Broccoli In The Garden

Saturday, August 02, 2008 03:43 AM

Broccoli is a vegetable that is grown very well in many local Prince George gardens. It is a member of the Brassica family which also includes cauliflower, cabbage, kale, brussel sprouts, and kohlrabi, all of which are cold weather crops, meaning that they grow best in cooler temperatures something that we have been experiencing a lot of these days.

There are different varieties of broccoli, some have purple, yellow or spiraled heads but the most common and favorite is the green headed varieties. All of these are rich in vitamins, minerals and high in antioxidants which can reduce the risk of some cancers and heart disease making it one of the healthiest vegetables to eat.

To grow broccoli you can either directly sow the seed into the outdoor garden in mid May or you can start the seed indoors in April and plant out the transplants in mid May which will give you an earlier crop.

Plants should be 18-24 inches apart in rows that are 36-40 inches apart. If you are planting transplants you should make sure that the plants do not stay in the containers for long lengths of time as this will cause stress to the plant thus resulting in poor heads and in some cases no heads at all.

Stress on plants can also be caused by temperatures of either too hot or too cold, drought or poor soil which will interrupt the growth and could cause poor head formation.

Young broccoli plants are sometimes bothered with maggots that tunnel into the plants roots and eventually cause the plant to wither and die. The maggots come from a small gray fly that lays it eggs at the base of the plant. The white 7mm long maggot hatches from the eggs and tunnels its way into the soil and the plants roots. Once you have this problem in the garden it will re-occur again next year, so it is important to rotate your crops in the garden. Do not plant any member of the Brassica family in the same place the following year as this maggot will attack all Brassicas.

To help control maggots you want to destroy any plants that have been infected. Keep the garden free of weeds as they could be an alternate host for maggots. Plant out broccoli transplants later in the season so that you miss the first generation of flies. This year I planted all my brassicas into single 4 inch peat pots and let them grow in the greenhouse until the beginning of June which is when I planted them in the garden hoping that I missed the first generation of flies. Unfortunately we experienced a late season and so my plants were still bothered by the maggots.

Another preventive measure is laying newspaper or tar paper around the seedlings so that the fly cannot lay its eggs on the soil or by covering the crop with Reemay which also prevents the fly from laying its eggs. The reemay must remain over the crop all the time for it to work. If you have to remove it for weeding, then do so in the early morning when the fly is inactive and immediately cover the crop when finished. The Reemay should remain over the plants till the fly is no longer active.

Broccoli heads are harvested when the individual florets begin to get large but before they break into a yellow flower. Most plants will produce one large central head and after that has been harvested the plant will produce small side shoots that can be harvested. Cut 3-4 inches of stem when removing the heads and side shoots. Picking broccoli in the early morning is best.

If you are planning on freezing broccoli, freeze it when it is at its best for the best results. Blanche it for 4 minutes then cool it in ice water and then place it in freezer bags removing as much as the air as possible and then place it in the freezer where it will be good for up to a year.

-Jos

Jos Van Hage owns and operates two Art Knapp Garden Centres in the Prince George area:

Highway 16 west at Kimball Road
Highway 97 north at Northwood Pulpmill Road

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Broccoli In The Garden

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