[Markjp]

Should I stake my Purple Sprouting Broccoli?

If so would bamboo canes be ok or do you need something more substantial?

Regards

Mark

[SG6]

Hope that bamboo canes will do as I staked mine this morning with 3ft canes. :blink: :blink:

And no way am I going to redo them.

1/3 of them ended up on the compost heap as I deemed they hadn't grown sufficently. If the others don't start producing brocolli soon then they will follow.

[Elcie]

1/3 of them ended up on the compost heap as I deemed they hadn't grown sufficently. If the others don't start producing brocolli soon then they will follow.

I planted mine a month or two ago when the plants were big enough but I don't expect them to produce brocollii spears until next year in the early spring.  Are yours from last year?  Or maybe just a different variety?

[bonfire]

I stake them with chestnut palings but I got away with thick bamboo one year.
The windy July we have had has made me more pessimistic I suppose and it is very disappointing when months of growing get blown over by a couple of hours of an October gale.
You can always whack a more substantial stake in right against the bamboo if you start to worry then tie the two in together, not pretty but it works.

[Aidy]

I am staking this year, last year I didnt and they all looked like one of those trees you see in pictures on the hill side at 45 degrees, however they all produced for about 8 weeks.

[SG6]

Started mine off early this year and they have produced a few florets about the size of a finger nail. By a few I mean 2-5. What has appeared has tried to turned to yellow flowers quick. Presently they are 3 ft high and look pretty healthy. Have about 8 left in a small section.

So they seem to be producing, but really such a small amount that I suspect that they are best looked on as compost material.

At least the cabbage whites seem to like them.

[bonfire]

I am getting obsessed with this.......

Is there a purple sprouting broccoli that should be producing florets now?

Calabrese - as it seems to be called now ought to be producing in the next few months but I thought psb has still five or more months to go - so its a bit soon to be consigning it to the heap. You might as well chuck out your tomatoes in May because they are not producing those red things.

[HilaryG]

My PSB is about 2ft high and looking healthy. No sign of shoots or anything untoward. I expect them to be producing florets by Nov at the earliest, hopefully later.    I'm pretty sure they shouldn't be flowering now, maybe they're stressed, which I seem to remember, causes them to bolt. My sprouts have come way too early and have blown, sadly, they still taste ok, but  not so early next year maybe

[Paul Plots]

My PSB is about 2ft high and looking healthy. No sign of shoots or anything untoward. I expect them to be producing florets by Nov at the earliest, hopefully later.    I'm pretty sure they shouldn't be flowering now, maybe they're stressed, which I seem to remember, causes them to bolt. My sprouts have come way too early and have blown, sadly, they still taste ok, but  not so early next year maybe

So are they all standing up and looking healthy now we've reached November?

Mine were until a few days ago - blinking great things like Triffids  but now....

a bit of a sad and sorry state.... it has been so windy its been hard at times to stand up myself 

I staked with bits of 2x1 and covered over carefully with netting... looked like a tornado had ripped through the plot with several PSB laying down instead of standing up. I think I might just find another length of netting and leave them where they are... can't fall any further and still green and healthy.

[Clover]

I am getting obsessed with this.......
Is there a purple sprouting broccoli that should be producing florets now?

There is a new variety in the past year or two in the catalogues which doesn't need a cold snap and is supposed to sprout from September from a spring sowing.
http://www.thompson-morgan.com/plants1/product/aww3076/1.html

And Rudolph can apparently sprout any time from November onwards if the weather is favourable, which I didn't realise when I bought it and was wanting it for very early Spring as my packet indicated.

The others as far as I know are, as you say, all supposed to sprout in spring except this year when things are quite odd and making a lot of peoples' trigger a bit prematurely, mainly in a small and unproductive way.

[plum crumble]

hmmm. I seem to have a lot of healthy foliage, with about 2-5 very small florets on each plant. Looks like all the energy has gone into making leaves. Mind you, the steamed leaves are good to eat, but I want the florets!!! I've already got cabbage and brussel tops!!

[hillbilly]

I have PSB Rudolph cropping now. Florets a bit small at first but seem to getting bigger and more prolific the more I cut. Delicious and welcome as I've not much else cropping now.

[Salmo]

My Rudolph is just starting to show florets. I do not expect PSB until April.

They will always fall over so put a stake in. Bamboo is strong enough but because it is narrow it moves in the ground. I use 1x1 inch square stakes.

PSB planted too early will produce a few florets now. Pick them off and another crop will come in April. Proper planting time is July. Mine follows peas or potatoes.

[Clover]

I have PSB Rudolph cropping now. Florets a bit small at first but seem to getting bigger and more prolific the more I cut. Delicious and welcome as I've not much else cropping now.

Delicious, true!  but I had to sneak mine home and cook it when the others were out because there was only enough for one - and they came back earlier than expected and caught me red handed  

[Jay The Digger]

My purple sprouting has been going great guns.  They are about three feet tall now (although no signs of florets yet)

They seem to be resiliant to anything nature can throw at them.  They were attacked by caterpillars as seedlings, whitefly as soon as they were planted out, and a gale blowing for the past few weeks.  The only precaution I have taken is to net them to keep the pigeons off.

I haven't staked them (yet) but will do.  Luckily they are planted with a water trough next to them which acts as a bit of a windbreak.