[angelavdavis]

Hi all,

I have a strange situation in that I planted some summer sprouting broccoli into a bed to overwinter late September last year  (they were 4 inches high grown from seed).  A couple of the plants produced but went straight to seed overnight in the warm weather earlier in the summer, so I removed these.  

I now have a bed of five foot high plants that don't show any sign of producing anything! I expected them to start producing in June - about the time the other ones went straight to seed!

When the first few plants went to seed immediately, I started feeding the plants with my HM nettle/comfrey tea once every two weeks.  The bed had previously been manured.

Should I pull these up, feed them something else or give up on them?  I have never known broccoli take this long to sprout and all I think about when I see them is how much space they are taking up!!

[BabbyAnn]

My experience with broccoli and calabrese is that if they don't produce the heads/spears when you expect them to, leave them and they'll surprise you later.  I once grew loads of Romanesco (the lime green pointy ones) expecting a crop in late summer/autumn but they stubbornly refused.  Winter swept in but I left them, and the following spring I got some lovely heads off the plants - not what I expected at all and so glad that my initial disgust and abandonment was rewarded later.

This year I planted out calabrese and broccoli again expecting to harvest them in September/October-ish, and blow me, the autumn calabrese that are still only about 15 inches high have already produced 

If your's haven't flowered yet, my advice would be to leave them and they'll flower in their own good time.

[mumofstig]

maybe the comfry/nettle tea is high in Nitrogen and encouraging leafy growth, perhaps you need a feed to encourage flowering 

[angelavdavis]

Thanks for your responses.  MOS - I was thinking this to be honest, but having removed loads of lower yellowed leaves last week, I was faced with more yellowed leaves this week - hence my feeding them.  I will give them a feed of tomato feed next week I think.

BabbyAnn, I am hoping something will come of them of course.  I guess because some had a flourish of produce earlier this summer, I expected some activity out of the rest! 

I am planning to move my raspberries (currently trained on the boundary fence but encroaching into the veg beds) into this bed so I can build a fruit cage over the top and attempt to confine them.  I do hope they produce before winter as if they don't I will have to take them out to move the raspberries!

[surbie100]

5 feet high? Help! Mine have reached 2 ft, and I was hoping they would slow down a bit. The netting hoops aren't much higher....

Would epsom salts help stop the yellowing?

[Goosegirl]

Is the yellowing of the leaves due to too much wet in the soil?

[Kirpi]

Comfrey tea is high in potash which is what you need for flowering. Maybe feed Comfrey without the Nettles.