Growing Romanesco Broccoli

I always try to grow a couple of new veggies. One from this year is romanesco broccoli. I had 6 plants, and I ate or froze the largest three heads. This is what they look like as a solid head.


I am letting the other three go to seed. They are quite an interesting plant. This is the same head after about 3 weeks. They have undergone quite a transformation.

I've got Romanesco seeds I'm getting ready to prepare for fall planting. Since the head looks so different, was the taste different too?

It tastes like broccoli, but has the texture of cauliflower. I like it.

Can't wait to try it.
Thanks!

I am trying romanesco also this year...thought the kids might like to see there are different shapes of most plants lol. no heads on it yet.

OK, I planted 3 of these, 2 got eaten by varmints.  One remains.  It is HUGE!  The leaves are like gigantic...I had to move a pepper despite proper SFG spacing.  When will this thing start making a "head"?  I have never grown cauli or broc.....got a kinda late start, transplant went out first week of June.  

Advice?

Scorpio, I'm not sure what you can expect.  I think it is too late in the season to grow this successfully.  It prefers cool and cold temps.  I'm afraid the summer heat will signal the plant to bypass the tight green head you are hoping for.  I think the heat will summon the plant to bolt or flower, in order to set seeds.  Sorry.

llama momma wrote:Scorpio, I'm not sure what you can expect.  I think it is too late in the season to grow this successfully.  It prefers cool and cold temps.  I'm afraid the summer heat will signal the plant to bypass the tight green head you are hoping for.  I think the heat will summon the plant to bolt or flower, in order to set seeds.  Sorry.

Yeah, LM, it just doesn't look like it is gonna do "anything" so I think it is compost.  It is super huge.  Can I plant it for fall?

You can plant indoor broc seeds right now and set out transplants later for fall harvest. Personally, by this  time in the gardening season I'm not interested in fussing with indoor seedlings so I just buy a few transplants at the garden center when it's planting time.  Brocs love the cool temps as do I and the weather is a pleasure for gardening.
I tried spring broc and you never know when the heat is going to come and ruin it, so I did that once and now only do fall broc.

llama momma wrote:You can plant indoor broc seeds right now and set out transplants later for fall harvest. Personally, by this  time in the gardening season I'm not interested in fussing with indoor seedlings so I just buy a few transplants at the garden center when it's planting time.  Brocs love the cool temps as do I and the weather is a pleasure for gardening.
I tried spring broc and you never know when the heat is going to come and ruin it, so I did that once and now only do fall broc.

I am 100% there with you o that...thanks for the advice, I really like the vegggies, but i am in the same boat with Mustard, which I also have never grown.  So I think I will give them a Fall run!

You're welcome.  Think you will love the fall results.

If it follows the same rules as broccoli, you might be able to still eat the leaves if nothing else! Broccoli leaves are supposed to taste somewhat like kale.

Robbomb116 wrote:If it follows the same rules as broccoli, you might be able to still eat the leaves if nothing else!  Broccoli leaves are supposed to taste somewhat like kale.

I heard that.  I personally hate kale.  I think I would like it cooked, but to eat it raw....um. No.  It is work.  

llama momma wrote:You're welcome.  Think you will love the fall results.

August?  Transplants?

My Romanesco head started getting looser instead of bigger, so I harvested it (and et it! )
Will the side shoots form into miniheads, or is this not that sort of plant?

I'm suspicious the second Romanesco isn't going to head, so I'm at 1 to 1. The broccoli I got 2 headed, 1 bolting, I guess, since it's going for the tall with secondary sprigs of leaves coming out the sides. The cabbage I'm getting 4 heads, 2 that are small and loosely headed, and another 2 that just aren't going anywhere fast so we'll say 4/8.  One small cauliflower plant has a tiny head, I need to see if I can even still find the other plant, I think it got enveloped by the chickpea plants. 

So I'm now at about 50% successful at getting these plants to head. I'm going to start some of these a little earlier next year. The failed cabbages seems caused by transplanting plants that were the same age as the successful ones, about 1-3weeks later. So transplant timing is more important than I realized when I started out.

Broccoli leaves good substitute for cabbage leaves in cabbage rolls.

Mine just never produced. Will try again soon for my fall garden.

sfg4uKim wrote:Mine just never produced. Will try again soon for my fall garden.

Me too.

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:My Romanesco head started getting looser instead of bigger, so I harvested it (and et it! )
Will the side shoots form into miniheads, or is this not that sort of plant?

