If you learn the art of growing broccoli you’ll no longer need to buy the stuff at stores. Here are some tips and hints on how to cultivate this vegetable.
Where Should Broccoli Be Grown?
You need to plant this in an area where there is good drainage. The area must also have good airflow.
The area can have full exposure to the sun or shade. But if it gets very hot in your area, pick a site with some shade.
Also, make sure no other broccoli or members of the Brassica genus have been planted there in the last four years.
If you’re growing broccoli, do not mix it with smaller plants or crops as this can reach three feet in height.
The Soil
The soil should have plenty of rotting manure or compost. The ideal pH level is 7.0.
However, the plant will also grow at pH levels of 6.2 and 7.2.
Sowing the Plant
The ideal sowing time is two months after the final frost. The seeds should be planted into the soil. In the northern hemisphere, the best time would be early spring.
You can also grow the seeds indoors eight weeks prior to the last frost.
After growing broccoli indoors, you can place them in the soil. Place it in the soil right up to the leaves. They need to be 18 inches apart.
Put some compost as the central head gets up to an inch. This should provide the broccoli with more nutrients.
Moistening the Soil
The soil needs to be moistened. Half an inch of water is okay when it’s cool and wet. If it’s hot, increase it to two inches of water per week.
Put in some mulch. This will keep the moisture in and at the same time prevent weeds from appearing.
When growing broccoli, put some floating row covers. This is necessary when the weather gets cold.
You can also put these on to deter insects. To keep cutworms away, use a paper collar for each plant.
Harvesting
Broccolis can be picked when the heads get large. Get all the flower stalks before any of them become yellow. That’s a sign the buds are opening up.
To freeze them, do the following:
- Place the broccoli in boiling water for a couple of minutes.
- Place them in containers and store them in the fridge.
- Never put them straight into the freezer after you pluck them.
Tips
These plants can be cultivated easily. But the ideal settings are daytime temperatures in the upper 60s. The night should also be cool.
Like other plants, the broccoli can be susceptible to a number of diseases. One of them is the clubroot. It is a fungus that attacks a variety of plants including broccoli.
The best prevention is to grow seeds instead of purchasing them. Another way is to grow them in different spots. You can also buy disease-resistant cultivars.
Growing broccoli isn’t as difficult as it seems. By caring for it right, you’ll get to harvest a bumper crop in no time.
