portmoon
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Purple broccoli

I have just moved house and the previous owners had a vegetable patch. There are some purple broccoli plants in raised beds but I'm not sure if they are past their best. Can anyone tell me by looking at these pics if I should leave them or dig them out? I assume you don't eat the leaves!? thanks!
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applestar
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Location: Zone 6, NJ (3/M)4/E ~ 10/M(11/B)

As far as I can tell, they have not produced the flowerhead with flowerbuds which is what we call "broccoli" and eat. The purple in the leaves might mean these are the special varieties that produce purplish heads.

There are hybrid varieties and some Italian heirloom varieties that produce full sized heads, and OP (open pollinated) varieties that produce small but numerous heads as long as you keep cutting/harvesting (sprouting broccoli). Full sized heading varieties will also produce smaller side shoots/heads after harvesting the main heads.

So I think you are long way from pulling these plants.

...and actually, you CAN eat the leaves especially while they are young and tender, but removing the leaves may/will affect the broccoli head since the leaves are the energy factories. Older broccoli leaves can be cooked down like collards.


....actually, looking closer at that 2nd photo, I think those might be cauliflowers. And yes, there are special purple/violet varieties, too.

john gault
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Location: Atlantic Beach, Fl. (USDA Hardiness Zone 9a)

I have about a dozen broccoli plants in my yard now; I always let them flower and go to seed. The bees love the flowers and the birds love the seeds.

P.S. One day I'm going to garden for me, but for now I'm just letting the wildlife live off my garden :-()

Yearoundgardener
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Location: South Carolina, South of Charlotte NC

I consider myself an expert on Broccoli, and it is my MAIN Veggie garden plant every year.
I also try to keep my Broccoli plants growing over Winter, and I now have ONE broccoli on its third Spring and has produced its third head, this years about the size of a softball, as well as a Winter and Spring of Broccolini and flowers!
OK, as the other writer pointed out, YOUR plants have NOT yet reached the productive stage, and as he pointed out, they may also be cauliflowers. Both have varieties of purple heads, but some leaves turn purple when chilled, temporarily.
I eat a Lettuce/greens salad most nights, and all Winter and early spring, I get a steady stream of slender flower heads known as Broccolini, from the past seasons broccoli survivors, that I chop into smaller pieces and toss into the salad. As the Spring days get warmer, they start making more clusters that flower quickly, and I cut them off and chop into the salad as well!
The Flowers are as tasty as the heads!
The "KEY" here is, the plant wants to reproduce and die, so If you keep removing flowers as they appear, the plant will keep making more. As for the Winter, Broccoli can adapt to very cold temps. In the Fall, they may even make another small head, or the shoots will make golf ball sized clusters. When the first freezing temps com, I cover all my plants with old white sheets or bed covers, cotton, so they can breath,NEVER plastic. I take it back off when the days are warmer. It's a chore, but rewarding!
My third year plant has seen temps as low as 13-15 degrees at night, several times each year, and one week of temps never getting out of the thirties! But our winter daytime temps usually climb into the forties!
(My last years broccoli was severely damaged by Rabbits. They can squeeze inside a 2X4 inch mesh fence!)

To the last poster who lets them go to seed, perhaps you should "Harvest" the main head, then let some of the new stalks that form make seed heads, while YOU eat the flowers & broccolini shoots of others? The longer you let it grow, the more it will make, feeding you and the birds for a longer time!

Boboe
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Location: Destin, FL ; Zone 8b

I'm not a broccoli pro, but I've grown De Cicco broccoli in my garden for the last two or three years in the Florida panhandle. I've seen most of the things that yearroundgardener said above. Last year I broke off heads that went to flower and threw them away. This year I decided to try eating one of the flowers and was happy to find it to be very sweet. Now when my broccolini (secondary heads) flowers, I'm excited to eat the flowers raw, then cook the rest of the head. I'm happy that broccoli is a plant that keeps on giving, and isn't susceptible to the ever-present root knot nematodes we have in our sand. (Note I don't say "sandy soil." It's straight sand here.)

You can mix broccoli greens in with your collard greens. They're so close in flavor you probably won't be able to tell the difference.



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