I'm suspicious the second Romanesco isn't going to head, so I'm at 1 to 1. The broccoli I got 2 headed, 1 bolting, I guess, since it's going for the tall with secondary sprigs of leaves coming out the sides. The cabbage I'm getting 4 heads, 2 that are small and loosely headed, and another 2 that just aren't going anywhere fast so we'll say 4/8.  One small cauliflower plant has a tiny head, I need to see if I can even still find the other plant, I think it got enveloped by the chickpea plants. 

So I'm now at about 50% successful at getting these plants to head. I'm going to start some of these a little earlier next year. The failed cabbages seems caused by transplanting plants that were the same age as the successful ones, about 1-3weeks later. So transplant timing is more important than I realized when I started out.

I discovered that once the temperatures  & humidity get high the Romanesco opens up like a blown cauli.
  It's still edible if you use it in a chicken stock based soup & deep freeze it.  You can also use it like cauli , raw in salads or to give crunch in a soup.

 Once you have cut the big heads & left plenty of greenery behind , the plant  will indeed reproduce  several smaller less tight new heads  though again if it's too warm & moist they will blow almost as soon as they form ....juicing anyone ?

plantoid wrote:

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:My Romanesco head started getting looser instead of bigger, so I harvested it (and et it! )
Will the side shoots form into miniheads, or is this not that sort of plant?

I'm suspicious the second Romanesco isn't going to head, so I'm at 1 to 1. The broccoli I got 2 headed, 1 bolting, I guess, since it's going for the tall with secondary sprigs of leaves coming out the sides. The cabbage I'm getting 4 heads, 2 that are small and loosely headed, and another 2 that just aren't going anywhere fast so we'll say 4/8.  One small cauliflower plant has a tiny head, I need to see if I can even still find the other plant, I think it got enveloped by the chickpea plants. 

So I'm now at about 50% successful at getting these plants to head. I'm going to start some of these a little earlier next year. The failed cabbages seems caused by transplanting plants that were the same age as the successful ones, about 1-3weeks later. So transplant timing is more important than I realized when I started out.

I discovered that once the temperatures  & humidity get high the Romanesco opens up like a blown cauli.
  It's still edible if you use it in a chicken stock based soup & deep freeze it.  You can also use it like cauli , raw in salads or to give crunch in a soup.

 Once you have cut the big heads & left plenty of greenery behind , the plant  will indeed reproduce  several smaller less tight new heads  though again if it's too warm & moist they will blow almost as soon as they form ....juicing anyone ?

Thanks, plantoid.

Scorpio Rising wrote:

plantoid wrote:

BeetlesPerSqFt wrote:My Romanesco head started getting looser instead of bigger, so I harvested it (and et it! )
Will the side shoots form into miniheads, or is this not that sort of plant?

I'm suspicious the second Romanesco isn't going to head, so I'm at 1 to 1. The broccoli I got 2 headed, 1 bolting, I guess, since it's going for the tall with secondary sprigs of leaves coming out the sides. The cabbage I'm getting 4 heads, 2 that are small and loosely headed, and another 2 that just aren't going anywhere fast so we'll say 4/8.  One small cauliflower plant has a tiny head, I need to see if I can even still find the other plant, I think it got enveloped by the chickpea plants. 

So I'm now at about 50% successful at getting these plants to head. I'm going to start some of these a little earlier next year. The failed cabbages seems caused by transplanting plants that were the same age as the successful ones, about 1-3weeks later. So transplant timing is more important than I realized when I started out.

I discovered that once the temperatures  & humidity get high the Romanesco opens up like a blown cauli.
  It's still edible if you use it in a chicken stock based soup & deep freeze it.  You can also use it like cauli , raw in salads or to give crunch in a soup.

 Once you have cut the big heads & left plenty of greenery behind , the plant  will indeed reproduce  several smaller less tight new heads  though again if it's too warm & moist they will blow almost as soon as they form ....juicing anyone ?

Thanks, plantoid.

Also thanks! I had the side-shoots yesterday. They were a bit bitter, but tasted fine once mixed into a curry.

So, I really really want to grow this...should I start it indoors and transplant out when I put in radishes?  Or chard?  Or direct seed?

Scorpio Rising wrote:So, I really really want to grow this...should I start it indoors and transplant out when I put in radishes?  Or chard?  Or direct seed?

In the past, I did the transplants and planted directly in the gound in the greenhouse.

How does it taste compared to broccoli? It is such a pretty plant.

has55 wrote:

Scorpio Rising wrote:So, I really really want to grow this...should I start it indoors and transplant out when I put in radishes?  Or chard?  Or direct seed?

In the past, I did the transplants and planted directly in the gound in the greenhouse.

I am not sure of timing.  What else would you put in when you plant it, Has?