- or 'Nine Star Perennial Broccoli?? Take your pick. Banned by the EEC? Seeds only now available again?
Whatever, it's an amazing beast! 'Up to' tennis ball heads but, at the moment, just like ginormous white sprouting. And 'crops for 2-3 years'. So what about rotation?
Thanks tim,that is the one growing on my allotment,who has also tennisball sized flowerheads at the moment.I didnot know what kind of variaty it was,but now i know,crops for two-three years wow almost trowed it on the bin.
What great value! Isn's sea kale another brassica that stays put for a few years? I shall have to get myself some seeds and give that broc a go.
MORE info...please. Where can I get seeds? Thanks.
Seakale - yes. We grew it to blanch. An interesting fiddle, but there were more woodlice than stems!!
CCA seeds? T&M or Victoriana Organic Nursery. If you do grow them, they grow to 40" each way & DO need staking. We didn't, & then we got those terrible gales. But then don't you always??
These look fantastic - I've never had any luck with sprouting broccoli or cauli, what with one thing and another and this looks like something I'd really appreciate.
I'll bet the local GC hasn't got them in though, so it'll be a mail order.
Thanks!
moonbells
Don't give in on sprouting - the shoots on the CCA haven't yet turned out to be so tender as sprouting. Surprise? No - they are there to produce mini-caulis.
Nine star perennial is also stocked by Kings, Suffolk Herbs and Seeds by Size - I don't think Brussels banned this one Tim!
phil
Interesting - the photo in the Vic catalogue is identical to the T&M one!
http://www.victoriana.ws/shop/vecaucnc.asp
I have now acquired some from the local GC - thanks for this tip! I shall see if this year my non-greenfingered husband can manage to remember to water my seedlings while I am away on work, unlike last year when I got back to find crispy leek, broccoli and most sadly, acer palmatum* (Oh, did you want me to water the pots outside as well as in? - ARGH!)
moonbells
*It's still alive, but has lost a lot of its spread. Hopefully with care it'll recover in time.
Current situation.
I've just seen the seeds in the organic gardening catalogue for £1.58 for 240 seeds - sound pretty good stuff to me. Is this the same one you eat the leaf of too ?
Why was it banned by the EU? There is usually a good reason - it's the things they don't ban you have to be worried about. :-\
Baggy - you eat the leaves of anything that looks nice! Even raw, as you'll see elsewhere!
BUT - I'm now thoroughly confused. A number of my CCA plants went to seed & I replaced them in the rows with Unwins White Sprouting. So, I'm now getting this:-
Victoriana reckon that only No1 is CCA. But it doesn't look convincingly like 9 Star & the formation of the others is
totally unlike the sprouting that I have ever grown.
I'm not complaining - we have the biggest crop ever of, apparently, 3-4 different things. Just totally confused!
Of course - the lesson is? - yes, LABEL things immediately, DON'T pretend that you can remember. And KEEP YOUR DIARY meticulously, with suppliers, varieties, dates, how grown, frosts etc.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/photo04/s1.jpg)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/photo04/s2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/photo04/s3.jpg)(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/photo04/s4.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/photo04/s5.jpg)
Hello Tim :)
I ate the first of my nine-star yesterday. More golf-ball than tennis, but loads of them with yet many more to come. Decided to treat them as sprouting broccoli and not go for the Wimbledon variety.
I've 5 plants which have now formed a sizeable hedge. What a winner!!
ALEEEESHKA - you've made my day - how appropriate at Easter!
Yes - steaming's best, I reckon. Could we see a photo??
I'm still confused as to which is which - if, in fact, it is!!
Quote from: tim on March 25, 2005, 16:47:51
Could we see a photo??
Sorry, Tim. Can't oblige. Whatever I've been up to these past few months, learning nifty tricks with cameras and PCs ain't been part of it. Now a
word picture I
can paint...bushes about 4'6" tall, wide as t..h..i..s, loaded with succulent shoots. And yes, great steamed. Then tossed in a wok with olive oil, garlic and shredded chillies? And eaten with lemon squeezed over.
Sheer heaven.
OK - do they look anything like any of mine??
Daren't let them grow anymore in case they get blousy & tough.
OK - this is more like it - the earlier ones must all have been 'sprouting'?
We just bought one this weekend from the Victoriana. I am going to plant it this weekend. They guy at the store said it needed about three feet square in room.
I think it will be a nice investment of 80p for about four years of cauli. Thanks for the photos so I know what to aim for. ;D
Ours were 46" tall & 40" wide.
DO stake it!! Firm, rich ground.
Tim,
Thank you for the tip. Will give it more room and stake it. Right now it is still very small. Probably will not see anything till late summer or fall....if then.
Now do you know why they are banned? I just like the idea of living on the edge of the EEC. ;D
No - under the name Nine Star Perennial, Dobies & T&M mention that there was a 'seed shortage'.
I think you have to wait till next Spring for your first crop.
Improving every day!
Tim, that looks wonderful!
Yes. Thought we were having it for lunch, till live-in veggie daughter, & next door veggie daughter decided that they would like it for theirs. So we're feeding the next door boys & ourselves on sprouting!! Oh, well - at least we have oxtail casserole!!
Managed to buy a pack so will be trying it out pretty soon. Thanks Tim for the tip - I did not know this stuff existed. (now I sound completely wet behind the ears)
Nor me, till last year!
I've got some seed I got in a swop on this forum ;D Can I sow it now or should I have sown it yonks ago?
It looks mouthwatering Tim. I am most envious. All being well though I should be mostly eating it next year :)
Don't know, but I would have thought that you could still sow?
At worst, get plants?
http://www.victoriana.ws/Product.asp?PID=475
any growing tips?
I have planted ten 9 star seed, in individual tiny pots in an unheated outhouse. They came up quikly and look strong and healthy. What happens now?
intrigued by the EEC ban business.
As said, I'm not expert in this.
Ours were planted out on 7 April 04. They crop 'April-May'.
So keep them well lit until they are 3-4" tall, and then get them in deep & firm - 3' apart.
If used as a perennial, what about rotation??