broccoli advice needed

[daugen]

And my Beagles better not be wandering that far from home!

now you just have to look at their picture carefully. Look at their eyes, they are intently studying something, and
my broccoli came to mind....geez, they ate the whole plant too?
I didn't think dogs liked vegetables. You have yours well trained.
Keep them in TX please...
hmm, Texas dogs eat their vegetables. Now there's something I learned today

 

[DFB]

Pacman is the variety of broccoli we sell also

You bet stress conditions definetly cause plants to flower and fruit.
I see it all the time at the greenhouse. Especially with pepper plants. (too hot/too dry/ too long in the cell packs.)

The little plants flower and put out a single pepper. People think its cute but it stunts future growth.

Seemed like as soon as my snowbanks finally melted this year it was close to 70F everyday here and no rain. I didnt even get a chance to plant early spring peas

Decided I will start some squash plants today see what germinates

 

[farmgirl19]

And my Beagles better not be wandering that far from home!

now you just have to look at their picture carefully. Look at their eyes, they are intently studying something, and
my broccoli came to mind....geez, they ate the whole plant too?
I didn't think dogs liked vegetables. You have yours well trained.
Keep them in TX please...

They were wanting the liver that I had in my hand!

If they wander up your way, I'll just get in an airplane and fly up to get them. Maybe I could take you up in it, after retrieving the dogs!

 

[daugen]

my wife brought her mom over late yesterday afternoon to the garden, in between the rains, and finally
cut the four little broccoli stalks, just in time for sure. They had started to fan out and get feathery.
Plus six little pea pods, the very first crop out of the garden. Always a fun day.
They went back to the MIL's home and had them for dinner, and I was told they were delicious and sweet.
Success, sort of.... Something more had better rise out of the remains or I'm going to feel pretty inadequate compared to
the beautiful heads of broccoli in the Acme.

Organic gardening so far for us has not been impressive but I know it takes time to build a garden. Except for our potatoes, which
did amazingly well in the heavy clay, and producing early to boot. Some of the rest of what we plant seems so delicate one bad day without attention and you come back to find out something is shriveled or irretrievably unhappy. Oh well, the joys of gardening. Lot to learn in a new garden; ones in the past that I had for years on end got to be pretty amazing compost heaps, mostly done through composting leaves into the garden. But this garden is new, and I'm still growing rocks like many of us in this area.

I dumped some more organic fertilizer on the other broccoli, which seem to be developing much more slowly, and normally.

with our clay soil turning into brown sticky soup after it rains, I made the mistake yesterday of trying to walk over to a new mound of
cucumbers I had just planted. I sunk almost two inches into the mud. Took a different path back for sure. But the cucumbers look
like they already grew three inches in a day, simply amazing. All that pent up demand to grow, grow, grow. Good thing...

this is only our second year in this garden out in a remote field. A lot of compost and straw hay has been tilled in, but it will take years
more of adding "fluff" to this garden to make the soil a bit lighter. And perhaps drain better.
Good thing my boots are washable until then.

when the rest of the broccoli comes up, as I remain cautiously optimistic that it will, I'll take more pics. And I hope some of you other broccoli growers post some pics so we can see what else is growing. I look at the ag extension videos with foot wide heads and I get depressed.
So, I'll show you mine if you show me yours.

 

[Sonny580]

For one thing,---you should NOT have them buried in straw!!!---it kills plants!---cant use anything like that here in central Il.---also our plants get almost waist high and are loaded with heads!--- I hate the stuff, but the folks at the MISSION love it!---otherwise it wouldnt get planted here! thanks; sonny580

 

[daugen]

For one thing,---you should NOT have them buried in straw!!!---it kills plants!---

boy am I going to get my wife to read this. She thinks the more straw the merrier. I keep telling her, honey,
the sun has to get on the plant first! so I keep pushing the straw back a few inches. Realistically we need about half that much,
but this is our first year for straw. Last year we had salt hay, which lays low and is much more manageable, and doesn't blow around in a high wind. But the hurricane wrecked all of the crop this year, so we had to fall back to straw.

