Monday, 10 March 2014

PSB - nearly ready?

My Purple Sprouting Broccoli, having been in the ground for many months, is finally about to deliver its crop. This year it won't be a big crop. The four plants I have are very small by normal standards.


One of them is VERY small...


Maybe this is a good thing. Last year I think we had more PSB than we needed. It doesn't keep very well and is best used as soon as possible after picking. When frozen it goes very mushy - not worth having, in my opinion. So having too much is probably a bad thing. Just enough is better.














Regular readers will know that PSB is one of my favourite veg, and I am not going to be easily discouraged when it comes to growing it. If this year's harvest is small, then I'll put that down to experience and try again next year.

Maybe I'll try a couple of different varieties. I was surprised to see that this year my biggest PSB plant is the only one of the four which is an old traditional one ("Early Purple"), whereas the others are newer modern varieties ("Red Arrow" and "Red Spear").
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11 comments:

  1. Jo@awholeplotoflove10 March 2014 at 12:21

    Looking good Mark, not long to go now!

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  2. becky308610 March 2014 at 14:43

    Very nice. My broccoli only got little tiny heads this year. I just don't have time enough to garden these days :(

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  3. Daphne Gould10 March 2014 at 15:22

    PSB isn't something we can really grow here, but it is such a pretty vegetables.

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  4. Unknown10 March 2014 at 16:03

    hysterically we didn't get a good crop from ours last year but I accidentally left the plant in over the winter and now I have an amazing crop of PSB!... a little rangy and not as pretty as yours but they're perfectly good enough to eat!

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  5. Anonymous10 March 2014 at 17:25

    You've inspired me to try growing broccoli; growing it has always intimidated me...maybe I'll just take the plunge! Is it just a spring veggie??

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    Replies
    1. Mark Willis10 March 2014 at 19:00

      No, it's definitely not just a Spring veggie these days. Recent developments have produced varieties that flower at lots of different times, so you can get PSB almost all year now.

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    2. Anonymous10 March 2014 at 20:42

      Thanks! That would be great to have broccoli all year.

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  6. rusty duck10 March 2014 at 18:18

    It was a disappointing crop here too. Just a couple of meals worth out of six plants. I shall try again this year and hope for better things.

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  7. Sue Garrett10 March 2014 at 20:24

    Just need someone out there to develop a club root resistant variety!

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  8. Kelli10 March 2014 at 20:55

    You've had better success than me! Your plants look good and healthy.

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  9. Endah Murniyati11 March 2014 at 11:35

    My broccoli, both of green and purple sprouting are not doing well this season. Yours look very stunning

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