Who Wants to be a Broccoli Grower?

Friday, November 06, 2015 by Carin Diaz 2 Comments A ⁺ a ^-

Broccoli from my planter

I had my first broccoli and flower this year right from my 8X4 boxed planter. If you knew me five years ago, I had a black thumb and was an ivy and cactus killer. I have slowly grown as a gardener. With work, almost anything can be learned. I started this one from a seed over two months ago.

Upon reading some more, I have learned so much about growing broccoli.

What You Need to Know About Growing Broccoli:

1. Broccoli gets bitter and tougher the longer you leave it in the plant hoping the head will grow bigger when it goes into the “flowering stage.” I harvested mine in good time, I think. 5-7 inches head size across looks good, don't you think?

2. My broccoli is not tightly packed like what you buy in the grocery. But I learned that this is more “quality” broccoli being more mature. It's not that I have to pick it early expecting it would sit in the truck for a week or so.

This fresh broccoli is sweet.
Tastes like ice cream.
No, not really. LOL

3. After harvesting the head, some plants will grow some side shoots, meaning more broccoli for you that you can eat. They will be smaller but if you can get more from the plants, why pull them out from the soil already?

4. When the side shoot growing season is over, you can harvest the leaves and prepare them as you do collards and kale.

There you go.

Have I convinced you yet to plant broccoli next year?