My Triffid - well PSB really

[nelliegemini]

I have finally lost patience with myy psb, just as it is coming into fruit proper (should that be veg?).

So I've dug it up and planted it in a drilled florist bucket and hope for the best. As you can see it is tied firmly onto a sturdy support!

Do you think it will cope, there is a crop nearly ready and another would be nice? Since I love the taste but hate the space it takes up (nowhere on the packet does it even hint that it grows 3' high), would it be possible for me to raise one from scratch and plant it in a bucket instead of open ground. Can you do this with brassicas?

Any advice welcome please. I now have the brocolli beet 40 days seeds ready to go in, so I won't have to wait quite so long this year.

[Cutecumber]

Why on earth dig it up if it was cropping?

You will need a very large container to grow one psb plant and you need to shelter it from the wind. It's a long shot, to be honest.

What is broccoli beet?

[allotmentlady]

why dig it up hun? should have just left it, it looks like it could well do going on the compo heap now, poor thing, neva mind learn from mistakes, all part of gardening.

[shirlthegirl43]

I would pick the crop that is on it and enjoy that - looks like it might run to flower soon.

[nelliegemini]

I dug it up because I don't have a lottie, just two tiny raised beds at the bottom of my garden - and I need the space - my kitchen is overflowing (I don't have a greenhouse either). It's looking OK so far, no drooping and I would prefer the crop to stay on for as long as poss, rather than growing limp in the fridge. In my innocence, and because I was too excited to read the seed packet properly, I hadn't realised it took so long to fruit/flower/whatever

The brocolli beet thing is Broccoli raab/Turnip broccoli - Eyren put me onto it on another thread and it looks like it will solve my problem.

Eyren said:

"Most leafy/sprouty brassicas are pretty big - I didn't bother with them until I had an allotment, as they weren't a good use of my garden space.

If you want something similar but smaller and quick-growing, try here (scroll down to the Rapini section):
Vegetable Seeds: Broccoli or Calabrese, & Rapini "

You harvest in 40 days and when I googled it, it does look like broccoli and apparently tastes good.

Thanks again Eyren!

(I don't know how to link to another thread or I would put one in, sorry!)

[zazen999]

Hi
I have grown Broccoli in buckets, they were fine. I know why you dug it up tho', when you haven't got space! Mine cropped pretty well, they year before last [in fact once it started it was hard to stop it].

I also tried the rapini; it does grow fast and smaller, but I wasn't sure of the taste myself. It's so space saving that it is worth a try.

[nelliegemini]

With the tiny amount of space I have, and all those lovely seeds I had to buy to make up my minimum order (I'm not complaining), plus the borlotti plugs I have on order and all the other things I have overspent on - anything that will grow in a container is going to have to go in one. The PSB does look quite pretty now it's up nearer eye level - all that purple against the glaucous green, neatly set off by the summerhouse paint.

Morrisons were selling huuuge terracotta pots off really cheap so I can line them up along the patio as well and not offend OH too much, (spuds in rubble sacks are banned to the bottom of the garden!)

[Cutecumber]

They are fabulous plants, despite their size - don't be too hard on them, they can't help it!

[nelliegemini]

Oh well, we can always picnic under it in the summer. I will try again, but in a big pot, and only one of them, two is two many for two people (the other one fell over and got upset when I didn't pick it up quick enough)