Calabrese - Whats Wrong? What do I do?

[RAREBREDCHICK]

KG regulars might remember the problems Ihave had trying to grow Purple Sprouting Brocoli and Cauliflowers?

Anyway, at last 1 plant from the Calabrese I planted last year has survived and produced flower heads. Hurrah! However, the top one has only got to about 2" diameter and yesterday I read on here the advice to harvest the top flower to encourage others to grow. So, this morning I went to remove the uppermost flower, I noticed that look like a couple of flea beatle on it and cut and shook it off, it smells a bit unpleasant and has a sticky substance on it and brown(damage?) on the upermost stalk bits and some of the flower bits are yellow.

Anyway after washing it and examining it I have decided it can go in the compost. Dont want to eat it.

How can I (organically as possible)prevent the same happening to the junior flower heads? Or do I need to lift the entire plant?

[Monika]

I am a bit confused, Rarebredchick. Calabrese is sown and harvested in the same year, so how come you still have a plant from LAST year? If it was true to form it should be flowering this year and then dying, so I am not surprised that it didn't appear edible. So, on the plant which you have left, I would watch the sideshoots and take them off and eat them as soon as you can, just giving them a good wash first. I don't think the "flea beetle" has anything to do with the damage on the "flower", that sounds more like a caterpillar.

Purple sprouting broccoli, however, usually stands over winter and then suddenly throws out its edible shoots after Christmas or well into the new spring, the timing depending on the variety. Sometimes, presumably through some weather trigger, purple sprouting broccoli will produce shoots in the autumn of its first year.