Beautiful Broccoli

Like all cole crops, broccoli is a heavy feeder so nutritious soil, especially nitrogen, is necessary for success. Every autumn I make sure to plant a nitrogen rich cover crop (I use hairy vetch) in the beds I plan on growing broccoli the following year. Then as soon as the ground can be worked in spring I turn the hairy vetch into the soil along with some compost. That would probably be enough but to make sure I add some organic fertilizer around the base of the plants when I put them into the ground. In 6 to 8 weeks after planting you should end up with this.

Staggering your crop is key to gardening. You don’t want more broccoli than you can eat at one time. But if you are a big fan, subsequent harvests that keep you in your favorite vegetables for a good part of the summer can be very rewarding. Here you can see a smaller plant for later harvest.

And even smaller ones for even later harvest.

With broccoli, not only can you put in multiple crops to extend your season, but by giving the plants a little extra fertilizer after the main shoot is harvested you can encourage an abundance of side shoots to produce for weeks. Here is a plant where the main shoot that was already harvested and you can already see the side shoots coming in.

So to give you an idea, I plant 4 or 5 plants in my basement under lights about two months before I plan on putting them in the ground. Four weeks later I repeat that with another 4 or 5 plants. Once those plants are in the garden and looking good, I plant some seeds directly into the garden and transplant the strongest to their permanent location after about 4 or 5 weeks. This is to keep a family of three going in broccoli for a good part of the summer.

The big problem for me (once again) is the dreaded cabbage looper. It is not hard to keep them under control in the beginning of the season by keeping an eye on the plants and picking them off as you see them. But as the summer wears on the worms get worse and worse and the plants get bigger and bigger. And the broccoli heads give them ideal hiding places.

I spray with a product called Bull’s-Eye. The active ingredient in the product is Spinosad. Spinosad is a new class of insecticide that is made up of naturally occurring metabolites from the bacterium S. spinose and does not significantly impact predatory beneficial insects. You could also try row covers but that presents challenges with rain, wind and watering. I also had tiny white flies or mites late in the summer last year infest them badly. That’s when you know it’s time to pull the plants and move on.

Please upvote, resteem, and comment. I’d like to hear your experiences growing broccoli. Thanks for reading.