[fletch]

I grew some calabrese from seed this year. About a third of them have already bolted (I took the flowers off and they are now sprouting mini shoots, a bit like PSB). The rest aren't doing anything apart from getting big and leafy. There is no sign of  "head" in any of them. Should there be, or am I yet again being impatient!

Here is a close up of one of them,



And here is a pic of the whole lot, sorry about pic quality..



If they're not going to do anything I'd rather rip them out and replace with something productive.

[Adrian]

Er, when you say they bolted and you removed the flowers ..... that wasn't the flower head was it, hence no "heads"?

Cheers,

Adrian

[fletch]

Hi Adrian, I'm not sure!

I expected Calabrese to have a tight head in the crown, a bit like a cauliflower. The flowers I removed were long spindly things, a bit like the ones you can see in the second pic.
I can't imagine that they would turn into a broccolli head would they?

[Adrian]

Hmm. Bit difficult to tell from the pictures. I'm no expert, but I would have thought they must have been in quite early to be that big by now. Usually you'd sow around May and harvest from about August/September, so maybe they went in too early?

Cheers,

Adrian

[flatcap]

hi fletch

                        our calabrese is the same as yours ,we take the mini shoots off and eat them before they flower

[fletch]

I did start them off early, about late March I think.

I have eaten a couple of the "shoots" but to be honest they are not really that good! I know you can also eat the young leaves as greens but I wanted some BROCCOLI  :evil:  :evil:  hehe!

I think their days are numbered..................

[sclarke624]

Mine haven't sprouted yet either.  Last year I had this in mid June OH holding calabrese and spring onion.  



Did them at same time this year but not made a head yet.  Then again still waiting for decent sized spring oinions as mentioned before.  I get the feeling everything is slower this year than last.  As this is only my second year don't know which is the norm.

So I would wait a bit longer,  I reckon mine are about 3-4 weeks away from a head yet, leaves are enormous.  If they sprout I will let you know.

[fletch]

Thanks for that. From my pics do they look like they could still make a head?

It's just that I've never grown them before so I don't know what they should look like!

[gobs]

You can see that from the side usually, they are going tall as if leggy before running to seed. From this angle they look OK to me, anyhow, not necessarily all will run to seed. Water them if it turns very dry and sunny again.