Growing Beautiful Broccoli

Growing beautiful broccoli is easy as long as you use nitrogen rich soil and plenty of water. Those green. brain-like bunches of nutritious goodness are a dieter’s dream. But, broccoli is expensive in the stores, so let’s grow our own. This post shows you everything about growing beautiful broccoli.

When to Grow Broccoli

Grow beautiful broccoli in cool weather. It is a biennial so growing broccoli in spring and fall is possible and preferable. The growing broccoli covered with cold frames protects, if there is a chance of a hard freeze. Cold frames work great in wintertime to extend the growing season so you can actually have broccoli year round. Broccoli takes 55-85 days to fully mature.

The Best Soil for Growing Broccoli

The plant likes moist fertile soil about 60-65F with a Ph between 6 and 7. Use a soil that has plenty of compost in it to keep the soil in good condition. You can mulch under broccoli to inhibit pest and weeds.

How to Plant and Care for Broccoli

Growing beautiful broccoli needs nitrogen added to the soil. Work blood meal into the top 6″ of the soil or a good nitrogen rich 5-10-10 fertilizer. Adding organic matter to the soil throughout the year ensures that the broccoli has plenty of nutrients for the best crop. To grow beautiful broccoli takes adequate water. It will bolt and go to seed in a drought. When growing beautiful broccoli, thin to an area between 1 to 2 feet. If you are using a container, use one that is 20″ or more in diameter. Broccoli has a shallow root system so avoid weeding around the base of the plant, instead use mulch to inhibit weed growth. Water twice per week to keep the soil moist but avoid water on the leaves to prevent mold or mildew.

Grow Broccoli from Direct Seed or Transplant

Grow beautiful broccoli indoors from seed put into peat pots 2-3 weeks before the last frost. Plant seedlings after the last frost when they are 3-4 weeks old. Make sure to cover them if there is the slightest hint of a freeze. However, broccoli does not like the hot sun when it is young at all. Too much hot sun can stress baby seedlings. It’s better to plant seeds indoors under a grow light and plant the strongest young seedlings into a pot on the patio or into the garden under a greenhouse plastic.

A Companion Plants for Growing Beautiful Broccoli

Great companion plants for growing beautiful broccoli are radishes and shallots. Shallots will go great in pan fried broccoli so why not grow some nearby. Both plants deter pests common to broccoli.

Common Diseases and Pests of Broccoli

Broccoli has quite a few pests but with careful, vigilant care, you can prevent problems. Here are the most common problems:

Aphids: Aphids suck the plant’s sap, so if you see curling leaves, apply soapy water to all sides of leaves. You can also hang up yellow sticky tags that the young aphids will stick to.

Cabbage loopers: If you see small holes on the leaves, green caterpillars are present. Always check the undersides of the leaves. Pick off loopers if there are only a few. You can control these with Bacillus thuringiensis,or Bt. It is a natural microbe found in soil. They make proteins toxic to larvae. There are many caterpillar pests. Growing beautiful broccoli, from planting to harvest, is easy with a cover made from PVC pipe and greenhouse plastic. Use zip ties to attach the plastic sheets. This makes watering tricky unless you set up an irrigation system. Here’s a link to my post on installing irrigation. Kits from Amazon make it super simple.

Clubroot: Quickly wilting plants may be due to clubroot fungus in the soil. Dig up the entire plant. Look at the roots. Clubroot is the problem if the roots look gnarled and misshapen. Act quickly to remove the plant so that the fungus doesn’t continue to live in the soil. Do not compost the plants. Raise the pH of your soil to above 7.2 by adding limestone but read directions carefully. It may be better to sterilize your soil, by heating it in the oven at a high temperature for an hour or so.

Downy Mildew: Moist weather causes yellow patches on leaves when growing broccoli. Keep leaves as dry as possible with good air circulation.

Whiteflies: This pest is difficult to control on growing broccoli. The use of covers can prevent whiteflies. You should also hang up yellow tags to attract the adults and babies before an infestation occurs. They think the sticky yellow tags are flowers but get stuck to the tags instead.

Nitrogen deficiency: If the bottom leaves turn yellow and the problem continues toward the top of the plant, the plants need a high nitrogen 5-10-10 fertilizer or blood meal. 

Harvesting Broccoli

Watch your broccoli for the inner crown. The crown eventually turns a dark green and has tight buds. It’s important to harvest your broccoli before the buds open. Cut the thick stem of the broccoli below the crown but leave the entire plant, feed it a dose of fertilizer, and give it a heavy watering. The broccoli will send out side crowns that you can continue to harvest. You can also eat the leaves.

Broccoli Recipe

Pan Fried Broccoli from A Couple of Cooks is a great and super easy recipe that you can literally make and eat every day. Here’s the basic recipe:

1. Cut the broccoli florets into bite-size pieces.
2. Use a non-stick skillet. Add a little olive oil. Wait until it is starting to fry, then add a few tablespoons of water. Broccoli needs to steam because of its thick stems. Cook until it is fork tender but not mushy. I usually turn up the heat just as it start getting tender, then add 1/2 tsp of sugar to add caramel to the broccoli.
3. Add in garlic, onion, and mustard powder to give it a great flavor. Add a pinch of salt to taste.
4. You can add oregano for an Italian flavor or reduce the salt and add soy sauce for an Asian zing, or even Mexican spice.
5. If you want to make it a full meal, cook shrimp or bite-size pieces of chicken before you saute the broccoli and then mix it all together. This is definitely a power dinner and low carb.

Conclusion

I hope you grow broccoli so you can make the Pan Fried Broccoli. It is delish! Let me know if you have had luck growing your own broccoli or if you rushed out to the store to buy broccoli to try the recipe.