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Growing Fall Broccoli

October 20th, 2015

When I posted about my fall broccoli last week, there were lots of of questions about it. The varieties I grew for fall were the same as the ones I grew for my summer crop. I got a packet of ‘All Season’ broccoli from Renee’s Garden, it has three different types in one packet, early, mid, and late season varieties.
Renees garden broccoli
Fall broccoli produces much nicer and tastier heads than spring sown plants. I’m completely amazed by the quality of my fall broccoli vs my spring broccoli. The key to good fall broccoli is seeding at the proper time. I seeded them in flat back in July. My first sowing was gobbled up by my turkeys, luckily I had seeded another planting 10 days later just in case something happened to my first crop. I transplanted them into the garden and mulched them heavily with compost.
broccoli
I watched patiently and wondered if they were actually going to produce heads, then all of a sudden they started and grew into the most beautiful broccoli I’ve ever grown. The broccoli is tasty and there is no hint of bitterness at all. Overall, it was a grand success. The key is starting them early enough to make sure they will reach maturing right around the first frost date. The heads hold for a long time in the garden, so there’s not a problem with having too many on hand. Next year I might try a shorter season ‘Arcadia’ broccoli from Johnny’s Seed, because it’s a cold tolerant variety bred for winter production.

Do you do any winter gardening? What’s your favorite crop to grow?

3 Comments to “Growing Fall Broccoli”
  1. Nita on October 21, 2015 at 8:49 am

    We had good luck with succession plantings of Arcadia all season, and this was the hottest, driest summer on record for the PNW. Arcadia performed better than others we have grown.

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  2. Emily on October 21, 2015 at 2:18 pm

    Obviously it’s too late to start growing fall broccoli now, but I’m definitely going to give it a try next year. I’m a huge broccoli lover and would love to see how the taste of fall broccoli compares to its spring/summer counterparts!

    Reply to Emily's comment

  3. megan on October 21, 2015 at 7:29 pm

    I usually have great luck with fall broccoli, not so much this year. I didn’t harden off my starts this year and most of them died because it got hot after I planted them in the garden. The ones that did survive were hit heavy by cabbage worms. I had one variety that did better than the others, however I couldn’t read my garden stake! Will try again next year!

    Reply to megan's comment

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This is a daily journal of my efforts to cultivate a more simple life, through local eating, gardening and so many other things. We used to live in a small suburban neighborhood Ohio but moved to 153 acres in Liberty, Maine in 2012.

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