Summer Purple Sprouting Broccoli

[MarkHackwell]

The other week I brought some Summer Purple Sprouting seeds. They say to sow January to March, plant out April to May and harvest June to September. I sowed some in January and was going to this month and possibly next month. What I want to know is is it worth successionally sowing them or as they are the sprouting type will they keep going all summer from the January sowing I made?

[rustylady]

How many plants do you think you will need in total? I wouldn't bother sowing loads as each plant will give you a good crop of sprouts (caterpillars permitting)

[rhyswales]

I'm pretty sure with most broccoli, that when you harvest the main head it will grow new smaller heads around the plant? Not sure with all varietys but it did that with the ones I grew last year until they were abolished by caterpillars.

[MarkHackwell]

I have 12ft of room and they need planting 20 inches apart soo about 8 plants and these are the sprouting type soo there wouldn't be a main head as such

[Scarlet]

I grow summer purple - I usually sow end of jan, this year Im a little late. Started them yesterday. I like to pick from each plant (family of four). I would do all 8 plants at the same time. Sow a later variety April..ish? They do have a central/main head (though smaller than calabrese) cut this first, then crop the side shoots.

[Potstubsdustbins]

Hi Mark I grew these a couple of years ago. My diary tells me I set seed on 25/2 using modules on my window sill and had 100% germination by 10/3.They then went into a cold GH, 7/4 they went into 3" pots and 1/5 into 5" pots. The rate of growth then picked up and they went into black buckets mid June, I held them there until I had harvested my potato dustbins and they followed in.

The crop was very good but as with all PSB not gigantic, I wouldn't bother spacing the sowing times if you are only having 8 plants.

[Laney]

Thanks for the thread :-) I've got seedlings going nuts (eager beavers!) and was wondering what on earth I was going to do with them next.

[veggiechicken]

Summer Purple seeds are about to be sown
Never grown it before but I've had the seeds lurking in my seed box since 2012.
Thanks for the reminder!