Broccoli romanesco ?

[louisesgarden]

I decided to grow this for the first time last year, but never got chance to see the final crop, as we moved house, we was going to dig the veg patch up an patio it, but the tenant that we rented our old to house to said he would like to keep the patch and benefited ! from a supply of winter veg ! anyway, i ve planted some this year, and they are doing well, but they dont seem to look like what they do on the seed packet ?

[zazen999]

What do they look like?

[louisesgarden]

Probably like they should do ! i expected them to grow like a cauliflower ? they are in alan titchmarsh book under cauliflower, maybe its me been dim ! and been a new veg grower !

[zazen999]

Ok, so it doesn't look like a cauli - what does it look like?

[louisesgarden]

Like purple sprouting, but not purple ! its a tall ish plant like purple sprouting broccoli, i got it into my head it would look like a cauli !

[zazen999]

Aah, not like a carrot then!

I have had a few that looked like PSB, they grew romanesco spikes but the majority had the central broccoli/calabrese style head, with other small ones at the sides.

Perhaps the person who saved these saves the ones of the psb style and not the calabrese style?

[louisesgarden]

This is my first real year of growing them as my 1st crop was lost to my tenant !, i dropped on some seeds in a local garden centre, they were in the world of seeds collection along with some weird and wonderful things ive never seen before ! i thought i would have a go at growing them, as we have some relatives that have retired to turkey and we went to stay for xmas, we had a full tradtional xmas dinner ! with the romanesco broccoli and they remind me of xmas trees ! childish i know, !!! but i just had to grow some, i suppose ( even more childish ) i was getting worried mine wouldnt look like xmas trees !

[Maximillian]

I love romanesco but don't have much luck growing it. I'm trying again this year but yours sound further along than mine. They need firm ground and are quite greedy oherwise they flower and bolt. Good luck

[louisesgarden]

I didnt realise they needed a firm ground but thankfully out of luck !!! not knowlegde they are next to a row of sprouts which i know need a firm ground, so fingers x i will get xmas trees !!

[annacruachan]

I've got romanesco broccoli growing in fishboxes which I did tamp down firmly. Hope that's enough. It's growing huge leaves - in fact just about everything in the garden has huge leaves. I must have sown them all on a leaf day. I didn't know they were prone to bolt. Is this more likely with their being in containers? When I grew them before - in a garden plot - they were small but perfectly formed and tasted wonderful, so I wasn't expecting this big leaf thing. Is there anything I could do to encourage the flower?

[snohare]

Can't remember exactly what to give them for the flowers Anna, but the reason you have such enormous leaves is that the soil is rich in nitrogen, so you don't need that. Potassium from woodash would encourage roots and fruit if I remember correctly, so that leaves...phosphorus ? There is a mnemonic I'm sure someone more knowledgeable like zazen will know !

[zazen999]

http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...p-k_14880.html

Leave Rotten Fruits = NPK - see linkie above