I have been gardening for years, I live along the ct. shoreline listed as zone 6 but the long island sound keeps us cooler longer in the winter and warmer longer in the fall - maybe a zone 5. Either way most everything grows well and I harvest 8-9 times throughout the year using a home built pvc and plastic 7' tall unheated greenhouse. I've tried broccoli all different times, all different locations but just can't get it quite right. I almost always end up with a quick bolt, cutting it, than eating side shoots. Cabbage doesn't like to ball up nice for me either. Root crops are my best and I generally try to grow the broccoli in the same bed. The soil is clay and 2-3" spring homemade compost tilled in every year.
I lost track along the way of what works better and worse, but I can not remember ever having good harvest of full heads. Right now, corn is about to start heading to my grill and the plants coming out to the compost pile. It is my sunniest spot and my spring broccoli just finished giving me it's side shoots.
I am looking for a run down of how I can get the broccoli timed to plant this fall as the corn comes out I will cover the field with the greenhouse plastic in oct. Giving me almost everything (To date - never a functional broccoli) - sometime even tomatoes at thanksgiving
-joe-
ongoing broccoli woes
joe - from what I have read, inconsistant watering will cause broccoli to bolt.
When I lived in South Florida, I had access to horse manure - and the first year I was here in NC someone gave me a sack of well-aged horse manure.
I never had problems growing broccoli when using h-manure, but my friend's horse died, so I do not have access to h-manure now. Last year for the first time my broccoli bolted!
So... "Follow that horse!"
so see a man about a horse..
I imagine it will bolt, stopping the irrigation on the tomatoes gets the fruit popping. I was thinking a more nutrient poor environment but if manure works... We do have a crazy rain cycle in new england. The only way I can figure.. without a horse, would be to keep it covered longer and sooner and irrigate it....
I will try a manure spot without changing anything else, would you believe of all the things we grow - my wife loves brocolli the most.
-joe-
When your broccoli plants are growing, while they're still babies before you put them in the garden, do they get stressed? If the starts get root bound or dry out sometimes the plants will bolt.
I never really pay much attention to them until they get a few weeks under their belt. Stress is possible with to much rain perhaps, I had planted them throughout the garden this year to find an optimum spot. I grow just about everything. all my brocolli bolted and the only others that are not so well but growing are cabbage, celery and asparagus. Everything else is having an exceptional year,. That is the most concerning. When do they begin the bolting process as far as their life cycle?. I ignore tomatoes until the first blossoms drop off. I ignore corn until the silks form. I ignore lettuce after the first heads are ready.... should not be watering after the heads start to show? i generally start getting them their inch/week then.
I know it's not complicated but I am frustrated and feel over the years of failing it it's time to see how others are growing it. They are tall and beautiful with many side shoots after the bolt and therefore semi- productive. I have been using pac man as I understand it is very hardy.
Packman has a lot of faults but buttoning is not one of them. Bolting is a poor choice of words, because the seed heads before the flowers open is the part of broccoli we most value. Broccoli will "button "( form seedheads before the plant is large enough to support them when stressed at an early age) Anything which stalls or halts it growth cycle at this point, lots of times seedling get rootbound before transplanting and never recover. Sometimes a freeze after transplanting will cause the plant to slow down or stop growing.
If your problem is small heads ( fist size or larger) it is probably lot of nutrients. Broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower are heavy feeders which use more nitrogen than anything but corn. You may want to try Early Dividend which for me performs better in spring plantings than Packman or Blue Wind.
I'm not sure I understand your situation. What happens when your broccoli bolts? If it is flowering, isn't it forming heads first?
Is it "buttoning"?
I winter sow them in early march and they start appearing in april. sometime in june at around 12" tall a head starts to form and just keeps growing straight to a tall, loose flowering stalk with no defined head. I cut them all off and through july I have been eating all the small baseball to golf ball size heads that form along the sides of the stalk. I received the seeds three years back in a 1 lb. paper bag from a farm. while in the Carolinas not too many are germinating anymore. is it possible they really aren't pac-man or the farmer is getting rid of a bad set of seeds? I will be putting in fall Broccoli in a few weeks. Will early dividend or blue wind take the late august humidity? or is there separate varieties that will be best for fall and for spring in the north east.
thank you very much for your help with this., I am starting to think I have the wrong variety for the area. and I will get some fertilizer down in case the compost is eating it all up.
-joe-
I would also get some true seeds ( Packman is a hybrid) you probably got someones saved seeds that could be crosspollinated. I would further try some using conventional methods. ( start seedlings in cold frame or indoors and transplant into the growing area about one month before your last frost date.) Direct seeded broccoli is a hard row to hoe.
, I will also plant later. the nights are in the upper 40's and low 50's until June. I was thinking trying green comet, blue wind F! and an early dividend. Are broccoli better off cross pollinating like blueberries ? ( I usually only have 1 variety growing at a time - close to 30 plants).
I can not tell you how exciting it would be if I could outsmart a broccoli! .. hmmm
I don't think that came out right.
-joe-
I set out transplants at 24 days from seed sowing. I don't let them get too dry or crowded. I feed the little seedlings on the picnic table. I water WELL in the garden. I set them about 26 inches apart.
I start seedlings here about March 21st for mid April set-out. Fall broccoli I start in 2 bunches so there isn't as much maturing the central head all at once. Besides, I plant several varieties to both spread out maturity and trial for favorite varieties. I start fall broccoli on June 16th and July 2nd. The last ones are ready to set out anytime now. I believe that it is very important to set them out while rather small.
Don't worry about cross pollinating broccoli. Unless you have some rare antique and want to save seeds. You eat the seedheads before they bloom. The only reason to plant different cultivars is (1) you want to trial different cultivars or (2) for spring planted broccoli you wish to extend the harvest by planting cultivars with different days to maturity. Just relax, if the soil is loose and has the proper nutrients, set good growing transplants, kep weeds and cabbage worms off them and let them do thier thing. Too many folks are building mountains out of molehills. Keep it simple, vegetable gardening is not rocket science.
Green Comet is a good broccoli from Sakata. The newer version is Southern Comet.
That is good info. They seem to like their water more than I thought. I think I am setting out too early in the spring and too late in the fall.
This looks promising.
thanks
-joe-
I grew broccoli from transplants last fall. Planted out waaaaaaaaay late for my Zone 9a, the week of Thanksgiving break. I grew mine in 5-gallon buckets, and got two large heads that I was so fascinated watching grow, I forgot to pick and eat one of 'em before it went to a large yellow blossoming thingy, which Farmerdill asked why I was keeping cause it was probably a hybrid that would'nt produce true from any seeds I got. The one I DID eat was delicious. Comet, as I remember...
But they were lovely broccoli....and, yes, definitely WATER HOGS! Did NOT like to dry out, at all, so I kept them moderately moist between waterings.
Linda
The broccoli I grew was "Bonanza" from Burpee
http://www.burpee.com/product/vegetables/broccoli/broccoli+bonanza+hybrid+-+1+pkt.+%28200+seeds%29.do?search=basic&keyword=broccoli&sortby=newArrivals&page=1
You can read my review at this link, too.
I sowed the leftover 2008 seeds a couple of weeks ago and they look ready to have the row cover removed this weekend. As soon as they have 2 - 4 "true" leaves, I plan to transplant them where the beans have been.
I will add them to my list to start for fall. I did try them this year, but I think they were direct sowed and the weather was bizarre. no sun and rain almost every day for 25 days in june.
thanks
-joe-
Bonanza is not one of my favorites, but it does reasonably well, especially as a fall planting.
