Purple Sprouting Broccoli

VEGETABLES > BROCCOLI > PURPLE-SPROUTING

No matter what you do or say, which rewards are promised after dinner, and however carefully you disguise it on the plate: Some kids, just will not, eat broccoli.

Let’s be honest. How many of us either have kids that do this, or did this ourselves when we were kids –

Unless, that is, you give them purple sprouting broccoli. This stylish vegetable looks juuust different enough from its regular, healthy-green cousin.

The purple florets are intriguing, rather than inexplicably off-putting, and many kids will jump at the chance to eat something unusually coloured.

Overview

Official Plant Name	Brassica oleracea var italica ‘Purple sprouting’
Common Name(s)	Purple Sprouting Broccoli
Plant Type	Vegetable
Native Area	Cultivated
Hardiness Rating	H3-H4
Toxicity	Edible
When To Sow	March, April, May
Plant Out	June, July
Harvesting Months	February, March, April, May

So if you’re looking for ways to turn your kids from broccoli sulkers to broccoli superheroes (like the spiffing fellow below), read on…

What is purple sprouting broccoli?

This funky floret is a variant on the familiar broccoli design. Instead of the traditional thick green stem with a big bushy green head – technically known as Calabrese broccoli – this variety boasts many heads, each with its own thin stalk. As well as being visually distinctive, sprouting broccoli is also easier to handle, quicker to prepare, and more readily attractive on a plate of food.

Sprouting broccoli also comes in white, and these are just two of many different types of the vegetable. Alongside Calabrese and sprouting broccoli, the intrepid broccoli enthusiast will know of Romanesco, Waltham 29, Blue Wind, Destiny, Green Goliath, Beneforté, and many more.

For the sake of your kids’ morale, though, we’ll limit this guide to sprouting broccoli. No child deserves to have to meet eighteen new types of broccoli at once.

How to grow and care for purple sprouting broccoli

Now we’ve piqued your interest, here’s what you need to know to get purple sprouting broccoli to grow in your garden. You’ll be pleased to know this isn’t too demanding, and done right, you should score a bumper harvest.

Where to grow your plant

Purple sprouting broccoli likes a spot with full sun, but it’ll tolerate a little bit of shade. Make sure to pick somewhere with well-draining soil, and ideally dig some fertiliser or prepared compost through the soil ahead of planting. This nutritious boost will give your broc the best opportunity to grow big and strong.

Sowing indoors

If you’re particularly enthusiastic about getting started with your broccoli, you can get the seeds going indoors up until mid April. Simply pop them in modular trays or small pots – two per pot – and leave them in a greenhouse or near a window to attract some rays.

At this stage, you’ll want to feed the young broccoli weekly with liquid feed.

When they begin to sprout, remove the weaker of the two from each module or pot and throw it away. With broccoli, it’s survival of the fittest!

Transplant your seedlings into the ground when they’re about 15cm tall.

Sowing outdoors

If you’re happy to wait until later in the growing season, you can sow your broccoli seeds directly outdoors. You’ll want to pop three seeds in a hole, then 30cm away pop another three in, and so on. They should be about 2cm deep.

As with your indoor seeds, you’ll need to cull the two weakest seedlings when it becomes apparent which they are. This will give the strongest the best chance to grow.

Covering

Unlike children, slugs, snails, birds, and other critters are absolutely mad for broccoli, so we highly recommend covering the young plants to prevent them from being ravaged. Fleece is good for this, or you could cover the whole crop in chicken wire, gauze, or similar.

Watering

Broccoli is fairly tolerant to sporadic watering. You need to water fortnightly during dry weather, otherwise just incorporate watering into your normal gardening routine.

Fertilising

Your broc will appreciate some high nitrogen fertiliser to give it a little nutrition boost when it’s around 20cm tall.

Harvesting

When your broccoli has put forth flower buds, but before they actually open into flowers, this is the ideal time to harvest.

To extend the period during which you can harvest, cut the central broccoli stalk first. Then, over the next few weeks, you’ll be able to harvest from the smaller side-stalks, guaranteeing a gradual trickle of broccoli for your kitchen exploits.

Troubleshooting your crop

As we’ve said, broccoli is of special interest to a distressingly wide array of garden pests. Here’s how to keep the worst contenders at bay –

Slugs and snails

Erect a physical barrier around your crop to prevent slimy visitors from reaching the leaves. You’ll want something that doesn’t block light from getting to the plant – materials like gauze and chicken-wire are good options.

If you find these pests making their way to your broc nonetheless, there are a range of deterrents available. You can grow sacrificial plants nearby to distract them, you could craft a beer trap to lure them in, or if you’re desperate, you can use slug pellets.

Birds

These feathered visitors will have a hearty munch on your developing broccoli. In the best case, this causes unsightly physical damage. In the worse case, they can cause so much damage that the plant is unable to properly grow.

As with slugs and snails, physical barriers are best. Covering your broccoli from all angles in an enclosed mesh is one option, or you could cover with fleece.

Scarecrows and other bird deterrents can work, but often birds will wise up to them pretty quickly. Fear is easily overridden by the promise of a broccoli dinner, it seems.

Lacklustre growth

In very hot weather, broccoli is prone to go to seed prematurely, which can lead to smaller florets than usual. Unfortunately there’s not much way to control against this, unless you feel like taking an AC unit out into your garden. (Hint: Don’t do that).

It’ll knock their broc off

We hope that you’re now inspired to grow some tasty broccoli in your garden. Whether you’re expanding your existing home-growing repertoire, or this floret will be your first foray, you’re in for a treat. And if you are a proud parent (or a young child, although we somehow doubt it), trust us when we say that you’ll have much more luck getting a kid to eat this variety than your standard, mushy green Calabrese.