Sonny, waist high? something tells me my weenie little plants are not going to do that well, but it's still early.
Broccoli I can do. Steamed nicely, not microwaved, it can be really good. But brussel sprouts? Well... something tells me
neither of us are chowing down on them any time soon.
thanks Drew

 

[powerpace]

For one thing,---you should NOT have them buried in straw!!!---it kills plants!---

boy am I going to get my wife to read this. She thinks the more straw the merrier. I keep telling her, honey,
the sun has to get on the plant first! so I keep pushing the straw back a few inches. Realistically we need about half that much,
but this is our first year for straw. Last year we had salt hay, which lays low and is much more manageable, and doesn't blow around in a high wind. But the hurricane wrecked all of the crop this year, so we had to fall back to straw.

Sonny, waist high? something tells me my weenie little plants are not going to do that well, but it's still early.
Broccoli I can do. Steamed nicely, not microwaved, it can be really good. But brussel sprouts? Well... something tells me
neither of us are chowing down on them any time soon.
thanks Drew

Get rid of the straw!!!!. It keeps the soil temperature down. It also harbors bugs. You may even see some type of worm damage at the base or the roots. Not garden worms but from a moth. I grew up on row crop farms here in Oregon. One-hundred twenty acres of Broccoli, Cauliflower and Brussel Sprouts. Fall crops, always seemed we were in the mud. Could get about three cuttings from a Broccoli plant as they matured. Flower heads must be solid and tight. If it starts to change colors it's getting too old. The leaves and stems left on the ground rot and make a high stink. Yes they get to about waste high.
I eat Broccoli, Caulliflower and Brussel sprouts. Most people have no idea how to cook them. They cook them to mush and no bite. Steam them just enough to heat through, barely soft enough to put a fork in. Cheese sauce or vinagar only.

 

[powerpace]

One thing that you may consider is planting your own seeds in a bed mass and replant when they get about 10 to 12 inches. Twist off the top third of the leaves replant and water well. Also plant two or three times into the summer and harvest some in the fall. I believe you find the fall crop better.

 

[stuckmotor]

Well, I have to say, why does anyone want to grow much less actually eat broccoli? I have to say I am with teh former President on this one!:laughing:
MoKelly

Just plow it under and plant something that's fit to eat.:cake::watermelon::candycorn::donut:

 

[daugen]

well stuck, the first batch, the four plants that acted like Jack in the Beanstalks, pumping out a floret
way too early, yeah, they are going to get plowed under soon. They are now putting out weenie little things that bolt
almost immediately. These plants have premature activity...

Luckily the rest look what I hope is normal, lots more leaf development, then a head forming, about a quarter size now.
We've sprayed it all with organic bug spray, because last year's was seriously munched. so far so good this second year.

we have been enjoying our lettuce greatly. I may be nuts, but some leafy items seems "tougher" than normal, thicker. Still tender,
but I wondered if "growing up" in clay and granite might be affecting their personality. Toughen them up a bit...

Everything has been planted but the corn, late on that. I've been too busy mowing the fields, so my wife really did a great job today getting
the last big batch of seeds in. We both find rototilling with a small walk behind tiller to be bone jarring in our clay. We both have physical restrictions so horsing around a Horse, pun intended, is just not in the cards. Grew up with that old tank, and it sure does work, and work the operator too. Need to bend way over to change operation, nothing is easy. I'm thinking perhaps a rear tire tiller, but to get one that will fit likely will make it too light, and then I have another bouncing machine. This soil is a back breaker, really. Within two days of a rain, it's like concrete. We water and fertilize well, so maybe that makes up for it a bit. I dream of two feet of dark loam...

I will try to remember to take some updated pics tomorrow.