How to grow Broccoli

Brassica oleracea · calabrese

A cool-season cabbage-family vegetable grown for its edible flower head. It withstands heavy spring and autumn frosts, but long spells below about 7 °C can stop heading or make it bolt.

Broccoli — Photo: Victor M. Vicente Selvas, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Quick facts

Type	Vegetable
Family	Brassicaceae
Light	Full sun
Soil pH	6–7
Frost	tolerates light frost
Soil for sowing	from 7 °C
Germination	7 days
Seedlings ready	42 days
Sowing to harvest	100 days
Where it grows	Greenhouse, Open ground, At home

When to plant

Sow for seedlings about 7 weeks before planting out.

It tolerates light frost: plant out in open ground about three weeks before your last spring frost.

In an unheated greenhouse everything moves about three weeks earlier.

The first harvest comes about 100 days after the shoots appear.

Frost dates · When to plant

Care

Greenhouse

Stage	Watering	Temperature	Feeding
Seedlings	every 3 days	—	—
Growth	every 4 days	7…24 °C	nitrogen, 21 days into the stage
Flowering	every 3 days	7…24 °C	—
Harvest	every 3 days	—	nitrogen, at the start of the stage

Open ground

Stage	Watering	Temperature	Feeding
Seedlings	every 3 days	—	—
Growth	every 5 days	7…24 °C	nitrogen, 21 days into the stage
Flowering	every 4 days	7…24 °C	—
Harvest	every 4 days	—	nitrogen, at the start of the stage

At home

Stage	Watering	Temperature	Feeding
Seedlings	every 3 days	—	—
Growth	every 4 days	7…24 °C	nitrogen, 21 days into the stage

Growing notes

Light

Needs full sun, at least 6 hours a day and ideally 8–10.

Soil

Fertile, well-drained soil rich in organic matter, pH 6–7. Lime acid soil in the winter before planting.

Care

Plant out 5–7-week-old seedlings 45–60 cm apart. Water deeply at least every 4–5 days in dry weather, more often as the heads form. Side-dress with nitrogen 2–3 weeks after planting out and again after cutting the main head. Cut the central head with some stalk while the buds are still tight, before any flowers open; side shoots follow.

Pests and diseases of Broccoli

Sources

Figures checked against these sources.