Thread: Broccoli plants
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Old December 20, 2009   #5
b54red
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Location: Alabama
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I don't know if you'll see heads as large as 6 inches this time of the year. I have found the broccoli that makes heads sometimes 8 or 9 inches across in the spring will only get about 4 or 5 inches when planted in the fall if it doesn't get killed by a severe freeze. The plants are usually much smaller too. I try to plant a fall crop in late Oct. or early Nov. and a spring crop in early Feb. til early March depending on the weather in both cases. Usually my fall crop is slow to head and makes small plants unless winter is mild. The worst thing that can happen besides a killing freeze is an unusually hot warm spell which will cause small plants to head before they are large enough to produce a good head. I did two different plantings this fall because squirrels ate the centers out of about 1/3 of my broccoli so I planted some more in Dec. None of mine have started heading yet and that is good because they haven't gotten too big due to the torrential rains we've had.
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