[Zone9b]

My results with the Castle Dome Broccoli are here:
Out of 30 plants, 3 plants produced failures, I weighed the majority of the heads and my estimate is that the average head weighed between 10 and 11 ounces. Taste, to me, was quite good. My observations led me to believe that the variety wouldn’t do any better than average under significant heat stress which is common here in Central Florida in early June, but of course I don’t know for sure. Taste seemed to be quite good. Color is an attractive kind of light lime green. The best advantage is that the variety appears to be extremely early. The variety is said to be 50 dtm but I first picked it in 37 days and picked the last at 46 days from transplant. The plants are noticeably smaller than Frontier and Premium Crop which are also in the same bed. Even at 8” inch spacing in the row the plants didn’t appear to be crowded. With this variety it appears that reducing spacing to 6” in the row would not have any substantial reduction in head size or quality but I haven’t tried it. Also, I didn’t have any plants with hollow stem, which seems to indicate that Boron levels are sufficient.
The first heads of Lieutenant variety will be ready to pick this week and Premium Crop is starting to head.
Bill, I will look into Maxibel beans and thanks for the tip.. I am currently growing one fillet bean called Crockett. It has dark green beans, tastes pretty good, has fairly good productivity and is very disease resistant.
Larry