PSB = Purple Sprouting Broccoli - a brassica I associate with After Christmas - not much else to pick in the garden time. Also, one that seems to take a lot of growing space for a long time.
Sorting through my seeds tonight I found a packet of Suttons "Purple Sprouting Continuity Mix" which claims to have a 6 month harvest period, from October - March from a May sowing.
The packet contains equal quantities of 3 different PSB - Rudolph, Red Arrow and Cardinal (75 seeds in total)
Also in my seed box is Summer Purple, sown in April/May, harvested August onwards.
In theory, I could add these to the Continuity Mix, sow them all in May and be picking PSB from August to March.
Its tempting BUT all the seeds are way past their "Sow by" dates and I don't have much success with brassicas in any form. Remind me in May and maybe I'll give it a whirl.
I love PSB and have three plants growing on my plot (thats enough for me) Apart from them hogging the ground for a full year they take up quite a bit of space and the pigeons decimate them.
I will still grow them, but stick to a few plants only!
Looking at Suttons current seed list they've changed the mix to 50% Summer Purple & 50% Purple Sprouting!
https://www.suttons.co.uk/vegetable-seed...x_MH-44993
Either the first version didn't work or was too expensive to make up.
Vinny, Summer Purple is supposed to crop after 4-5 months if you want a quick fix!!
...........and here's another thing that doesn't make sense about Suttons PSB seeds.
Summer Purple costs £2.99 for 100 seeds.
Purple Sprouting costs £1.99 for 200 seeds.
Continuity Mix is £1.99 for 200 seeds (100 Summer purple and 100 Purple Sprouting). There's no logic in that!!
When have you expected logic from the major seed companies?
Guess what? I've found a T&M version of Broccoli for months! This one is "All Seasons Broccoli".
A meagre 20 seeds for £3.99 in 2017. Varieties Mendocino F1, Red Admiral F1 & Burbank F1 (white sprouting).
Sow May/June, Harvest Nov - May according to the packet
Sow March/June. Harvest Jan - Nov according to the website
https://www.thompson-morgan.com/p/brocco.../tt54702TM
Now what do we believe??
Interesting that all T&Ms varieties are F1 and none of Sutton's are!
Out of curiosity, I've looked at Premier Seeds Direct to put together a "continuity mix".
Summer Purple £1.09 - 200 seeds
Rudolph Extra Early £1.09 - 250 seeds
Purple Early Sprouting - 99p - 3000 seeds !!!! surely that should be 300?
That's £3.17 for 750 seeds (or 3450 if the 3000 isn't a typo).
Unwins/Marshalls sell 4 separate packets of seed in the "All Seasons" packet. £3.49
Rudolph, Red Arrow, Cardinal & Summer purple.
They recommend different sowing dates for each variety, especially Summer purple which is sown earlier than the others.
Doesn't say how many seeds in each packet.
Mr Fothergill sell a 3 packet "Long Cropping " collection Claret F1 (60 seeds), Tenderstem Green Inspiration F1 (35 seeds) & Rudolph (150 seeds). £5.79.
Nice investigation work as usual veggie.
I do like purple sprouting broccoli. I get a good crop from it. But it always crops early for me. So I’m picking it at the same time as my green broccoli/calabrese. Even though the packet says harvest dec/feb ( something like that, I’ve not looked at the packet for a while). Not to fussed when I harvest as long as I get a crop.
Think you should give your mix a go.