Broccoli Roses and Shallots

 Flowering broccoli late or early?

I’m a bit confused about broccoli. I know there are varying types that produce flower heads in summer, autumn and spring. It’s just that this year I’ve got things completely wrong. 

I bought a purple sprouting type that I thought would give us a nice crop in early spring. It turns out these are a summer cropper. The ones I wanted were an “Early” variety. It turns out that early ones are the type that produce early next year, not early from the time they are sown. 

I’ve confused myself again (and probably you) but it gets even more confusing when you take bolting into consideration regardless of the flowering type. You can have early varieties that produce at this time of year because the soil is too hot and the plant gets stressed. 

The sunshine isn’t the issue it’s the hot soil that makes the plant think there’s no point in growing anymore and needs to throw out some seeds. I think if I mulched the base of the plants to keep the soil cool and kept them better watered in the dry spell I wouldn’t be adding the florets to every meal now trying to use them up. 

An excellent way to prevent broccoli flowers is to harvest early and frequently. Broccoli is a cut and come again vegetable, when you cut the main head, other smaller heads will grow. The side heads will take a little longer to bolt so I’ll be munching on them for a while yet if I’m lucky. 

Shallots

Talking of being confused. I have grown shallots for the first time this year and was a bit unsure when to harvest them. It turns out they are more or less treated the same way as onions. Shallots and onions are of the same family and share many characteristics. Shallot bulbs are smaller and, once grown, tend to have a milder flavour than onions. The main difference in the garden is that shallots form clumps of bulbs, whereas onions grow as individual bulbs. Regardless of this, they’re planted and grown in exactly the same way.  Onion and shallot sets are sold, like broccoli as spring or autumn planting varieties. 

I picked the green leaves to put in stir fries and curries earlier in the season until the leaves started to turn a bit yellow. I then pulled up the shallots and put them on a sunny shelf in the shed to dry off.

They came up really easily on a dry day and it was as though they were pushing themselves out of the ground. They should last for several months.

Black spot on Roses

I’ve had a few people tell me their roses have black spot this year. Black spot, curse of the rose garden, has been flourishing countrywide ever since sulphur pollution from smoky chimneys was reduced. The disease annually strips roses of their leaves. Spores from fallen leaves infect the soil and even if every infected leaf is picked off and burned, which is impossible, the cycle continues because more spores blow in on the wind.

Who would have thought that clean air would cause a problem in the garden?  One treatment seems to be to give the roses back their sulphur, which thankfully doesn’t mean introducing heavy industry into Inishowen as there are other ways to get sulphur to the plants.  Sulphur is not soluble, so you cannot spray it, and if you dump the stuff on the ground, it won’t break down. There is a soluble sulphur dioxide you can get and if you overlook the fact it is a by-product of the oil industry you can put the wettable mixture on your plant or add granules to the soil. This is said to actually prevent the black spot from forming compared to the commercial rose sprays, which aim to cure the problem only after it has arrived. You can live with the issue though, or like me, choose not to grow roses but appreciate them on other people’s gardens or parks.

Prevention

There are a few things you can do to minimise the issue without sulphur.

Mulching and keeping the plants healthy is the top of the list I think. Strong healthy plants will generally resist attack better those that are weak.  Regular raking around the plant with a hoe and good mulch will cover infected leaves if you can’t be bothered to lift and burn them.

Choose resistant varieties, but don't rely too heavily on resistance because there are many species of fungus and even new varieties can quickly succumb.