In the autumn of 2019, we ran an open pollinated broccoli trial - comparing 6 varieties. Our trials always evaluate similar traits – flavour, usability, interest – from the viewpoint of the cook and eater – And vigour, uniformity, adaptability, disease resilience and yield in the field. We find that trialing is a great way to gather information about each variety as comparison can offer a perspective that may not be observed in isolation.

Broccoli is an incredibly popular crop. For us as CSA weekly box growers, it fell into the “side dish” category – easy to prepare, tasty alone and readily known. The nutritional benefits of broccoli and its anticancer properties have become common knowledge. And because of its 52 weeks in a year availability in grocery stores in Victoria, one would not know that its origin, in the Mediterranean, was as a cool season crop. The economic viability of the crop has seen many breeding programs invest time and resources into cultivars that are more consistent in hotter, more tropical climates.

On our small scale farm servicing a weekly box system, we searched for reliability and multi cut broccoli varieties. While the huge central heads of some of the F1 cultivars were always enjoyed, we quickly discovered that providing the amount of broccoli our customers desired while honouring the yearly crop rotations our farm needed would require more acreage. Varieties that offered a central head and side shoots that could be bunched offered a good balance.

We were also on the hunt for a broccoli that would not become “stressed” in an unseasonably hot spring or autumn. In the seven years leading up to this trial, we had had spring weather that was well above 27C and autumns that seemed more like late summer. We had varieties prematurely head, not head at all and turn overly bitter with climate stress. We were reading scientific studies trialing varieties in more hot and humid climates and wanted to see what was out there.

And although our trial included a few of our favourite F1 broccoli varieties, we were hunting for open pollinated varieties so that we could produce our own seed, easing our reliance on importing seed, move away from our dependence on varieties controlled by the largest seed monopolies on the planet and have seed that was locally adapted, grown using organic and biodynamic management and untreated.

One variety shone in the autumn trial and then again in a spring trial – Piracicaba. Piracicaba produces a high yield of very tasty, succulent, sweet stems with small, large beaded, heads. Whereas many of the bread plate size heads of the F1’s were all florets, Piracicaba is more like a broccolini, a bunching broccoli, that was early to mature with a long harvest window.

The flavour and usability of the variety was a standout. The stems are juicy and sweet without any bitterness - great raw, steamed, sauteed and grilled – with minimal preparation. While there were two other OP broccolis with great favour, as we can only grow one Brassica oleracea crop each season as a seed crop (and this family includes broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, and more) , what really took Piracicaba into seed production was its heat tolerance in the trial the following spring.

We had four plantings sown in July, August, September and October. The September crop was transplanted in October in unseasonably warm temperatures. Although November cooled slightly, this stressed many of the varieties that showed great merit in other planting windows. They either did not form heads, succumbed to pests with the stress or were incredibly bitter. Piracicaba continued to thrive, not at all impacted by the unseasonable warm period.

With all but one of the F1’s we used, side shoot production was minimal enough to not warrant walking through the crop after harvesting the main head. While we did produce large heads, because of the supermarket price of these heads per kilo, they did not yield a high value crop for the amount of space they occupied. Bunching side shoots, while more labour intensive, offered us more value per square metre.

Piracicaba was well worth a bi-weekly walk through. With its heavy yield and long harvest window, the production warranted the harvest time. Removing the central head early provided a steady harvest. Each planting was still producing 6 weeks after the first harvest, although the highest yield was in the first 3 weeks, showing its great merit in the home garden space. If your space is limited, Piracicaba will offer a steady harvest for weeks!

‘Piracicaba’ won our open pollinated broccoli trial with its succulent, juicy, sweet side shoots - great raw, steamed, sautéed and grilled - seemingly endless production and heat tolerance. A truly unique variety, it was developed at Brazil’s oldest agricultural university and named after the Brazilian city and river.

Since offering the Certified Organic and Certified Demeter Biodynamic seed in 2022, we continually receive feedback like this:

“We love Broccoli Piracicaba because it is a precocious and generous plant that produces multitudes of delicious plump sprouts. It has a wide growing period too. Perfect for the home gardener or commercial grower as it keeps producing over many weeks. The leaves are delicious too as an added bonus!”

Oliver Shorthouse
Ramarro Farm

“I absolutely love the Piracicaba broccoli! It was such a healthy crop with the most amazing form and flavour”

Chloe Fox
Somerset Heritage Produce

SAVE YOUR OWN SEED

Brassica crops have perfect, self-pollinating flowers (containing both male and female parts) but easily cross-pollinate with other Brassicas. If saving seed, different varieties of Brassicas must be separated by a distance of 225-800 meters to avoid cross-pollination. With five plants you can produce your own seed^! We use larger population sizes to ensure a rich genetic diversity which we hope will see this variety thrive longer than our time stewarding it.