Broccoli help needed - huge leaves, no broccoli??

[PrideRavyn]

I'm sure it's that i've done it wrong again, but I bought some broccoli plugs from the garden centre, planted them, they have been doing great, or so I thought, but only one of them has formed anything like a broccoli spear, but they were pathetically tiny ones, I thought that would be fine - they would just get denser as time went on, but today one has bolted, so that's the end of that.

There are 6 plants in total, I planted them the way the instructions said to (though experience in the past tells me these can be wrong!) they were planted about 30cm apart, in rows about 30cm apart. The two rows are between two rows of potatoes and two rows of sugar snap peas, so in hindsight, I haven't given them the best setup really as you have 6 rows of quite big plants, all wanting lots of light

5 out of 6 of the plants are growing absolutely huge leaves, but not a sign of any kind of broccoli spears, the one that is growing broccoli spears, but has bolted, has smaller leaves.

I did think that maybe it was too early for them to be sprouting, and the one that has is doing it because it's in the middle of the bed, in the middle of other plants so has the least light, so is desperately trying to win by bolting? I don't know when broccoli is meant to start sprouting

Any help appreciated!

[Two_Sheds]

Broccoli is normally harvested Jan-March.

Do you have a summer calabrese? Mine are still only 5" tall, due for planting out next month

[PrideRavyn]

I've really no idea - the plugs were from the local focus and, like the peas I bought at the same time, don't even have a variety on the label! Only 'Broccoli' - they were about 6-7 inches high when I planted them out after keeping them in the greenhouse for a couple of weeks... now they are about two feet high with huge big leaves.

[trish60]

As two sheds said ,if its broccolli you will get the harvest next year as long as you protect them from the cabage white butterfly all summer.
Much more positive you should be eating your peas soon though.

[PrideRavyn]

Lol the peas from focus are already being eaten! The ones next to the broccoli are sugar snap peas sown from seed but have just started flowering in the last week. The focus peas are well and truly producing, but as I don't know what type they are, I am just eating them like sugar snap peas anyway, they look pretty similar.

I did think it was early for the broccoli, I reckon it must be the lack of light issue, I took the decision to pull the bolted one out - it'll give more light to the rest and had a closer look and I reckon within a couple of days it would have been covered in flowers!

I have been killing any caterpillar thingies I have been finding on it - some have been tiny creamy coloured ones and a few larger black and green coloured ones, I have been squishing them!