• 'Early Purple Sprouting' broccoli.
  • A close-up showing the loads of side shoots that 'Early Purple Sprouting' broccoli produces.
  • Although it was left to fend for itself in the garden all winter, 'Early Purple Sprouting' broccoli still produced loads of shoots.
  • Purple Sprouting Broccoli from "The Vegetable Garden," M.M. Vilmorin-Andrieux, 1885.
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Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli

Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli

$2.95 USD
$2.95 USD
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Early Purple Sprouting

200 days — Instead of being developed to put all of its energy into producing a single, densely packed head as is popular on today's produce stands, 'Early Purple Sprouting' broccoli produces loads of shoots, each with small purple heads, lending itself to longer and more abundant harvests. The photographs above were taken on our farm on April 2 and are of plants that were over-wintered in our field. If you look at the photo of the whole plant, you can see that we did no cultivation and not only did the plants compete successfully with the weeds, they also produced loads of food! A treat to have fresh produce that early in the year in our neck of the woods.

A very old variety, 'Early Purple Sprouting' broccoli was historically used for over-wintering for spring harvesting. It was once quite popular and grown extensively throughout Europe. According to  MM. Vilmorin-Andrieux in "The Vegetable Garden" (1885), there were more than forty different forms grown in England alone. Each packet contains 1 gram, which is approximately 200 seeds.

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Planting Instructions: Start indoors, six weeks prior to your last expected frost date. Transplant when three inches tall. Plant the seedlings about one inch deeper than they were in your pots. Work ½ cup of organic fertilizer into the soil with each transplant.

You can also plant directly in the soil, at a depth of about ¼ to ½ inch, in mid-Spring. Thin to a final plant spacing of 15 to 18 inches in rows two to three feet apart.

Avoid providing too much nitrogen. Broccoli likes cool weather and will head too early in warm temperatures. Harvest the heads before the individual flowers mature and begin to open.

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