Growing Sprouting Broccoli

For the home grower, there is no more valuable plant for both the white and purple-sprouting varieties possess extreme hardiness and may lie grown anywhere in the British Isles to provide a succession of shoots for boiling or braising from early spring until the end of summer. It conies into full cropping when the equally hardy Brussels sprout is finishing.

As the sprouting broccoli grows tall, it should be given protection from strong winds. The perennial white will occupy the ground for several years, at the end of winch time it will have become most unsightly. It should. therefore, not be given too prominent a place in the vegetable garden.

General cultivation With its continuous cropping sprouting broccoli requires a rich, deeply worked soil, into which plenty of decayed manure, garden compost or shoddy has been incorporated. The plants will also appreciate a mulch of strawy manure during winter which should be forked in around the plants early in spring.

From an April sowing, the seedlings will be ready to plant out 3 feet apart, in May. As with sprouts, firm planting is essential, otherwise the mature plants may be blown over by strong winds. As they make growth, the soil around the plants should be trodden whenever it is friable.

The shoots are removed when young, whilst they are tender and mild of flavor . If left ungathered, they will run to seed, especially in warm weather when they will not only be useless for cooking but will rapidly exhaust the plant. If the shoots are continually removed, others will take their place. They freeze well.