Fall Contest - Show us your Biggest Brassica, Broccoli!

SHEESH ! That is an AMAZING brocco head. That surely is the winner. One up way....that's what a competition is all about.

wow! nice job to all of you. Mine just sprouted this weekend. Congrats again to all!!

Your 8 something beats my 7 something. (Of course it depends where you put your ruler! FLASHBACK! )

My biggest heads are a day or two away from flowering, and my weather is going south tomorrow. My growing season is pretty much done.
I fold.

Congratulations!

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I like your simple measurement solution (without calipers). I was thinking of machinists' squares held vertical with welding magnets on a metal workbench top...not exactly a K.I.S.S. solution!

Mr Squat you are the current leader at 8 and 3/8" diameter, wonderful job, congratulations! Contestants this is the man to beat! We have till the end of December, 2011. My broccs are still little with branches and leaves, no heads yet. AND NOW HOW ABOUT A BROCCOLI TRIVIA QUESTION??? What does the word broccoli mean and in what language??

It is Italian (or Etalian as we say in West Virginia) for little sprout .

Captain Kidney (aka Mike)

Some fine lookin barkly!

boffer wrote:Your 8 something beats my 7 something. (Of course it depends where you put your ruler! FLASHBACK! )

My biggest heads are a day or two away from flowering, and my weather is going south tomorrow. My growing season is pretty much done.
I fold.

Congratulations!

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I like your simple measurement solution (without calipers). I was thinking of machinists' squares held vertical with welding magnets on a metal workbench top...not exactly a K.I.S.S. solution!

You lost AGAIN boffer??? And still trying to blame it on the weather??
For anyone who missed it...boffer lost the carrot contest too carrot contest carrot poll

Put your broccoli where your mouth is!

THE ANSWER to the BROCCOLI TRIVIA QUESTION: WHAT DOES THE WORD BROCCOLI MEAN?

--- my website sources tell me it means branch and arms in Italian. This was new information to me and thought I would share, hope the rest of everyone's Fall broccoli is doing well!

UGH! This is my busy time of year and I have not been in the garden for a few weeks. My broccoli is now opening into lovely little yellow flowers all around the outside of the head! At least it did finally grow so I know there is hope for next year!



GG

boffer wrote:Put your broccoli where your mouth is!

Broccoli will never cross these lips!

Ha! You're in good company along with a past president of the U.S. who said the same thing on TV. Who was the president, and how much grief did he get from the broccoli industry?

Hummm...George Bush...
“I do not like broccoli. And I haven't
liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm
President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more
broccoli.”


Does this mean I could be President some day????

Josh wrote:Hummm...George Bush...
“I do not like broccoli. And I haven't
liked it since I was a little kid and my mother made me eat it. And I'm
President of the United States and I'm not going to eat any more
broccoli.”
Does this mean I could be President some day????

I don't know why not. You've got more going for you than some of the presidents we've had.

Just to be accurate, it was George H.W. Bush.

our babies are growing bigger....no signs of any heads yet

our containers



my daughters



my son's



in our SFG

I'm patiently waiting too. Only see one baby head out of 12 plants. The diameter is about 3/4 inch, a far cry from SquatJohnsons monster!

llama momma wrote:I'm patiently waiting too. Only see one baby head out of 12 plants. The diameter is about 3/4 inch, a far cry from SquatJohnsons monster!

Keep a good eye on it! I was so excited to see my little 3/4" broccoli head, then life got in the way and the next thing I knew, the flowers were opening up! I missed it! At least it did finally grow and there is hope for next year!
GG

Oh Goosegirl I am sorry to hear that, but yes there is always next year!

Ok broccoli champions it is time to tell us your tricks or at least give us others who can't seem to grow broccoli heads (we grow great leaves though) some help.

I have tried broccoli three years in a row now and I am tempted to ditch 'em for good. I get wonderful great big plants but I want more than 1 mouthful of broccoli from them.

Broccoli takes up a whole square and I could have grown alot of carrots or romaine lettuce instead!

There must be a trick to broccoli! Please tell us!

Good question, BFB. I look forward to others' responses; here's the little that I can offer. I'm still learning.

This spring, I planted 50 broccoli plants as early as I thought I could; I protected them with heated hoop houses, unheated hoop houses, and cloches. The plants thrived even through a couple of 17°F nights. My biggest head was 3", most were under 2". It was very disappointing. I did some reading and learned that although the plant can grow well throughout a wide range of temps, if the temps are outside of ~40-80°F range during critical times when the head is about to be formed, the head will be small or non-existant. I can't find the site at the moment, but there are specific temps that will maximize head growth, if they occur at the right time. Nearly everything I've read agrees that head size is most dependent on temp and not special soil nutritional needs.

Two other things I learned this spring. I planted 25 cauliflowers side-by-side with my broccolis, and the cauliflowers had huge heads. Go figure! So next year, I'll plant cauliflower early and broccoli 4-6 weeks later. The other thing I did, was to surround some of the broccoli plants with 8-10 leaf lettuce plants in the same square. I did the cut-and-come-again thing, and it worked out great.

For my fall garden, I planted 75 broccoli seeds, towards the end of July. I've ended up with a great harvest. My heads are 4-7 inches, with a lot of them closer to 7. I had a couple weeks with highs in the upper eighties, and they still did good. BUT! get this: just for grins, I covered one box full of broccoli with shade cloth. The plants got some direct morning sun, but were protected after 10am or so. I measured the temp at the soil line, in the shade of the shade cloth, and temps were usually about 10 degrees cooler than ambient. The plants in that box still aren't making heads even though I have harvested nearly all the other plants. What does that mean? Beats the heck outta me!

It's all about the weather...the one thing we can't do anything about!

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P.S. My springtime consolation prize: The stems of broccoli plants can be peeled and eaten; I think they're good. I also used the leaves in place of cabbage in a stuffed cabbage roll recipe.
https://squarefoot.forumotion.com/t7811-stuffed-broccoli-leaves

boffer: We ate some of the stems from our broccoli plants, and they were SWEET! We liked them as much or better than the heads! Just sort of tried it...who knew??

Here's my first one, but I'm afraid I was to late to measure--as I see the yellow flowers on the bottom. I do have more broc' heads being born on other broc' plants, hope I get to measure those before the flowers appear.

How can I tell when the broccoli is ready to harvest? I want to eat mine (lol).

I can tell when they are ready, but it's only because I have waited too long and let them flower. They have a solid head up to a point, and the buds start to get bigger, and then flower. There is a sweet spot that lasts a day or so, and then it's gone. They are still tasty. I have eaten them a day late, and they are fine.

April,
Cut that baby and eat it up! I often miss my perfect moment, but I found that home grown broccoli is so much sweeter than store bought, and the flowers are just as tasty as the green if you don't wait too long. I ate a lot of them this summer, lol.