Should I give up on my Purple Sprouting Broccoli?

If you’re growing sprouting broccoli, you may have found it to be a disappointing season! We’ve certainly experienced this, and have heard from local farmers who have found the same thing. However, we’d recommend hanging in there…

Assuming you planted it back in spring/summer, the broccoli plant should be a couple of foot tall by now. If that is the case, and there is no sign of it sprouting, then as long as the plants look healthy overall they should happily overwinter and produce broccoli sprouts in very early spring for you.

If you only planted in autumn, then of course the plants will be somewhat smaller, and you can expect them to grow slowly over the next few months. You’ll be more likely to see some shoots as spring warms up a bit, hopefully in late April/early May. This is always a good time to have something coming out of the veg patch when most other things are only just ready to be planted!