Growing Broccoli: How To Grow Broccoli

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Broccoli is one of those crops that people just love fresh. It’s a beautiful, colorful crop, and it’s amazingly nutritionally dense. There are a number of parts that are edible on the broccoli plant, but the floret (flower) is the thing that most people commonly associate with broccoli. This is a key consideration to keep in mind when you’re planting, and I’ll explain why.

See, many of the plants that you put into your garden during the growing season produce flowers that fruit or are harvested before they flower. With broccoli, you sort of get the worst of both worlds when it comes to the timeliness of your harvest. This is because the florets don’t turn into a fruit after they “flower”, and the flower itself is really what most people are looking for when they plant. This is why I say you need to start early.

When I say early, I mean as early as possible. The soil you plant in only needs to be at around 45 degrees for the seed to germinate, but if you can get the soil warmer than that, they’ll start a lot sooner. One thing a lot of people do (not me, but I know people) is to start their broccoli inside under controllable conditions. You can then transplant once your soil gets to a more desirable temperature. I will note, however, that most broccoli breeds are very cold tolerant, so don’t worry too much about planting outside when your soil is just warm enough.

When you plant outside and just let the thing grow, a broccoli plant will be a great example of the way plants accumulate and use energy to fruit or flower. The broad leaves are wide and somewhat waxy, which helps the plant retain moisture during dry spells and into the dry months of fall. The solar panel leaves suck up copious amounts of sunlight, which its chloroplasts help turn into the chemical energy that the plant needs to not only grow, but for that huge energy push necessary for a beautiful green or purple floret. It’s like an amazing, slow moving science experiment. Some may argue that all plants exemplify this. I say that broccoli does it better than the rest.

Almost 5 months in and JUST getting going.

The huge amount of energy necessary for the floret itself is what makes the plant take so damn long, and it’s why you need to plant as soon as you can. There are winter varieties that are great to use here in the Willamette Valley, but colder places where the ground freezes solid don’t really have such freedom.

Aside from planting early, remember to keep an eye on you broccoli during the tender early months of its growth. Aphids love young broccoli, and they’ll wreak havoc on it if you let them. A great way to kill the little rats off is to buy ladybugs at your local gardening store or online– you can even just go hunting for them yourself and transplant them that way. Also, don’t forget to use the whole plant. The floret is what most people are looking for with the broccoli plant, but the stalk is also edible and a great addition to stir fries.