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Post by RpR on Jun 28, 2015 20:30:15 GMT -5
Last year broccoli I transplanted bolted right away but that seeded did OK.
This year the transplants are doing OK but the seeded plants are bolting.
It was cool later in the spring last year so heat does not seem to be a factor.
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Post by richardw on Jun 29, 2015 14:40:56 GMT -5
Starting off seed too early in spring inside a warm glass/hothouse then planting out into changeable weather can do that.One of the golden rules i tell other gardeners in my area is never buy plants from garden centers early,they so often bolt.
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Post by RpR on Sept 22, 2015 10:07:48 GMT -5
Well my one surviving, multi-stalk Broccoli plant is still give florets willy-nilly.
Slow but sure.
I have never had such a tall, or it would be if it were not laying on its side, half-supported by baling twine, plant before.
Just when I think it is done, I decide well I will give it a few days to see what pops out and poof, out come a couple of new nice sized florets.
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Post by 12540dumont on Sept 23, 2015 0:32:03 GMT -5
Been a odd year for broccoli this year. Everything bolted. Well it was in the 90's in early spring. Then the kale and cauliflower did odd things. The cauliflower only made mini heads, so bitter, that none would eat them... even the chickens shunned them. The kale kept on until it was subsumed by some odd bug I've never had before. Turned out to be harlequin bug. Leo even saw it in the wild, gobbling up wild mustard.
This drought is pure hell. I have 20 pumpkins and 9 of those are not keepers. I've had 5 cukes. (Now go figure that on a 25 foot row). Everything has succumbed to disease or bug pressure. This is an early warning to the rest of you facing world wide drought. I have been testing drought tolerant plants for years. It's pretty grim. 150 feet of tomatoes has yielded what 50 feet of row yielded just three years ago.
Drought plants require three times the water of a plant grown in normal years just to remain disease free and 1/3 as productive. Think about this my friends.
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Post by philagardener on Sept 23, 2015 5:38:23 GMT -5
Most of my Spring broccoli didn't head but generated lots of little shoots over our dry Summer that rarely were worth picking. I haven't found a variety of cauliflower that does well for me. On the other hand, my kale looks good!
Squash also seemed to have a tough year in our dryness, which was nothing like yours. After our rain returned, the mixtas started to set but the moschatas never bounced back. I was glad to see a lot of native bumblebees around the flowers all season - they seem to be filling the gap left by the almost complete loss of honeybees in our area.
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Post by flowerweaver on Sept 23, 2015 9:35:25 GMT -5
12540dumont so sorry to hear--now you know what I go through yearly on this hardscrabble farm. I have to plant over 100 tomato plants just to get enough for household use. I know some folks yield 10lbs per plant; I'm lucky to get a pound from each one. Spring planted brassicas here are always eaten up by the harlequins, but I have good luck with fall planting for early spring harvest since harlequins are gone in the winter. Can you plant a fall crop where you are, or are winters too harsh? I've never harvested a cauliflower that wasn't bitter, but still I keep trying. I think they just don't fit with my climate. For those of us living in drought-stricken lands I think it's imperative to start selecting for drought and heat tolerance as things seem to be moving that way.
