Trying this variety by WGS again this year. First time I grew it over spring/summer and got a crop, but not great, so I'm unsure of whether it is most suitable for harvest late summer/autumn or should be overwintered for spring cropping, like many purple sprouting broccoli.
Also curious about its parentage; said to be calabrese and two kales. Its foliage looks a lot like Russian kale, so does it have that in its pedigree? It's B. napus?
Cheers. :)
I grew it one year and had similar results. One plant did manage to survive a winter and produce a small but reasonable crop of broccoli in the spring. I keep meaning to plant it in midsummer to hopefully overwinter again and every summer I am busy and forget. Damn it. This year for sure.
We grow this variety started mid March and put out around a month later. We get the biggest harvest early, starting earlly to mid June but it keeps going until the end of September or early October, depending on the year. The initial head is only 4-6". Subsequent harvests are side shoots. The plant is beautiful and completely edible but we don't pick much foliage so the plants will keep producing shoots. But it does self seed a bit here in SE Minnesota and those plants are sacrificed to the table when weeded out. I'm wondering if this variety has some resistance to Black Rot as last year it was in a bed right next to Mammoth Red Rock cabbage which was entirely infected and taken down with the disease. The Purple Peacock kept on until frost and we harvested seed. I'm wondering if the seed treatment might be needed before planting?
What sort of seed treatment are you referring to?
I wonder if it's best grown mainly for its leaves, à la spigariello.
Hot Water Treatment - 122*F for 25-35 mins. for broccoli & cabbage, 15-20 mins. for kale, turnips, kohlrabi, and 15 mins. for mustard & radish.
Leaves are rather lacey and more sparse than siberian kales grown at the same time.
Seems like I will have to try this now... Experimental Farm Network is selling it as well. A Bakercreek review mentions that the broccoli and kale leaves were both good.
Another exciting variety bred by Frank Morton and the team at Wild Garden Seeds, this gorgeous broccoli has become very popular in the organic seed trade in recent years. If you've ever tried and failed to grow
broccoli, it's well worth giving this one a try — with its heavy dose of kale genetics, it is really a different beast altogether.
Here's what Frank has to say about it: "Our contribution to ongoing broccoli evolution; green beads [buds], sweet purple stems, toothy red-veined leaves that will make you think it's 'Red Russian' kale. Young leaves
are salad-rate, and mature leaves are as sweet as any lightly steamed kale. Floret stems erupt first as loose heads of broccoli, followed by prodigious side shoots. These are sweet and non-biting as raw "dippers" and
salad additions. This "eat everything brockali" comes from crosses between 'Green Goliath' broccoli and two kales."
EFN lists it as "Brassica oleracea". Probably wouldn't hurt to attempt crosses with some napus types considering the parentage.
The leaves resemble Red Ursa Kale a bit. Its a mix of two kales and broccoli, so its hard to say.
Might be fun to grow near Bear Necessities kale "Russian and Siberian kales (B. napus) crossed with mizuna (B. rapa)" Other kale interspecific crosses might work if you don't want the frilly leaves. Different tastes / disease resistances can be found in different Brassica species. I wonder if a spicy broccoli would taste good?
Some brassicas appear to have larger flowers / buds, so that could be fun to work with for a broccoli.