[erainn]

Just pondering about my first ever crop of brocolli (purple variety) one of the plants has begun to develop heads and also has a flower.  Does that suggest I should pick now or wait for it to develop? The heads seem pretty small and very unlike the regular broccoli I am used to consuming. All advice/knowledge most welcome.

[DD.]

Have a look at this recent thread asking the very same question:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=81324.0

If you've got a head in flower, you've let it go too far.

[erainn]

Hiya, mmm now I'm confused, the variety I planted is called 'Broccoli,Santee F1', I had imagined it would produce fairly largre dense heads, on this one plant they are small and numerous. Could it be they are  'Calabrese'?? Also it has just a small single flower, presumably the heads, though small are stilledible enough?

[sunshineband]

Any size is edible, fear not 

[peapod]

It isnt calabrese, but purple sprouting broccolli.
 I have never grown PSB but assume that it prefers the colder months from what I have read.  Someone else can enlighten me if Im wrong.

Anyway as sunshineband said, if there anything left of a head its edible so pick it quick 

[digalotty]

one minuite psb the next lots of yellow flowers

[sunshineband]

Pick it quicker 

As soon as the head is visible on a stalk 

[digalotty]

can i cut off the tops that have flowered and will it still produce

[erainn]

Thanks to all for the helpful advice I shall certainly start harvesting tomorrow. I was surprised it produced, having thought it would be late autumn before they developed, as they were grown from seed in April

[shokkyy]

Pick it quicker 

As soon as the head is visible on a stalk 

But what would be the point? I mean, what do you do with a half-inch broccoli head? 

It's the first year in a while I've grown calabrese, and I think I've just remembered why I stopped growing them. You'd need a forest of calabrese to actually get enough for a meal

[gazza975526570]

Must admit ive found the exact opposite. First year growing calbrese - every initial head tightly compacted and the size of those bought att the supermarket - got a good few weeks between when they could be picked and before they went to seed.

I think my soil provides good brassicas - shame same cant be said for potatoes!

[mumofstig]

sounds to me, as if the Santee is producing just as it should, have a look here

http://www.dtbrownseeds.co.uk/seeds-plants-gardening/17164/broccoli-santee-f1

[DD.]

It's spot on, isn't it?

It's what I said in the link I gave, in that what is marketed as broccoli in the supermarkets, is actually calabrese.

[brokenglass]

Yes it is behaving exactly as it should picking the first or central head encourages more side shoots/broccoli to develop.     Broccoli is wrongly labelled in the Supermarkets asi that should be labelled calabrese

[DD.]

Broccoli is wrongly labelled in the Supermarkets asi that should be labelled calabrese

Bit of an echo in here!