Grower’s Corner – Sprouting broccoli
Broccoli comes in three main varieties:
- Purple Sprouting varieties - the hardiest and the most popular broccoli for growing at home or on the allotment, this variety has a real love of heavy soils and cold areas where little else will make it through the winter, although called purple sprouting, which it is when it grows, the heads turn green when cooked.
- White Sprouting varieties – these are very pretty, producing white or cream ‘spears’ like tiny pointed cauliflowers. It’s not clear why this variety isn’t as popular as the purple, when its flavour is milder, but it is harder to get hold of seed.
- Calabrese varieties - Calabrese or ‘green’ sprouting broccoli produces delicately-flavoured spears before the onset of winter. Some varieties produce a succession of spears stretching from early autumn until the first frosts – not as hardy as purple though.
Broccoli doesn’t need much to grow, but it will not do well in sandy soil or soil that is exhausted of goodness. It does best in a reasonably sunny site as it has to go through most of the winter, but will tolerate partial shade. Dig over in the autumn, working in plenty of well-rotted manure or compost if the soil is poor. In spring, do not fork over the surface before planting the seedlings – simply tread down gently, rake lightly and remove surface rubbish.
Sow seeds in a seed bed or in trays, very thinly and about a centimetre. Thin to about three inches to stop them becoming spindly, a major cause of failure in brassicas. They are ready to transplant at three inches tall. Plant firmly, ensuring the seedlings are about an inche deeper than they were growing in the seed bed to give the stability in the ground and leaving about a foot and half between white and purple broccoli plants and a foot between green.
Hoe regularly between rows and where necessary and provide some means of protection against birds, sticks and string may be enough but if neighbours are netting their crops, you will need to net too. Water in dry weather and apply a mulch to conserve moisture or grow through a membrane. Occasional feeding with a liquid fertilizer will improve the crop. Broccoli is a trouble-prone crop so watch for pests, especially caterpillars which may need to be picked off.
Harvesting
As winter nears, draw up soil around the stems and stake the plants if the site is exposed. Always firm the stems if they are loosened by wind or frost as snapping of the small roots means the plants will not be able to take up nutrients and the crop will fail. You can expect to harvest calabrese within three months but it can take 44 weeks from sowing to cutting your purple and white varieties! To harvest, cut or snap off the central spear first, side shoots will continue to be produced and these should be picked regularly, but never strip a plant completely or it will cease to produce. Don’t allow any shoots to flower, or production will stop.
Broccoli photographs by merfam and acme, used under a creative commons attribution licence