Purple sprouting broccoli · Xiangyang, Hubei, China
When to plant purple sprouting broccoli in Xiangyang
Main outdoor window
15 May - 12 Jun
The window this page is built around.
Timed from last spring frost
6 March
In Xiangyang, on your chosen risk.
Ready to pick
1 Feb - 30 Apr
If you plant at the start of the window.
The average last frost. Half of all years are later than this.
Step by step in Xiangyang
Each window is a range, not a single day. Earlier in the range buys you a longer season; later in it buys you a safer one.
Sow direct
15 May - 12 Jun
Ten weeks after your last frost.
Harvest
1 Feb - 30 Apr
Purple sprouting broccoli through the year
Against the frost risk in Xiangyang
Why these dates
Sow around ten weeks after the last spring frost, plant out into firm ground, and leave it standing all winter. Spears come in late winter and early spring, months after sowing.
Hardy to roughly -12C and needs a cold period to initiate spears at all, so a mild winter can leave the plant leafy and unproductive.
Seed packets and extension guides express timing as weeks either side of the last spring frost, because that is the only reference point that travels. Purple sprouting broccoli are timed for direct sowing 10 weeks after it, and this page simply resolves those offsets against the frost date computed for Xiangyang.
The median frost-free season here is 266 days, against 220 to 300 days to maturity for this crop counted from sowing. That margin is what decides whether a late sowing is worth attempting.
Also in Xiangyang
Other vegetables to time
Growing purple sprouting broccoli in Xiangyang
When should I plant purple sprouting broccoli in Xiangyang?
Aim for 15 May - 12 Jun in an average year. If you would rather not gamble on the weather, wait until 30 May - 27 Jun - by then frost has finished in nine years out of ten.
When will purple sprouting broccoli be ready to harvest in Xiangyang?
Expect to start picking around 1 Feb - 30 Apr, based on 220 to 300 days to maturity from the planting date calculated for this location.
How much frost will purple sprouting broccoli tolerate?
Hardy to roughly -12C and needs a cold period to initiate spears at all, so a mild winter can leave the plant leafy and unproductive.