art
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broccoli - Big plants but no flowers

I have big plants but no flowers any suggestions

    imafan26
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    Welcome to the forum Art. Please update your profile with your location and zone. It is important to know where you are to answer your questions. In different parts of the world people have different garden conditions what works for one zone doesn't always work in a very different zone, soil, or microclimate.

    Broccoli is a cool season crop. In warm climates it needs to be planted in late summer or early Fall July-September so that they will mature in cooler weather. In cold climates broccoli is started indoors 4-6 weeks before the last frost date and can be transplanted on your last frost date. They are cold tolerant and can handle a hard frost if they have to, but are better at temperatures between 65 and 80 degrees. Broccoli are big plants. Broccoli planted around November/December should start to put up heads soon. You want to make sure the main head is harvested while the buds are still tight, You do not want them to bloom. After the main head is cut, smaller side shoots will appear.

    Patience and water is all I can suggest.

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    rainbowgardener
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    What people said. But you didn't say what you mean by "big." If people haven't grown broccoli before, sometimes they don't realize how BIG it gets, before it sets heads:

    Image
    https://bareford.files.wordpress.com/20 ... g_4118.jpg

    Broccoli plants will end up 2-3 feet tall and wide!

    What we eat of broccoli is the flower cluster while it is still in bud. All those little round green things are the flower buds. As noted if you leave it too long, the buds will open up into yellow flowers. The flowers are still edible as is every part of the broccoli plant, but it isn't much like eating broccoli any more when you are eating the flowers.

    Mr green
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    Have tried Broccoli 3 years in a row now, and they end up the same each year nice big plants with thick stems, but no "brocolli" so to speak, I live in cold Sweden and they say brocolli would love that, nah I'm not convinced, even last year wich was the worst summer here in like 50 years, they bolted... I have given up on broccoli atleast with my current location.

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    rainbowgardener
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    hmmm..... someone who lives in your area of the world should speak to this. But how many hours a day of sunshine is your broccoli getting. Broccoli is a full sun plant. Since it is planted in late winter (where I am anyway), I'm thinking the hours of daylight might still be a little low?

    Mr green
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    I don't know, we have long days in summer at midsummer there is only dark a few hours. So I rather would suggest that they might be too long. Allthough it doesnt get direct sun all this time. I buy some produce at an organic farm and they get the same problem (they are in my area). I just cant get it as to why, frustrating couse I know people grow it in Sweden. I get similar problem with spinach too. And ive tried sowing early and late, allthough might add last year and my last attempt on growing broccoli came with the most awful summer I have experienced in my 30 years here.
    But the year before that had pretty good summer. Maybe ill try and grow it in a spot were can get 1-2 hours of more direct sunlight and try if is just that. The spot I have now looses late evening sunlight due to some shading trees on the neighbours property.
    And by the way we plant from early spring to late spring, is what I have tried so far, our season aint so long, but would later sowing say in summer be any good to me?

    Sorry OP for highjacking your thread but I feel we have similar problems.

    Taiji
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    Mr. Green: I had the same problem with my broccoli last year with getting a huge plant but no heads. I know in my case it was because they were maturing in the extreme mid summer heat. I need to set them out much sooner or even in late summer.

    But with the recent discussions about short day vs. long day onions, I got to wondering if there might a similar scenario with broccoli. About all I could find was something on a Johnny's Selected Seeds site that said cauliflower begins to form heads when the day length gets shorter. Maybe the same thing might happen with broccoli to a certain extent? So, with your really long days in Sweden, maybe plant a little later so it might be triggered to form heads? Or, maybe try a different variety. I saw something about a variety called Imperial which is good for areas with long days with moderate heat. You probably don't have the moderate heat thing though. Maybe ask the successful broccoli growers in Sweden what variety they use.

    Mr green
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    Thanks for the input Taiji! I think will try to grow them after summer, towards that nights are getting longer again. And temps once again comes down. Our litterature says to pregrow them in mars-june, and planting in june to have it go threw the two hottest summer months to begin with seems off to me, atleast of my theoretical knowledge about this plant. And I have tried it, and you guess it, it bolted :D

    Taiji
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    Of course, I'm only totally guessing on this, don't really know what I'm talking about! Just was thinking of the similarity of broccoli to cauliflower. Do growers in Sweden have success with cauliflower?

    Mr green
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    Well I have been searching the web of swedish growers on both these, and they say that Brocolli is among the easiest kale family plants to grow here lol, I think they are messing with me. And they grow it they say in the whole country, up in north they have even more sun ours than me, but they also have colder with shorter summers.
    Cauliflower they say is one of the harder.
    Thats what makes tips for this country quite hard, its long and small, and many different zones on not so many growers.

    But Swedish people are a special breed, they believe in anything the read, and then they are experts without testing them selfs.
    I was on a Swedish forum and a guy hade a young blackberry plant and wanted to know how to cut it, I said leave all 1 and 2 year old canes and take out some of the oldest if need to give it space because it will fruit on 3 year old wood to, everyone is against me on this one because the litterature says it will only flower on second year old wood. The thing is I have plants, and they all flower and fruit on 3 year old wood. I was the one that was the moron spreading false information and pretty much was bullied out of there lol. Against a bunch of morons that havnt tested or seen for them selfes so they didnt even know, but all is acting experts!



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