Does your Purple Sprouting keep producing for long?

[Colin_M]

I started some at the beginning of this year - sadly I can't remember the variety which may make answering this difficult.

It's been producing a small number of florets since the summer and doesn't really seemed to have stopped. At various times I've thought about uprooting it and at one stage it looked like caterpillars would finish it off. I've just picked enough for 2 people again and there still seem to be more florets coming.

Whilst this isn't making the most productive use of this patch, I didn't expect it to carry on producing for so long. Is this quite common with some varieties?

[Nature's Babe]

I do the same Colin, plant and then forget the variety ! I am looking for a shorter variety, the last one I planted grew so tall the cabbage butterfly got under the sides of the enviromesh ! Most greens sprout again and again if harvested regularly. Not a bad problem for you to have though

[Johnboy]

Hi Colin,
I assume that we are dealing with a Summer Purple Spouting Variety
which if sown at the earliest would be February and commence production around mid to late June whereas I have had
a spring variety produce for a very long period of time I do not know of a summer variety that is not picked out within six weeks.
One year and it was only one year Red Cardinal produced from mid February and went on until the begining of July and outlived F1 Claret by a couple of weeks.
Without the variety I can be of little use. I suspect it is an accumulation of factors bound up with the weather.
Lets look at this year. I have runner beans that are setting a new flush of flowers now which to me has happened before on the last blue moon!
I have picked beans into December before and dependant upon frost may do again this year but as you well know this is not the norm nor is your PSB.
JB.

[Colin_M]

Thanks both for your comments.

In the past, any attempts at Purple Sprouting has produced a mini-glut, then precious little afterwards. By contrast, this year's crop has been "little and fairly often". It's never enough that we get tired of it and a nice gap in between instalments.

There's just 5 plants, sat at the end of a row of beans, so I probably couldn't have done much else with the space anyway.

Interestingly, nearly all my Calabrese plants have sent up a succession of small mini-florets after the main initial one. This year, many of these have kept going for several months too. Bet we don't manage to repeat this next year

[Johnboy]

Hi Colin,
I generally grow the summer varieties of Broccoli as a welcome break from beans but this year I didn't and I now know that it was a mistake.
I simply adore beans but I find that I also adore Broccoli. No surprise.
I have my normal Broccoli under way but generally do not start picking until either just before or just after Christmas.
I grow just three white plants in preference to mucking about with cauliflowers and these three plants produce more than a 30ft row of Cauliflowers in small quantities of fresh picked produce rather than one enormous Cauliflower with about six portion in it which takes a week to eat. Any surplus of Broccoli can be frozen and if properly blanched keeps well for about a year or slightly more. My plants are all protected against White Fly from day one as WF can totally ruin a crop.
I think that of all crops Broccoli provides the best return of all the plants I grow and is probably the one with the most nutritional value as well.
JB.