A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 No Broccoli in my broccoli...

Umm.. that about sums it up. I have maybe 8 or so plants I believe.. pretty close together. The leaves are touching, overlapping kinda, but really big, healthy looking leaves. They got kinda ginormous. Anyways, only TWO of these plants ever got actual broccoli in them. The rest seem to just be big leafy plants, not a floret in the bunch. What's up with that?

Also, 2ndly.. I snapped one floret off, and rinsed it off, ate it raw, as I do sometimes in a salad. I had nothing on it, it was plain, but I've eaten plain raw broccoli before, so I know how it should taste. Umm.. my broccoli had a .. how do I describe it.. strong? taste. Is that normal?

Meg

Meg, I could be completely wrong about this, but I think brocolli has brocolli in the fall. I'm also going to assume that stuff you grow in your yard is going to be more 'flavorful' than that at the supermarket - especially with your gorgeous veggie bed and all that yummy compost and stuff

Actually, I wasn't aware at the time, but broccoli is a cool season veggie, so theoretically, yea, it could be needing fall to come. BUT, it is also for early spring planting.. and I guess I didn't get it out soon enough, as was the case with MOST of my stuff.. out later than it should have been. Hubby is pretty positive I will not see any tomatoes this year..lol. We're really crossin our fingers for the corn & green beans. Two of our favs. Next year, if I do this again, I'm gonna do it a wee bit different.

Meg

That's what it's all about, isn't it? Figuring out what to do differently next year - I sure have a laundry list of things I'll have to do earlier! Keep us posted, please. I want to grow broccoli in time, and am interested in your progress with it! Good luck - I'll cross my fingers for you to get 2 broccoli (edit) harvests (I'll get this lingo down yet! LOL!)

An update!

1)We ate one of the 2 heads of broccoli last night for dinner. It was GOOOOD! Wish I'd have cut down both heads, cuz we all wanted more. Anyways, I did cut it down later, since it's so close to flowering from all the heat we've had. It's in my fridge now, and we'll have it maybe tonight.

2)After I cut the broccoli, & I was looking the other plants over again, I *finally* see 3 more with florets starting!! Yea!!

Meg