BROCCOLI for 2010 - Whose in?

My DH is a builder/concrete man, so everything has to be perfect and just so you know.

It still looks neat!

My DH is an engineer. Same principle--all must be straight and linear! =+)

Gymgirl, I took apart an old vertical blind and used the slats one year. Changing out that old decor is the mother of invention!

I've been growing DiCicco the last couple of years and am looking for a variety producing a large head with minimal side shoots. I've always started DiCicco inside in early March with planting a month later or so, depending on when the soil can be worked. Several of the varieties I'm looking call for harvesting late summer & fall. If broccoli is a cool season plant, and you live in a colder zone (5 or lower), when do you start & plant broccoli for late summer & fall harvest. Also, which varieties do you use for minimal side shoots?

Thanks a bunch in advance! :-)

I am guessing starting in May early June for your zone. I start my fall crop no sooner than July 15th and this year I was late and started August 20th and picked a huge harvest the week before Christmas. I still had some growing nicely but then we got into the cold spell and I think the plants have bit the dust. I don't grow Spring brocc any more due to bugs, I have much more success with Fall crops.

We plant broccoli out as soon as possible. Start indoors about March 15. Into the field 4 to 6 weeks later.
We use Gypsy here. Huge heads early in the summer. It will then put out side shoots until freeze up, so no need to plant a second crop. The side shoots can get as big as some of the main heads on other varieties. Lots of times we have first head & side shoots on the table side by side. Customers prefer the side shoots. Better flavor most say.
Bernie

Early Dividend is my favorite for good head size.
It also produces many side shoots in my climate...

Kelly,
When do you start your broccoli for the fall plantout? Seedlings or direct sow?

Both - lol... I prefer to direct seed but like to have TPs as back up as well as to help in succession planting. That way I have stuff ready to harvest at various times.

I am growing Early Dividend, Di Cicco and Calabrese. ED is my favorite.

I started some inside beginning of September and set them out October 4th. I also direct seeded some on October 4th. I have set out TPs since that as well, probably through mid December. Any later they probably won't have time to mature before the heat hits, though it's always nice to take a chance. My friend set out some more this past weekend.

I have several that should hopefully be ready to harvest in the next couple of weeks...

what's a TP?

sorry - transplant - lol...

My broccoli has been frozen in the ground for several days. I'm waiting for a thaw to see if it's still edible.

It will most likely be bitter. Experience!

My cole crops have been having a Toga party under their sheets. They've been covered over with sheets since last Friday, a week ago. I had also thrown a plastic tarp over the sheets when the temps went below 20. Then I read about daytime heat buildup under the tarp doing potentially more damage, so I pulled the tarp off two days ago.

I peeked yesterday, and those cabbages have grown by a full 1/3! I had just fed them some of Bocabob's fert and Epsom Salts on Friday, January 9th.

Yep. TO-GUH! TO-GUH! TO-GUH! I'll uncover them all tomorrow morning. We have one more night of chill.

Thanks, CountryGardens - I will try one head before I blanch the entire row of broccoli. If it's too bitter, I'll toss them into the compost pile.

Most likely we will eat them anyway, I don't mind them a "little" bitter, and my hubby will eat anything! :)

Honey,
Add a little sugar to the water. It'll cut out any bitterness!

Yup - Linda is right.

You can always cover it with cheese too - cheese makes everything taste good - lol...

I love the Christmas commercial where the little girl with the room full 'a toys says, "I didn't leave him cookies -- I left him CHEESE!"

Great suggestions - for some reason I never think of melting cheese over veggies - I should start a new "habit"

Cheese fixes everything! Try velveeta!

Your Velveta is made only 25 miles from me. A little town called New Ulm. They also have a huge butter plant in that town. A few years ago the butter plant caught fire in the winter. Liquid butter was running down the streets. So cold it didn't get far b& it was froze. Big mess I remember.
Broccoli & cheese, yummy.
Deep fried cauliflower to dip in cheese sauce is my favorite appetizer when we go out to eat.

Deep fried cauliflower and deep fried zukes are fit for the gods with or without cheese. I can hardly keep cheese in the house, especially when family is here.

I got desperate once when I was out of velveta and happend to have cheese whiz in a can.. mmmmmm that was good on the asparagus!

My hubby doesn't think Velveeta is "real cheese" even though it says so right on the label :)

I've never tried deep fried veggies - I LOVE stir-fried vegetables!

Hmmm.... I'm thinking... I have Velveeta in the fridge and home-grown broccoli in the freezer (plus some poor frozen broccoli in the garden) - think I'll try some when I get home later.

Melts a wee bit better with it cubed or sliced and with some milk!

My Belstar broccoli is just now ready. Wow, those heads are beautiful.
I like broccoli steamed and served with butter. No cheese for me.

Spring is slowly waking up here in Charlotte (zone 7) - the cold weather really took a toll on the broccoli, but I left them in place so the roots would hold the soil in place - I don't want all that good coconut coir washing down into my neigbor's yard.

Saturday, I pulled all the stalks and pulled leaves over the row. This area is not "raised beds." My sweet pepper seeds have been sown indoors under lights, they will take the place of the broccoli next month.

I dont thing Im gonna try this by seed...

Now I can only dream of fall when I can plant more broccoli...

LOL! Dang spell checker! Well... Im having issues on germinating anything lately.

Blossom mix up 1/4 cup hydrogen peroxide in a gallon of water. Put your seeds in some kind of little container and add enough peroxide water to cover them by 1/4". Tomorrow you will see their little white roots poking out. Wet some potting soil or whatever with the peroxide water, scatter your seeds, cover very lightly and in a couple days you'll have broccoli plants. Add a little food of some sort to the jug of water and use it for all your watering until you take them outside. It's fun and very simple. You can't over water and there won't be any damping off. Just try it with a few seeds to see how you like it.

A little hp huh?!

Here's how I grow broccoli from seed.

Scatter organic fertilizer over the area, and use a trowel to mix with soil. Water the area. Make shallow furrows, sprinkle in seed, cover furrows, cover bed with row cover, keep soil damp. When true leaves appear, uncover bed and keep soil damp. When four (or more) true leaves appear, transplant to permenant position.

Dig a hole with trowel, add organic fertlizer to hole, mix fertilizer with soil, put some of the excavated soil back into hole, add transplant.

Once transplants are well-established add mulch/compost.

Fertilize as needed.

It really is that easy to grow broccoli from seed. If you don't have row covers, the birds are likely to eat the seeds :(

HoneybeeNC,
What type of broccoli are you growing, and what's the DTM?

Reason I'm asking is because I have some Silver Cup broccoli seedlings I WSed in January, and am wondering if it's worth it to put them into one of my eBuckets, since we're moving into the summer heat in about 8 weeks (June). I don't think they'll survive our Texas summer...

Although, I did plant my very first cabbages in May '08 (cause I didn't know any better...), nursed them through the summer, fall, & winter, and harvested two HUGE cabbages, 9 months later in February' 09.....

lol - that picture of you and the super cabbage cracks me up everytime I see it!

Girl Thas' my baby! Nine months of labor to delivery!