Grow your own broccoli

Are you a broccoli lover? Broccoli is getting more and more popular. It is extremely popular in the fitness industry as it’s classed as a superfood. More people are eating it on a daily basis, it is delicious, juicy but broccoli is also expensive to purchase. So why not grow your own broccoli in the garden or allotment? Here we are going to explain how to grow broccoli with our helpful gardening hints and tips. If you fancy trying to grow purple sprouting broccoli check out our tips here.

Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book

Are you starting an allotment or planning on growing your own fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a kitchen garden? If so we highly recommend the book Allotment Month By Month. This does exactly what it does on the cover to help you with what you should be doing in the allotment and kitchen garden each month. Below you can see the link for Amazon where you can purchase the book directly. This book is extremely popular with all allotment holders as you will read in the reviews:-

You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.

Purchase Broccoli Seeds

Are you looking at growing broccoli in the garden or the allotment? Purchasing the right seeds is important to getting great crops. Below is a link to our recommend seeds to try growing. These can be purchased directly from Amazon

When to sow, plant and harvest broccoli

Sowing, planting and harvesting your broccoli is vital to be done at the right time. This way you can get the best harvest and crops out of your vegetables. Here is our kept on when to do these jobs with your broccoli at the right times in the UK.

Please remember this all depends on the temperature and weather in the UK

How to sow broccoli seeds

Sowing your broccoli seeds at the right time could get you longer harvest times. Above our chart tells you when the best time is to sow your broccoli.

To sow your broccoli seeds you can use a seed tray filled with multipurpose compost. Sprinkle the seeds evenly on the seed tray. The seeds are very small balls. Try and not sow them near each other.

You can then cover the seeds with a thin layer of compost. Water the seeds to kick start the germination. You can cover the tray with a propagator or even a layer of cling film. This will keep the seeds warm and moist and speed up germination times.

Once the seeds have started to germinate you can take the cling film off the seed tray.

Place the seed tray in a warm greenhouse our windowsill where there is plenty of light.

How to transplant broccoli

Once your broccoli plants are big enough and strong enough to handle they can be moved to individual plant pots to grow bigger and stronger before planting outdoors. They only need to go in small plant pots.

When your broccoli plants are big enough and have developed a few leaves they are ready to plant outdoors. Wait until the frost has gone before planting the broccoli plants outdoors.

When you are ready to plant your broccoli plants outdoors make sure you have cleared an area and that it is weed free. Your broccoli plants will not like to compete with the weeds in the garden for the nutrients and the water. You can improve the soil by adding some well rotted organic matter, manure. Make sure it is well dug into the soil.

The day before planting your broccoli plants out make sure that you water them well the day before. This gives them the extra chance of not dying during transplanting.

Plant your broccoli plants around 50cm apart. This gives you enough room to weed in between the broccoli plants. If the broccoli plants are planted too close together you won’t get many side shoots growing on the broccoli plants.

Once you have planted them make sure you cover them straight away with horticultural fleece as the birds especially the pigeons will eat them down to the bases and destroy the plants.

How to care for broccoli plants

Broccoli plants do not need much caring for. Just make sure they are kept weed free. Water the plants every 14 days in dry weather or more often in extremely dry weather.

How to harvest broccoli

You need to be on the ball when harvesting broccoli as it can soon go to flower. If the head looks ready pick it. If the broccoli florets are going a yellow colour this means it’s about to bolt so get it harvested. You can find out more information on harvesting broccoli here.

Now you will know how to grow your own broccoli and get great results.

Broccoli Pests and diseases

Broccoli can be attacked by pests and diseases here you can find out what to do to prevent them.

Birds:- Birds will strip the plants when they are young. Cover the plants as soon as you have planted them with horticultural fleece or fine netting to protect them from getting destroyed.

Cabbage Root Fly:- this is when the larvae feed on the roots of the plants and destroy the plants. The plants will whither and die. Like above put fleece over the top or insect proof netting to protect them.

Club Root:- This is when the roots grow distorted and not good. You can improve soil drainage to prevent this.

Broccoli Facts

• Broccoli is part of the brassica family. It is related to the cabbage, sprouts and cauliflower family
• It is a cool weather crop
• Broccoli is classed as a super food for its vitamins and nutrients.