When To Harvest Broccoli
Broccoli can be expensive to purchase from the supermarket so growing it can save you lots of money. Plus broccoli is a superfood so many people who train and work out eat it so is highly popular. Knowing when to harvest broccoli is important though as if you just leave it past the right time it will go to seed and you could lose all the hard work you have put in. When broccoli goes to flower it is called bolting. So how do you know when to harvest broccoli? You will find out here all our gardening tips and advice.
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.
Harvesting Broccoli
Knowing the right time to harvest broccoli is important. You will know when to harvest your broccoli as it will have formed a broccoli head on top of the plant. Usually, broccoli heads will be around 10cm to 15cm but that can also depend on the variety. The head that forms will be compact and tight on the broccoli. If you see a change in color of the broccoli floret from a dark green to a yellow color it means that the broccoli is about to bolt and go to flower so needs harvesting straight away. Usually, the individual florets on the broccoli are the size of a pencil lead.
How Do You Harvest Broccoli?
Making sure you harvest broccoli correctly is a must. If you do it right you could be harvesting more broccoli from the plant.
To harvest the broccoli you need a sharp knife (do not let children do this). With the knife cut the head of the broccoli around 10cm below the head with one sharp cut. Do not saw or be rough with the cutting of the broccoli head as this could damage and harm the broccoli plant.
Did you know that more broccoli will grow on the plant once you have cut the tops off? It will grow broccoli florets from the sides of the plant. This is why you need to be careful when cutting the heads off as you could be harvesting lots more from the plant.
As the side shoots are ready cut them off, the broccoli heads will not be as big as the side shoots but remember how big the floret heads are around the size of pencil lead.
When you have finished harvesting the broccoli off the plant you can actually eat the broccoli leaves like cabbage as they are from the same family of plants.
You now know how to harvest broccoli. You can find out plenty more gardening hints and tips here.
If you would like to learn about growing your own broccoli you can find out here.