Give Up on the Broccoli?

Critters (cucumber beetles, methinks — longish pale orange/yellow beetles with black stripes) have taken a fondness for my broccoli, rather, for my broccoli leaves. Moreover, I haven't seen any sign of flowering. We had a long hot spell here in during June, so I was wondering if that caused them to skip flowing and proceed to bolting. I planted them 29 May (got a late start and it's my first garden), so they're not supposed to mature until the end of July. So, should I just pull them up and put in something else that I can harvest before the first frost in mid-September?

Here's one of the beetles. I haven't seen hordes of them, but from the looks of my broccoli, there must be more than a few…

Eew! Please tell me this isn't beetle poop!

Flowering and bolting are the same thing on broccoli. It is grown for its flower heads, but is harvested before the buds open. Looks like the striped cucumber beetle. Usually prefer other crops to broccoli, they must be hungry. Easy to control unless you are truly organic. Modern organic folks have approved the botanical poison Pyrethrin so that is a possibilty depending on how pure you want to be. Broccoli does not like hot weather, but it should grow during the summer in parts of Pennsylvania. If your broccoli is not full of yellow flowers there is still a chance.

That last picture looks like cabbage worm excrement. Those are the major pests on Broccoli and family. Bt does the trick.

This message was edited Jul 8, 2006 7:15 PM

Thank you, Farmerdill. I followed your advice and delayed their date with the compost pile. I'm glad I did so because a few days ago I saw that three of my four broccoli plants had flowered. See below for a representative picture.

good job; If you keep the worms off, you should continue to have side shoots after you cut the main head.