I’ve planted ‘Lieutenant’ for three seasons running. I have NEVER grown a better broccoli in all my years of gardening!
It is a ‘Farm Fresh Select’ brand and I buy started plants (6 packs) at Walmart. I’ve let it go all summer long, and it doesn’t bolt in the heat - and these plants are in FULL SUN all day long. It puts out tons of smaller heads (which actually get to be a good size) into the fall if kept well watered.
And, yes. Composted manure really makes a difference, too.
I had some really old calabrese seeds and they all sprouted. The Bonnie truck has only come once to our town. No shishitos yet and they are usually on the first big drop. All of my seeds sprouted except those pesky Shishito’s. And the seeds were from mature red fruit.