Purple Sprouting Broccoli

For sowing indoors, which is preferable with all brassicas, these seeds are perfect for sowing in seed trays or small pots ( I use a 3inch pot for each variety), fill with compost, sow a group of seeds on the surface and then cover with a light sprinkling of compost. When they have two leaves and you can handle the germinated seeds, prick out individually into modules to grow on or sow a few seeds per module then thin to the strongest seedling.

It takes about a month before seedlings are ready to be planted out, spacing is wide as with all brassicas, about 45cm. Plant deep and make sure that they get a good drink especially if it is dry. With all brassicas ideally you need to protect them against butterflies and their caterpillars so use mesh to cover them, I also spray with a biological control called Bacillus Thuringiensis every 3 weeks from late June/early July ( when I remove the mesh ) until September.