nick615nick615 Posts: 1,487
    Baggies2  If my info is correct, you may find there are several different varieties that crop at different times of the year.
  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    That's true nick, but most of them start off in April or May. I usually start all of mine in late April, once the March sown stuff like peas, chard and beetroot are big enough to start hardening off so there's room on my seed shelf for some more things
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • nick615nick615 Posts: 1,487
    Thanks for that.  I thought my plants lady in the local market had two different trays with different crop times.  I must check next time I'm there.
  • EmerionEmerion Posts: 599
    I’m not going to sow my spring flowering purple sprouting broccoli until June this year. I have found in the past that sowing much earlier produces massive plants that are harder to support, and also harder to cover to protect from cabbage white butterflies. PSB grows strongly, so I think there’s plenty of time to make good-sized plants from a later sowing. Each to his or her own though 🙂. Last year, I tried some autumn-flowering ones as well. They grew very quickly over the spring and summer, and produced a good amount of shoots. I’m not bothering this year though, because I’ve got plenty of other autumn to early winter crops to get through. 
    Carmarthenshire (mild, wet, windy). Loam over shale, very slightly sloping, so free draining. Mildly acidic or neutral.


  • Baggies2Baggies2 Posts: 31
    Thanks, last year I sowed in July and are still eating them.
  • SporophyteBoySporophyteBoy Posts: 118
    I love a bit of Blue Broccolli - poor man's asparagus! For the last couple of years I've had the same dozen or so plants - they will grow to massive size if you keep them as biennials but the prolonged cold spell we had here just after Christmas did for them. Still have plenty of curly kale though - they were under a net - you wouldn't regard it as protection if you had to stand out on the allotment through Jan & Feb but it was obviously enough for a plant.
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