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Post by reed on Sept 23, 2015 13:52:32 GMT -5
12540dumont so sorry to hear--now you know what I go through yearly on this hardscrabble farm. I have to plant over 100 tomato plants just to get enough for household use. I know some folks yield 10lbs per plant; I'm lucky to get a pound from each one. Spring planted brassicas here are always eaten up by the harlequins, but I have good luck with fall planting for early spring harvest since harlequins are gone in the winter. Can you plant a fall crop where you are, or are winters too harsh? I've never harvested a cauliflower that wasn't bitter, but still I keep trying. I think they just don't fit with my climate. For those of us living in drought-stricken lands I think it's imperative to start selecting for drought and heat tolerance as things seem to be moving that way. We don't have anything compared to you folks to Texas and California but drought tolerance is of primary importance to me. It still rains and occasionally snows here but summers are increasingly hot and dry. We had mini monsoons this year with inches per day for days in a row but in hilly terrain it quickly found it's way to the Ohio river. When it stopped it stopped, not a drop since mid July. I call them mini droughts and twenty years of them have devastated our native trees. If you till my soil right now it turns to dust and chokes you half to death. I never saw those harlequins before but they were on everything this year. I don't have water source or equipment to irrigate so I guess anything that doesn't die will develop drought tolerance. I wish I had started intensely breeding and saving my own seeds twenty years ago. My broccoli never made a single head this year. I transplanted (and did water) it to the edge of the garden so I could clean up for next year. It is 4 feet tall or more, maybe when it cools off and rains a little it will do something. On the bright site the leaves and stems have a nice flavor. Brussels sprouts didn't do anything either, just little dried up nubs on big tall Brussels stalks. |
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Post by flowerweaver on Sept 23, 2015 14:14:52 GMT -5
reed Although a couple of my local gardening friends have successfully grown Brussels sprouts, they live at a higher elevation than I do. It is not a recommended crop here, I suspect from the heat. I have the most success from Broccoli Raab (rapini) which is really a B. rapa, but looks and tastes just like small broccoli florets. kazedwards in KS is growing out with success a strain I've been saving for years, so you might consider trying that instead. You eat the stem, leaves, and florets in a cut-and-come-again fashion.
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Post by kazedwards on Sept 24, 2015 0:44:18 GMT -5
I did grow Sage's broccoli raab/rapini/B. rapa this year. I only had 3 plants. They set very few small heads at first so I let them go to seed, but as they flowered they set more and more heads. They were still setting heads even after the seed pods were dried down. I let them keep flowering to bulk up seed. We had them once and it was a very small amount mixed with other veggies. They were very tender. Next year I hope to have 9-12 plants. That should give a few meals worth a week at the very least. This is it when I first let it go to seed. http://instagram.com/p/25Olw7ip7s My broccoli and cauliflower this year wasn't great either. I had two heads that were 2-3" and the rest were the size of a quarter out of 18 broccoli. The cauliflower was smaller. Now I will say that I'm really very good at growing cole crops in general but I was still disappointed. I'm not planning on growing any next spring except Raab and kohlrabi. Broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage I might try in the fall. |
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Post by flowerweaver on Sept 24, 2015 8:51:25 GMT -5
kazedwards I probably forgot to tell you that broccoli raab is a cut and come again plant. You probably thought it was bolting. I just keep harvesting the stem/leaf/small heads as they come, and new ones form out of the axils. Towards the end of season I let them flower and go to seed. I usually plant about 12 plants and they provide enough for a couple of meals a week for a couple months. I like them wilted with garlic in a little olive oil.
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Post by kazedwards on Sept 24, 2015 10:45:28 GMT -5
Lol I did notice that. 3 plants provided very little at once but a lot over the season.
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Post by RpR on Sept 28, 2015 23:25:38 GMT -5
My oddball broccoli seems to have gotten a new spurt of life as I harvested five nice florets today on one bramch and a few other spindly but usable ones on another.
Actually, the potatoes and corn are done but everything in the garden yet - tomatoes, chiles and the broccoli seem to have gotten a second wind.
I wonder if the dousing with Sonata made a difference?
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Post by reed on Sept 29, 2015 4:22:34 GMT -5
I found a pack of the Broccoli Raab in my seed chest yesterday when I was looking for lettuce. It was from Sustainable Seed Co packed for 2012. Must have been a free gift like they do sometimes. Anyway the pack said it was frost hardy and could be harvested well into winter so I direct planted about half of it. I also found the packs for the non-producing broccoli "trees" and they are purple and early sprouting kinds. I think when it cools and dampens a little they may come into producing, in the mean time the leaf stems aren't bad and they keep growing. I cleaned all the dried up nubs from the Brussels stalks and they are trying to form new ones, again some cooler weather and they might work out too. I have a single Red Russian kale that I planted last fall, it is one of 1/2 dozen that lived and made seed this spring. The others died but it started growing again, wonder how long it will live, too bad I'm not real fond of kale.
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