I know brocolli plants are Spring/Fall plants. I've harvested what seems like the last of my brocolli but the plants still look fine and healthy. What would happen if I just keep them in the ground? Would they produce more brocolli in the Fall when the temps drop?
In addition, what kind of brocolli produces nice, big heads? My brocolli just had pieces, not big heads.
-
rainbowgardener
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 25279
- Joined: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:04 pm
- Location: TN/GA 7b
Agree, if you keep cutting the side heads and keep it watered, it will sort of idle through the hot weather and then start producing more in the fall when it cools off. I usually just pull my broccoli plants in early summer as soon as it gets hot, so that I can use the space for other things.
It's a choice though, you can eat broccoli or it can reproduce but not both. The little green round things that make up a head of broccoli are each a flower bud. If you don't harvest the head, those flower buds will open up on a long stalk and then make a little yellow flower. If you leave the flowers, eventually they will make seeds, which you could save and plant for next year. I don't let my broccoli flower, so I've never tried saving seed from it, don't know how easy it is or how well it works.
If you scroll down to the middle of the linked page there's a picture of broccoli starting to flower
https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=27263.msg363781;boardseen
Here's a little farther along in the process: (in the middle of this page)
https://www.adekun.com/garden/food/broccoli
It's a choice though, you can eat broccoli or it can reproduce but not both. The little green round things that make up a head of broccoli are each a flower bud. If you don't harvest the head, those flower buds will open up on a long stalk and then make a little yellow flower. If you leave the flowers, eventually they will make seeds, which you could save and plant for next year. I don't let my broccoli flower, so I've never tried saving seed from it, don't know how easy it is or how well it works.
If you scroll down to the middle of the linked page there's a picture of broccoli starting to flower
https://www.thenakedscientists.com/forum/index.php?topic=27263.msg363781;boardseen
Here's a little farther along in the process: (in the middle of this page)
https://www.adekun.com/garden/food/broccoli
Having let my broccoli plants get ahead of me more than once (I like to keep the bees around here happy, sometimes to my own detriment), I can let you know that collecting seeds from broccoli plants is, on a scale of 1 = do it in your sleep to 5 = very fiddly process, about a 2.
The flowers attract many bees, which helps make for full seed pods.
When the flowers begin to elongate into seed pods, they'll be green initially. After a while (a week? two weeks?), the seed pods will start to become tan/beige. If you want to collect the seeds, this is the time to put bags, whether paper or fabric, over them and tie off the bags so that the seed pods won't shatter and scatter the seeds over the ground.
When you can either see or hear loose seeds in the bag, cut the stems and take the bags indoors for the minimal processing needed.
Break the pods off of the stems, roll the pods in your fingers, and put the seeds into a paper envelope. Store the envelope in a cool, dry spot until it's time to start broccoli plants again.
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
The flowers attract many bees, which helps make for full seed pods.
When the flowers begin to elongate into seed pods, they'll be green initially. After a while (a week? two weeks?), the seed pods will start to become tan/beige. If you want to collect the seeds, this is the time to put bags, whether paper or fabric, over them and tie off the bags so that the seed pods won't shatter and scatter the seeds over the ground.When you can either see or hear loose seeds in the bag, cut the stems and take the bags indoors for the minimal processing needed.
Break the pods off of the stems, roll the pods in your fingers, and put the seeds into a paper envelope. Store the envelope in a cool, dry spot until it's time to start broccoli plants again.
Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9
-
Nature's Babe
- Full Member
- Posts: 36
- Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2011 8:24 am
- Location: East Sussex