Broccoli 2020

Started April 22

Heavy feeder preferring loamy, well drained, fertile soil. Not a super fussy plant but will compete for nutrients with others members of the brassica family, resulting in soil deficiencies. It’s a good idea to continuously side dress with well aged manure or compost during the growing season.  For optimum flavor broccoli requires a large amount of calcium. You can grow it as a spring crop, harvest and then grow again in fall.

Lots of big, beautiful leaves, no florets.

De Cicco

Size: 30-36 inches high by 12 inches wide

Location: lots of sun

Matures in: 45 -85 days

Native to: Italy, traditional heirloom variety introduced to North America in 1870

Why did I Choose it? After the main head is harvested it keeps producing lots of little side shoots so you get more harvest. We eat a lot of broccoli in stir fry with potstickers.

Uses? Especially good for steaming, freezing and stir fry.

Specifics: Productive multicut variety with a long harvest window. Compact plants produce a tasty 2-4 inch central head. After harvesting the central head you’ll enjoy many smaller tender side shoots. 

Companion Plants:

For optimum flavor, plant with celery, onions, garlic, shallots, leeks and potatoes.

Grows well with beets, bush beans, dill, rhubarb and cucumbers.  Interplant with loose leaf lettuce, spinach, radishes or swiss chard.

Fragrant culinary herbs repel insects such as harlequin bugs, cabbage worms, cabbage loopers and cabbage maggots. Plant lemon balm, lemongrass, thyme, sage, dill, horehound, hyssop, basil, rosemary, tansy, oregano, chamomile and mint.

Nasturtiums, marigolds, cosmos and snapdragons emit a scent that is repulsive to many pests such as cabbage worms, whiteflies, flea beetles, cabbage root maggots and aphids. Nasturtium, marigolds and beets also have low calcium requirements so won’t compete. 

Avoid: 

Broccoli competes with members of its own family for food so don’t plant near other brassicas.

Plants that also require a lot of calcium are pumpkins, squash, sweet corn, watermelon, strawberries, pole beans, lima beans, snap beans and asparagus.

Grapes and mustard can also negatively affect growth. 

Doesn't really like nightshade vegetables either - tomatoes, hot peppers, eggplant.  

If this happens again I might try cutting the top where the main floret should be to see if I can force the side shoots.

Personal Notes: I started my broccoli a week late but I got it outside at technically the right time. We didn't get any proper heads before it got too hot.

Interestingly the leaves of broccoli have more antioxidants, vitamins E and K, and calcium than the florets so instead of wasting the big, beautiful, leafy plants we sliced all the leaves into ribbons and froze them for our winter frittatas. 

I’ve noticed quite a few more experienced gardeners really push how early they get their brassicas into the ground. Especially for broccoli, which wants to bolt on you in the heat, cooler temperatures are best. 

Some sow the seeds, in place, in fall, and allow the broccoli to just come up when it's ready, already in the ground, in spring. It may require some cover with freak low temperatures or huge snow falls but this way there is no transplant shock and you see just how early it wants to mature. June 1 is technically our last safe date for frost, but it heats up so quickly afterwards that cool weather spring plants don't really do well. 

I didn’t get any seeds in the ground in fall, but I am going to try to get the plants outside at least a month earlier with some sort of cover if I need them. I’m also going to try a fall sowing and see if it prefers fall temperatures to our abrupt spring. 

Next up Chard