Organic Calabrese Green Sprouting

Calabrese: Green Sprouting
Latin name Brassica oleracea
Approximately 250-350 seeds per gram

People get confused over the names calabrese and broccoli. Calabrese is a broccoli which crops in Summer. Most varieties are bred to produce one, large main head.
This versatile vegetable is extremely good for us, nutritionally.
The bit we eat is the immature flower, tightly packed green buds on a tender stem. Once the main head is cut the plant will produce some smaller side shoots.
F1 varieties crop very quickly after transplanting, in as little as 70 days.
The open pollinated type of green sprouting give many smaller heads and crop over a longer period.

Green sprouting is a traditional open-pollinated calabrese which does not have the same large, central head of the F1 varieties but instead produces masses of smaller heads and side-shoots over a long cropping period. This type of calabrese has had a resurgence in popularity recently amongst both home gardeners and small professional growers who like the alternative to the ubiquitous large calabrese heads that are to be found in all supermarkets these days.

How to grow
Grow in the Brassica section of your rotation.
Sow the seeds in in the brassica seed bed in a drill about 2 cm deep. Do this between April and July. Succession plant if you have room, to get crops throughout the Summer and early Autumn. Thin the seedlings to 7 cm apart.
Transplant into their permanent position from May to August when about 10-15 cm tall. Set at a distance of 45 cms between plants.
Harvest when the central head is well formed, tight and green. Then cut the side shoots when ready.

Pests and diseases:
The seedlings can be susceptible to slug damage and older plants to damage by cabbage white butterfly caterpillars.
The best way to protect from this is to net with enviromesh during the Summer.
All brassica can suffer from cabbage root fly. The flies themselves are similar to a house fly and brown in colour. The female lays eggs
during the spring and summer near brassica plants. It is the resulting maggots that cause the damage by eating the roots and leading to severe wilting and sudden
collapse of brassica transplants. If you do have a problem with cabbage root fly in your area there is a neat organic prevention which involves putting a collar
round the seedling stem when transplanting. You can make your own using carpet underlay and reuse them or you can buy cabbage collars.