Psb

[annie8]

Growing purple sprouting broccoli for the first time. Picked up some seedlings in the garden centre at the end of March. They are now in the beds and doing well aside from a bit of acid infestation. Issue is that one at least seems to be producing heads, which is confusing me as I thought that wouldn’t happen until winter. Not sure if I should be concerned and what if anything to do? Any advice?

[Penellype]

Different varieties of PSB do flower at somewhat different times, but July certainly sounds very early. My guess would be that the plant is bolting due to the hot temperatures. All I can really suggest is to keep the plants well watered and provide shade if possible in the middle of sunny days. Debris netting produces quite a bit of shade.

[fimblefowl]

We get given a few sprouting broccoli plants each year by a neighbour. They are many generations self seeded and probably very hybridised. They vary from deep purple to light green and different ones flower from soon now through until early next summer.

[Snoop Puss]

Mine have started flowering. Essentially bolting in the heat, I reckon.

[Jungle Jane]

My winter broccoli is tiny in comparison,I’d cut that head off,it looks like edible broccoli,hasn’t got yellow flowers. Then you’ll get side shoots growing after a while. When my brassica bolt I see yellow flowers straight away but this looks ok & it might be a summer variety?

[ameno]

Many modern varieties of purple sprouting are no longer day length sensitive, so instead of starting to flower in late winter in response to lengthening days they will simply flower as soon as they are mature enough. If you plant early enough, that can even mean in mid-summer like yours.

Basically, planting a modern variety in March is far too early. I don't even sow mine until the beginning of July.

[annie8]

Thanks, would’ve sown later if I’d been growing from seed, just happened to see a few plants in the garden centre and thought I’d try it. Will just harvest what is there and see how they do. The other plants are smaller so they might be ok.

[Snoop Puss]

Basically, planting a modern variety in March is far too early. I don't even sow mine until the beginning of July.

Ameno, you're a tremendous fount of knowledge. Thanks. I've got a spring variety and will start off some more now.

[ameno]

Ameno, you're a tremendous fount of knowledge. Thanks. I've got a spring variety and will start off some more now.

The modern varieties grow surprisingly quickly. I grow Rudolph, and from a sowing in the first week of July it usually begins cropping in around mid-January.
Late sowing is also very useful as it allows you to put the plants in following other stuff. I plant mine out early to mid-August after I lift my onions, for example.

I sowed them a bit early a few years ago and ran into problems because they were sat in pots waiting to be planted out for too long and cabbage root flies found them. The young plants all died in their pots from having their roots eaten.
I bought replacement plants from ebay as it was too late to sow more, but it was already getting on for late August by the time they arrived, and the plants were only small plug plants. I planted them out anyway, and I still ended up getting a reasonable crop from March the following year (although I'm sure it would have been larger had I been able to put plants in a bit earlier).

One qualifier I will add is that I live in Somerset, and the winters are fairly mild. Tough, hardy plants like purple sprouting will continue to grow (albeit more slowly) all through autumn and even much of winter here. If you live somewhere with colder winters then your plants won't grow nearly so much over the cold months, so you may find you need to sow and plant a little earlier to get the best crop (although you should still get something from later sowings).

[Snoop Puss]

Thanks, ameno.

[Zjho]

I grow a perpetual variety, mine having very small latter heads, size of a marble, for most of winter season. Discovered that due to the leaves often getting fungal disease over here, possibly black / white spot, it was better to remove them even though obviously checked growth. Then found that removing diseased leaf lamina from disease-free leaf spine and chopping up these spines produce a plentiful supply of tasty veg very similar to garden peas. They don't start to turn sinuous until March. So the heads are not their only assets.