Description
Purple Sprouting Broccoli (or PSB, in farmer lingo) has been gaining popularity in years among Pacific NW farmers and chefs, and for good reason. It is a rare and delicious marketable crop during March-May, when few other vegetables are able to produce food. Red Arrow produces loads of bright purple florets that keep on coming for weeks on end. The plants are incredibly cold hardy, even for PSB standards, and easily survived our two-week Snow-pocalypse of Feb 2019. Sow seeds in mid-late summer for harvest the following March. It’s worth the wait!!! This variety was recommend to us by Adaptive Seeds, who trialed several OPs and Hybrids before settling on Red Arrow. They originally sourced this strain in England, where PSB originated as a specialty crop. Recipient of the United Kingdom’s Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit.
Days to Maturity: 220
Latin name: Brassica oleracea
Life cycle for Seed Saving: Biennial
Planting Instructions: Direct seed or transplant Purple Sprouting Broccoli mid-late summer for harvest the following March-April. Smaller plants going into winter are more cold hardy but will yield less in the spring. Optimal soil temp for germination is 65-75°. Seeding depth: 1⁄4”. Transplant or thin to 18-24”. Row spacing: 24″
All of our seed is Non-GMO and Certified Organic by Washington State Department of Agriculture. We grow the majority of our varieties here at Deep Harvest Farm on Whidbey Island while we purchase the rest from other small, organic Northwest seed growers. Finally, all of our offerings are open-pollinated (OP) so that you too can save and share seed from these plants!
