Kitchen Garden Forum

Would like to say hello to all members. This is my 1st time on here so bear with me!!
We love purple sprouting but have a polytunnel where we dont have much room so I'm asking if anyone knows of any seeds you can buy to grow some dwarf bushes. Ive seen them all in the fields where I live but not to buy in the shops can anyone help please many thanks H.

Hi and welcome to the forum .
Can't help you with the querie though no doubt someone else will.
Jane

Thx jane no worries

Hello BG
Wecome on board the forum.
I don't know of any dwarf PS varieties but a few year's ago I was very late sowing and planting out my PS. I hadn't expected much but the plants grew well but much smaller and eventually produced a good crop in the spring.

John

Welcome bubble-gum. I don't know of a dwasrf purple sprouting either but
I always give some of my plants to a friend and her soil is very hard and clayey. She never plants them very deep and always has short stocky plants that produce far more than mine although all from the same seed.

Are you sure they were PS and not dwarf Curley Kale? Equally delicious and crops all winter.

Beryl.

Do the purple sprouting plants have to go in the polytunnel - I plant mine without cover - other than netting to stop the pigeons and they normally do very well? Just wondering

Hi Bubble-gum,
A hearty welcome.
I do not know of a dwarf variety of PSB but you will have seen plants in fields which are growing without any support and therefore appear to be dwarf varieties. Most PSB varieties can obtain a height of 4ft but there is no reason why you cannot grew them as cordons on the slant to reduce height in a tunnel. As 1066 has said do the plants have to be in the tunnel because I feel that they would do better in the open. Most of the older varieties need frost to initiate the blooming and I have grown broccoli for many moons but never in my tunnels.
JB.

Thx for the info but we grow our veggies in the poly as its in our back garden and we dont have room to plant outside the poly.

You could try planting them closer together than usual - that's how I used to ensure my cabbages weren't unsellable monsters, I assume it would work for PSB too, although yields may be lower.

Could someone tell me how tall they grow please, it's not on the packet do they need staking? Thanks a lot

Hi Wicky,
Depending on variety. PSB can grow to 48" with the old traditional spring varieties but some of the summer varieties are considerably smaller.
JB.

Thanks JB