If you have a home garden, you should consider adding broccoli seeds to the selection. Freshly cut broccoli offers a number of essential minerals and vitamins. They are great to add to your salad, steamed or even out of the freezer. Prior to enjoying the broccoli, you must first start with a seed and learn how to grow it. Use the tips here to do this properly and have great looking plants in the future.
Planting the Broccoli Seeds
When you plant broccoli seeds, it is a plant that requires full sun, but putting it in partial shade will help to prevent the plants from bolting in a location that is prone to warm spells. You also need to put the seeds in well-drained and rich soil where you have placed a good amount of compost.
Once the flower heads begin to form, cool days and nights are important. There is a large range of days for the broccoli to mature, which means you should puck a cultivar that is going to mature prior to the weather in your area turning warmer. In winter, the Marathon option is smart, and for spring, Packman is a good option.
Guidelines for Growing the Broccoli
The key to producing healthy and great looking broccoli is to be sure it is able to grow steadily. About two to three weeks after you transplant the broccoli seeds, you should top-dress them with a type of compost tea or put a side dress on them with fish emulsion or blood meal, then water them deeply. This should be repeated on a monthly basis until the broccoli seeds are ready to be harvested. This type of regimen will encourage a tender side shoot, which you will not be able to harvest until the hot weather hits or until there is a heavy freeze that ends the season.
You also need to be sure to cultivate around younger plants in order to remove all weeds and keep the soil loose. Keeping the broccoli seeds well maintained will ensure they continue to grow properly and that a pretty plant is produced.
Issues with Broccoli Seeds
The good news is, broccoli is one of the crops that is least affected by pests or other issues that spring crops are prone to. However, some of the pests that may affect the crop include flea beetles, cutworms, cabbage maggots and aphids. Understanding what may affect the seeds will help you prevent them from occurring in the first place.
Broccoli seeds are not extremely difficult to grow, but they do require the proper preparation. Using the information here will help you successfully grow your broccoli and make sure that you produce healthy and delicious plant season after season.
