Purple sprouting broccoli

[Floyd]

First time I've grown this and had a great crop from it. However it's now turning to yellow flowers so I'm guessing it's done now. Do I just pull the plants and compost them, cut them back and they grow again? Can't seem to find much on t'interweb about what to do with the plants at this stage so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[rustylady]

It's finished Pull up and compost

[Floyd]

Thanks rusty, that's a bed free now for some of my other seedlings

[marchogaeth]

OR let it flower. I've left all my plants in as I don't need the bed just yet and any cover is better than bare earth. Yesterday it was full and I mean full of bees. I wish I'd had time to come in and get my ident' sheet as I'm sure there were some there I'd never seen before.

[veggiechicken]

Like marchogaeth, I leave mine to flower and the bees love them. I don't need the space yet.

[scarey55]

I was just going to say the same, the bees love it so I leave the flowers for as long as I can.

[greenishfing]

Mine are flowering now and the bees are loving them, eventually they are given to my friends chickens. They love the remnants.

[kathyd]

Me too! I'm going to weed around the flowering brassicas but leave them in place for the bees until the last possible minute. Then it's chickens then compost. I noticed that it was bumblebees visiting the brassica flowers rather than our recently-acquired honey bees, which I found interesting. Hope the honeys are doing their duty with the fruit trees instead!

[CurlyGreen]

I love the idea of letting them flower for the bees. Sadly my crop was battered to death by pigeons when I was away in January. The pigeons have never been that evil before And after all that effort keeping them safe from caterpillars and slugs.

But in the autumn I noticed a brassica seedling in one of my greenhouse beds. I wasn't doing anything with the bed at the time and I left it. It has turned into a large and productive purple sprouting broccoli plant. I don't think it was any earlier but I did nothing other than keep it watered when the weather warmed.

[kathyd]

I leave my debris netting on brassicas all the year round Crulygreen, with pigeons in mind! Glad your rogue seedling's done well though

[Snadger]

As much as i like encouraging bees, to leave your brassicas (or anything else for that matter) to flower will rob your soil of nutrients.
You could cause a similar problem to rose sickness after roses have been dug out and nothing else will grow well.

[Penellype]

As much as i like encouraging bees, to leave your brassicas (or anything else for that matter) to flower will rob your soil of nutrients.
You could cause a similar problem to rose sickness after roses have been dug out and nothing else will grow well.

I wouldn't think it would be that much of a problem, assuming that you are looking after the soil by adding compost, feeding your plants and mulching. The old broccoli plants would eventually end up on the compost heap to be put back into the soil and continue the cycle. Surely the real nutrient robbers are the plants that are removed from the plot completely, into the kitchen!

[Alison]

I wouldn't think it would be that much of a problem, assuming that you are looking after the soil by adding compost, feeding your plants and mulching. The old broccoli plants would eventually end up on the compost heap to be put back into the soil and continue the cycle. Surely the real nutrient robbers are the plants that are removed from the plot completely, into the kitchen!

Doesn't worry me either, I think the pros outweigh any cons

[Inastate]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but is it too late to plant this?

[Alison]

Gno, I've only just sown some. I sow about 10 seeds to a 3" pot in the cold greenhouse. Prick out when ready into individual pots for planting in the ground in mid June. Cover with enviromesh as soon as planted out to avoid the cabbage whites and then ignore until next spring when I start harvesting