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Christian

Purple Sprouting broccoli?

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Hello wise owls! :wink:

 

I have been given some PSB plants. They are about 8" high at present. Knowing the cabbage white butterflies in my garden, I wanted to plant the plants out and cover with netting to stop the winged pests laying their eggs. Any idea how big the plants get?

 

Thanks!

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Ditto!

 

Will not be bothering with PSB again - nightmare :roll:

 

 

EDIT

 

 

Re-read the last 3 posts and they sound really negative! :lol::lol::lol:

 

 

Just to be 'glass half full' - Christian im sure your PSB will grow like weeds and you and the OH will be enjoying meal after meal of it! :D

 

There - thats evened up the karma! :D

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The plants will get to about 2.5 feet high and may need staking. They have a very long growing season, but the crop you get does taste lovely. Once the initial larger head has been cut this will be followed by smaller pieces and in a healthy plant you should be able to crop it for a few weeks. We usually grow about 6 plants which gives us enough for 5 people although I am the only one who really loves it. It has a very strong brassica taste with a slight bitter edge, it just tastes so good for you :D

 

We grow all of our brassicas in an enviromesh cage to stop butterflies. Enviromesh doesn't come cheap but it is sold by the metre in different widths on ebay Gardening Naturally I think the seller is called.

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The plants will get to about 2.5 feet high and may need staking. They have a very long growing season, but the crop you get does taste lovely. Once the initial larger head has been cut this will be followed by smaller pieces and in a healthy plant you should be able to crop it for a few weeks. We usually grow about 6 plants which gives us enough for 5 people although I am the only one who really loves it. It has a very strong brassica taste with a slight bitter edge, it just tastes so good for you :D

 

We grow all of our brassicas in an enviromesh cage to stop butterflies. Enviromesh doesn't come cheap but it is sold by the metre in different widths on ebay Gardening Naturally I think the seller is called.

 

I use debris netting... its very cheap off ebay and for brassicas its just the job

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It's useful to get the warning about needing to put on nettting - I must do that if it stops raining. I hadn't planned to buy them but Thompson and Morgan were doing a "buy any two seed packets and get purple sprouting broccoli seeds free" so I sowed them and they are quite big plants already.

 

I hope they grow - we buy lots of PSB every year so it would be nice to get our own.

 

Milly

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Just be aware that as well as keeping butterflies off, you need to keep the caterpillars off too. I was successful in keeping off the butterflies, but they laid their eggs on the nearby nasturtiums instead. The caterpillars ate the nasturtiums then just walked through the mesh and started on my broccoli. :evil:

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We had the PSB leaves today with Sunday lunch. They are ok and Im sure packed with vitamins but they are not the most tasty veg on the planet. I think I might give them to the chooks.

 

Leaves?

 

You are supposed to eat the florets? :?

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I persevered with PSB last year and was rewarded with a lovely crop from about 6 plants. I couldn't get netting to go over them properly, so I used to inspect the underside of the leaves once a week and brush off the yellow eggs, or pick off any rogue caterpillars. I nearly lost the lot this spring after the pigeons discovered them - keep an eye out for that! Not sure I'll grow them again, but I still have a stash in the freezer to keep us going.

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