When is it safe to plant broccoli
Anyone Can Grow Broccoli By Doing These Simple Things
what's going on growers it's James
presume you only come to you live from
Jersey now is the time of year when we
harvest our spring broccoli and this
year it's looking better than it ever
has so today I want to give you five
tips for growing bigger better broccoli
let's go the first tip the growing
bigger broccoli has to do with location
and timing broccoli prefers growing in
full Sun but if you live in an area
where it's really hot you may want to
grow that broccoli in partial shade and
this partial shade can help prevent it
from bolting too early but if there's
not enough Sun you may have fruit or
broccoli heads that are just a little
small let me show you some of the ones
in here that didn't get enough Sun
they're small and then I'll show you
ones in a location that gets plenty of
Sun right now I'm hanging out in the
seven-year-old food forest straight
above me here is a mulberry tree
dropping a lot of mulberries down which
actually shades a good amount of this
area for most of the day because that
mulberries on the south side in this
fruit forest we've got a lot of fruit
trees we're producing a lot of food but
we also stick annuals in where we can
and some seconds the annuals do great
and they're really productive where we
get light between the trees but
sometimes there's just not enough light
I think that's what the issue is with
these broccoli in the back I'll bring
you closer the growth you will see the
growth is just a little bit stunted and
the flower heads are already starting to
form when the broccoli is really young
so this this broccoli plants tiny this
flower head is small and it shouldn't be
happening
temperature is really important for
broccoli as well they like cool days and
cool nights so if you live in a location
where it gets hot early you want to get
a variety that is short some cultivars
are 45 days somewhere 85 so if you've
got summer coming quick in a short
spring get a variety with the short
amount of days to harvest in most
locations you can go broccoli in the
spring and in the fall when I grow it in
the spring
I prefer planting indoors or in my
greenhouse about 4 to 8 weeks before the
last frost date this way if the weather
change is quick and spring short and
summer comes I know I can get a good
harvest because I started my things
earlier I transplanted them out there's
something you need to know though when
transplanting and that'll tie in to tip
number 2 let me bring you into the new
food forest where the broccoli is lush
and growing great the second tip to
growing bigger Brock
has to do with avoiding premature
heading oftentimes this premature
heading comes from transplanting out our
starts too late the ideal time to do
this is when the starts about six inches
tall or has about two to four true
leaves if we wait too long the plan can
get a little stressed it can start the
head up and then we'll get that early
premature heading so you can see here
this broccoli and the one behind me that
I'll show you
they were transplanted out at the same
time as the ones that I showed you in
the seven year old fruit forest these
ones are way further along and that's
not because I transplant them out too
late the ones in the 700 54 it's because
they're not getting enough light as you
can see here in this section we get
plenty of light we have good soil and as
a result we've got beautiful broccoli if
they're tip to growing bigger broccoli
ties a little bit in with a second so
after you transplant your broccoli out
say about two weeks later it's advised
to go out and pull some of your
woodchips back put some black leaf mulch
down or some compost or some fish
emulsion something to feed that broccoli
to keep that accelerated growth that's
the trick to continue the accelerated
growth this way the broccoli will do
real well because you don't want any
stunts that stunt will slow it down and
help really could knock down the size of
your harvest the fourth tip the growing
bigger broccoli is to know that she
loves water a good way to hold a lot of
the moisture for broccoli is to have
that thick wood chips down the mulch is
so important for retaining moisture for
feeding your plants and just for
building better soil in the future one
thing to note though you guys know that
I'm not big on watering but when it
comes to broccoli during dry spells I
make sure I water all my brassicas these
are plants that have high levels of
water they require that so I want to
make sure I'm helping them and
continuing that accelerated growth that
I talked about last tip if it's stepped
up growing bigger and better broccoli
has to do with harvesting we want to
come out and harvest our broccoli at the
right time so it's not too small and
we're missing out on how big it could be
but we also want to make sure we come
out and harvest it before it starts to
flower so you see the florets you'll see
them on the broccoli here and as it
starts to turn yellow or start to
separate and spread out that means that
it's getting a little late so we want to
make sure we come and cut those before
that
and it's important to note after we cut
out the main head of the broccoli a lot
of the varieties especially the
heirlooms will continue to shoot out
little smaller side shoots of little
heads of broccoli you can see something
home form there so don't get ready or
broccoli after you cut them any one out
continue to come and harvest them as it
produces heads
you'll also notice here that we have a
few different varieties of broccoli with
different sized heads at different times
we did this because the length of
harvest is different so we could extend
our harvest we don't just have a bunch
of heads all at once that we can't even
that's today's video growers thanks for
watching if you enjoyed it or you found
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missed in regards to tips for broccoli
because that'll really help out this
little community that we have in here
and check us out on steam it too because
we love posted on there the food forest
it's looking better than it ever has
it's looking pretty epic if you ask me I
can't wait to bring you that next
installment and the new food forest ooh
it's good all these investments were
making they're starting to pay off
and I can't wait to bring you guys along
for it Janey's prigioni
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