Purple Cape winter Cauliflower

[hiven]

Guys and girls,

I could not find much reference about this one (apart from the seed vendor), have you grow this one before ?

I am thinking of growing it, any experience to share about this beauty (good or bad) ?

Thanks in advanced .

[hiven]

No one here has grow this brassica before ? Oh well I should just go a head and get the seeds then or just forget about it ...

[PatrickW]

hiven: I grew something similar to this:

www.patnsteph.net/weblog/?p=30

I've never heard of Purple Cape winter Cauliflower, and I suspect it might be an F1 if you care.

It was really a great and dependable plant the first year, although it grew all summer, then all winter before giving heads in the spring.

The second time we tried it, the heads became infested with caterpillars that made it almost impossible to eat.

That first year we planted several different cauliflowers and broccolis, and this one really stood out as being a very reliable variety. We had four plants, that gave us four large perfect and delicious heads of purple cauliflower.

[hiven]

I also grow purple of Sicily this year, planted 20 purple sicily cauly seedlings in the ground around march ,but unfortunately I did not cover it immediately and the wood pigeon eat them alive and pulled out a lot of them, I now only have 4 or 5 plants, no longer a straight row , these devil birds are really so nasty!
Your Purple of Sicily looks great! I really want more colourful vegetables as they are said to be healthier (and prettier).

I read an article about purple cape broccoli (don't know if it is actually purple cape cauliflower), here it is:
westwashrest.blogspot.com/2007/04/out-there-gardening-april-6-13.html

If they are the same brassica, it is actually a very old heirloom and it can be grown as perennial brassica.
I saw this purple cape Cauliflower seeds offer in Van Der Wal, it did not state it as an F1 though and according to other seed vendor, they said this one is originated from South Africa (and still closely related to the wild brassica/untamed).

I got this itchy fingers seeing it's colour and hearing it's perennial potential .

[PatrickW]

Jun 14, 2009 3:25:36 GMT -5 hiven said:

I saw this purple cape Cauliflower seeds offer in Van Der Wal, it did not state it as an F1 though and according to other seed vendor, they said this one is originated from South Africa (and still closely related to the wild brassica/untamed).

Yes, but you can't tell if things are F1s this way. You only know if it's not an F1 and they explicitly tell you this. If something is just not labelled as an F1, it doesn't mean anything! Seed companies intentionally try to trick you in this way.

Holland doesn't have any seed companies with a policy of correctly labelling F1/OP varieties, and for that reason I buy almost all of my seeds from other places. For you a good place is de Nieuwe Tuin in Belgium, but otherwise the best place is probably companies like Baker Creek or others in the US that only sell OP varieties.

I like growing colored varieties too, for the same reasons.

[bunkie]

i see Territorial Seeds has the Purple Cape Cauliflower, and they list it as OP.

www.territorialseed.com/product/8872/319

[hiven]

Thanks for confirming it ,Bunkie.

Patrick, I really don't mind even if it is an F1 as I don't plan to save seeds, it is the perennial potential that I wish to know (plus it's purple colour is the great bonus).
If it don't have a perennial trait, I will just stick to my Purple of Sicily cauliflower (from Baker creek).

Brassicas family (except heading cabbage and brussel sprouts) are my favorite vegetables ,but I only save seeds from the oriental type as they are smaller and early maturing. Broccolis, Cauliflowers ,(chinese) cabbages and giant mustards are not in my seeds saving list as it is easier to buy these seeds plus each pack has plenty of seeds which last very long.

Any one with first hand experience with purple cape, please

[orflo]

Nevi,
I'm trying it out for the first time this year, I received seeds from Bretagne/Brittany, France, where it's grown on a (though very limited) larger scale. The French name is 'violet du cap', it's sown in June and harvest is , in Bretagne, in January. It would be great if we could harvest fresh broccoli during the winter months, in 2006 the 'green heading' broccolis survived over here without a problem and they produced lots of small side shoots during this extremely mild winter.
This 'violet du cap' variety is an open-pollinated variety, I read sources who claim the origin is Sicily, and others who mention South-Africa...

[PatrickW]

I tried the 'Purple of Sicily' two years. The first year it grow all summer, then all winter and formed the heads early spring. The second time I grew it the fall and early winter were unusually warm, and several of the plants headed prematurely. Like I mentioned before, these were full of caterpillars and so couldn't be eaten, but they also didn't form correctly. By the way, this was in Friesland, the northern most part of the Netherlands.

[hiven]

Thanks a million ,Frank, I think what you said more and less confirmed the "Purple Cape Broccoli" story which actually is the "Purple Cape Cauliflower" and has perennial potential... I just placed my order and the Pyrethrum flower too . Felt great, hope to sow it soon, it is after all still june .

Patrick, I am resowing more Purple of Sicily cauliflower as there are only 2 (still) looking good plants. I will protect them from the nasty wood pigeons this time by netting which also save them from the cabbage butterfly! There will be a 2 short rows of them .

[MikeM]

Jun 15, 2009 11:19:26 GMT -5 orflo said:

I read sources who claim the origin is Sicily, and others who mention South-Africa...

(Late to the party, as usual! )

I would tend to strongly doubt any South African origin. Not a single locally-common variety of any Brassica is purple. One or two red Cabbages, yes, but nothing purple.

Of course, this doesn't constitute "proof" since the purple Cauli may date back to the 17th century or something and has been hiding out in some remote mission village for the last few centuries, only to be rediscovered now... but it seems pretty unlikely. Local seed companies are enormously conservative in the range they offer, and most OP varieties on local offer are pretty old, dating back to the 19th or early 20th C. So if there were a really old Purple Cauliflower, it would quite likely be reasonably well-known in SA...

[hiven]

Thanks for your confirmation ,Mike . I read it stating 2 opinions too that they were from France and South Africa. I grow both purple of Sicily and Purple cape this year and they are not exactly the same, the laeves are different in certain extend , but can't compare the flower head yet as the Purple cape has not produce yet (planted on June).

[ottawagardener]

You've perked my ears up on the possible perennial nature. You know me, I love to hear about perennial brassicas. Sounds pretty too.

[hiven]

I also love perennial vegetables, Telsing . They save my time, no need to resow each year.
I will post it here if the purple Cape turn out to be perennial or just a biannual. In a way, having home grown cauliflower around winter is an excitement so even if it is not perennial I might still grow it .

Here are the Purple of Sicily cauly...
[a href=""][/a]

[ottawagardener]

Cauliflower is so beautiful looking. Next year (hopefully), I"m going to be trialing some more brassicas out in the open to see how hardy they are. I have fairly good luck with coldframed ones down to about mid-Janurary. January - February here is concrete ground and razor blade air season so only the very cold tolerant survive in the coldframe. Of course, plants that can handle dormancy under snow cover do alright as well.