A common question is ” Why does my Purple Flowering Broccoli not have
any Broccoli heads.” The answer is that there are two sorts of broccoli:
* Sprouting – white or purple sprouting broccoli
spear-of-purple-sprouting-broccoli
* Calabrese – a green sprouting broccoli which may have a single,
large head.
The sprouting broccoli produces heads just after Christmas, but
calabrese produces a crop in early autumn.
Charity has just posted a comment:
plz help my purple flowering broccoli doesnt have any broccoli can
you tell me why ???
i have plenty of leaves but no florettes of broccoli
plz e-mail me with a reply
TopVeg replied:
Hi Charity
Good things come to those who wait!
Purple sprouting broccoli will be ready from January to April.
Calabrese, the green sprouting broccoli common in the shops,
produces spears before the onset of winter.
I think you may have the purple sprouting, which is so special
because it is ready when there is not much else in the garden. On
top of that the flavour is divine!
Hope that helps
**TopVeg**
The answer to the question ” Why Purple Flowering Broccoli does not have
Broccoli” is that it will have broccoli after Christmas!
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hedgesparrow-chicks
The hedge sparrow that built a nest in the sprouting broccoli has hatched some chicks. In spite of picking the sprouting broccoli every day, the hedge sparrow sat tight and in a couple of weeks five chicks hatched out.
The parents are getting busier and busier feeding the chicks as they grow, and their appetites increase.
nest-of-hedgesparrow
The broccoli was ready to harvest in February. It was a welcome change from brussel sprouts which had been providing greens throughout the winter.
The nest is now a problem as it is delaying the soil preparation for the courgettes!
chicks-in-broccoli
Bird Table News has information on nesting birds.
The GreatBigVegetableChallenge has 4 great broccoli recipes.
The TopVeg hedge sparrow, which hatched chicks in broccoli, is quite special.
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The sun has come out, and the broccoli leaves are going limp and wilting in the vegetable garden.
wilting-broccoli
The broccoli roots are not able to take in enough water, to replace that lost by the leaves in transpiration. As the sun warms up, the rate of transpiration (water loss) will increase.
The garden soil is waterlogged after the recent heavy rains and flooding. The roots have not been able to grow, and some have probably died off. But the leaf canopy has continued to grow although the roots are not able to support it. Now the leaves are showing their discomfort, and lack of water, by drooping.
Wilting is also an indication of cabbage root fly. At the moment we are hoping the wilting in the broccoli is caused by water logging of the vegetable garden.
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