Broccoli & Broccol Raab

Brocolli (Brassica oleracea italica)
Sds/g: 240-350       Opt Germ. Range: 14-30 ^oC
Feed Requirements: Moderate + sidedress

Planting & Harvesting Guide:


Cultural Notes:
- A great veggie to grow as it is vigorous, tasty and cold hardy, although it does not appreciate too much heat at the height of summer, making seedlings very leggy (some growers do not plant in Nov-early Jan for this reason and by the time this broccoli is ready to harvest your garden should be in full swing). If you plan your garden properly broccoli can be harvest for all but 8-10 weeks of the year. The Italian broccoli is the type that appears in all the supermarkets. Plant 4-6 seeds 1cm deep with a min spacing of 60x 60cm in spring through to mid-Feb, thin to the strongest plant. Seedlings can be started in early August and planted out at the 5-6 leaf stage. When planting out it can be a good idea to sow a mixture of varieties with differing maturity dates so that you do not have a glut of broccoli that is left to flower due to an ovedose (try our Brocolli blend or mix up your own). In a cold winter the Italian varieties will freeze out or stop producing side shoots. However, the purple sprouting broccoli are much hardier and will last out the winter and produce great heads in late winter and spring when there is little other action happening in the garden. In areas with a cold winter such as the Derwent Valley or Lorinna plant your seeds early in the new year, mid to late Jan elsewhere. To promote good head formation provide the plants with a good feed when the spring bulbs appear. Purple sprouting broccoli is a biannual so it needs to overwinter in order to head up. For both types provide plenty of fertiliser and water regularily.
- Brocolli has a ridiculous number of vitamins and minerals and has been subject to large amounts of research due to its high levels of anti-oxidants and phytochemicals--sulforaphane and the indoles- providing it with significant anti-cancer effects. It is great raw with dips or lightly steamed (best not boiled as this greatly reduces many of the nutrients in broccoli eg. 56% of vitamin B folate is lost from boiling).

Problems:
- The main problem is the cabbage grub laid by the white cabbage moth, these can be controlled by regular sprayings of Dipel (which organic growers are allowed to use as it is a non-toxic biological control).

Harvest:
- Cut the heads when the beads begin to swell, this will also trigger side shoots to develop from each leaf notch. More side shoots tend to develop off the slower maturing varieties.