The Queen of winter vegetables, little can beat the sweet flavour of home grown purple sprouting. Unfortunately the deer appreciate the flavour as well and who can blame them with their dreary, sparse winter diet.
Last year I made the decision to grow the broccoli in the polytunnel to protect it. The major problem with growing it inside is that it is a large plant and takes some months to grow. Polytunnel space is limited and therefore the vegetable has to be worth it to make the list. Seeds are sown around May in the greenhouse and the plants pricked out into individual 7cm pots and taken into the polytunnel to acclimatise. It is important to choose late purple sprouting or the heat will lead to early purple sprouting cropping during the summer.
A decision has to be taken quite early where it is to grow so that the space is available at the time of planting, which is now drawing near - you don't want your plants becoming pot bound. If the plants need potting on because the space hasn't be cleared then do it, it will be worth the trouble.
Last year they replaced some early tulips, grown for cut flowers. That didn't present any problem with timing. This year they are following a garlic crop which is not quite ready to harvest. When it is harvested I will enrich the ground with some well rotted compost. To avoid weed seed problems this compost will be buried beneath the plants, not just dug in. This will ensure that the goodness goes directly to the plant and also helps to provide moisture at the roots.
Was it worth it last year? Definitely yes! The plants started to crop around March through into late April. They provided plenty of sprouts and everyone declared the flavour to be superb. No toughness, possibly due to being grown undercover, and the leaves were also used as a kale substitute for stews etc. The plants grew so large one or two required a support, but in the winter polytunnel it was wonderful seeing something growing so strongly.
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