broccoli ... not impressed

[lynda66]

my broccoli has heads now, but all of them are less than 2 inches diameter, i left one in the hope it would get bigger, but nope, the flowers just opened, there are sprouts further down, but they are only about the size of a 5p piece, is that it?? ...... i thought there would be loads, or will some more grow???

the ones where i've cut the top head off, have started to open their flowers straight away on the little sprouts below... they really don't seem worth the time effort and space for a small handful off each plant

[Demeter]

What variety have you got?

Mine were crown & sceptres and I had a very small "crown" and felt a bit disappointed as there weren't that many "sceptres" (sprouting bits) to speak of. However, since then I have harvested a good handful of sprouts off each plant about 3 or 4 times and there is probably at least one more lot to come. Not a huge yield for the space, but better than I thought it was going to be when I first saw the piddly little crown that I thought was going to be my *main* crop from the thing (and yes I'd waited til it was just about to open the flowers...)!! The good news is I have had far more in secondary sprouts than I expected. Will grow this again next year as I still have some seeds, but will probably also try some other varieties to see if they are more productive.

[shirlthegirl43]

Sounds like you were expecting large heads like they sell in the shops - these are actually calabrese. Broccolli usually has smaller spears but the plants will continue to produce for quite a while. I picked spears from November through to March from mine last year.

[MaureenHall]

Mine's great, very very tasty, but like everyone else, only tiny spears but plenty of them. I hope I can be picking them till March

[Demeter]

Sounds like you were expecting large heads like they sell in the shops - these are actually calabrese.

Yep. Schoolgirl error,

[lynda66]

What variety have you got?

Broccoli autumn spear.

[lynda66]

Sounds like you were expecting large heads like they sell in the shops - these are actually calabrese. Broccolli usually has smaller spears but the plants will continue to produce for quite a while. I picked spears from November through to March from mine last year.

nope, i was expecting one plant to produce enough for one person though, i've chopped the sprouts off 2 plants, and theres just about enough for one portion ........ it's the tiny size from such a big plant that's annoyed me.

i don't mind if they produce more spears, it's just that when i chop the top one off, the other spears seem to shoot up, rush into about 5 flowers overnight..... ie all the sprout, so today i've cut them all off

so where will the new sprouts come from, and do i have to do anything?

haven't tasted it yet, gonna go steam some now

[spuddy]

My broccolli/purple summer sprouting was a mixed success. Some I caught in time before flowering and then I found you could eat the spears when in flower and they were just as delicious. You may need to peel the stalks if stringy though.

[Protea]

Purple sprouting broccoli has come on leaps and bounds in recent years and there are some good, heavy yielding varieties out there (mostly F1's so do successional sowings), a lot of what is available to us amateurs is old varieties which as you've experienced, are a little lacking sometimes!

Google 'early purple sprouting red arrow' for some places to buy newer varieties (Red Arrow is one of them, and it got a RHS AGM, but there are others)

hope this helps

[lynda66]

it's not purple it's green ...... purple would have gone much better with my planting colour scheme