2025 Sprouting Broccoli Grex Part 2!
Seed has been acquired and ready for planting in a couple months here in AMERY,WI! With nearly 45 varieties and strains, this promises to be a large crossing event again this year. As with last year, we’ll see what b. olerecea var. italica from GRIN decide to spring sprout, one of our essential selection criteria. There will also be a additions of Gai Lan strains to the mix adding their unique sprouting tendancies!
This is very exciting. I’d love to try something like this during our winter dry season here in he Hawaiian Islands. Will be following your work starting with your germinations! Do you have a few winners from previous years that you have grown out a few times?
This is my dream! The shoots are much better than the broccoli head itself… I’m doing selection for the same thing, but I certainly don’t have 45 varieties in the mix. 
THis will be our year 2 for this project. Last year my full intention was observation and seedsaving from most of them, trying to capture all the varieties with their crosses.
This year, I’ll plant out Year1 and mark a favorite or two to collect aside. At least I’ll know the mother then.
Would love to save year 2 seed for ya! What’s your growing season dates by chance? from seeding to finished seed? Would be fun to have a nursery somewhere! 
Where I live you can grow brassicas any time of the year, but the most common schedule here is planting in July and beginning harvesting come fall.
I don’t have a consistent enough schedule to tell you my dates even. I plant some brassicas in spring, some in summer, some in fall, and some in winter. 
I have best results planting in fall though, around September and start harvesting in November. I’m in Zone 9B. Our soil usually doesn’t freeze.
The problem saving seed from this type of shoot brassica is that when you let it set seed, the shoots stop! I tend to keep harvesting shoots for months and delaying the seeds..
That makes total sense. Here in Hawaii, our best Brassica season for me, starts in November and goes until the rains begin which is always by May 1 sometimes sooner. We have been getting around 90" of rain in the late spring summer, early fall and the brassicas really don’t like all those downpours. In the summer I grow corn, beans, and squash, that seem to not mind the deluge! Yes that would be fun to try some of these crosses here, especially ones that have some warm weather genetics in them. I’ll make a short list of the well known varieties that have done alright here in the past and send it to you. The variety that does the best for me is one from Brazil called Piracicaba. Very hardy and long lasting side shoots which I adore! Mahalo!
I’m looking for things to grow over winter. I’m in zone 8a/b, our soil doesn’t freeze over winter, though we sometimes drop into the 10s over night once or twice over a winter. Two winters ago, from a neighbor’s seed, we had broccoli growing, but it didn’t do much, esp as it was our first year growing anything in those beds. I’d love to try out whatever you’ve got to share!
Very cool. This spring we distributed 25 GtS broccoli seed kits in our community (Oshkosh). Really pleased to see people enthusiastically pick up these seeds. Thank you!
