Hi Patty

It doesn't seem to make any sense that we are planting a cool season crop like broccoli in the July 15th to August 15th timeframe, does it? The reason we do it is that broccoli needs a minimunm of roughly 70-80 days to mature so you have to plant it in the dead of the summer so it will mature before the weather gets too cold. There are a couple of ways to start broccoli for fall, and I'll mention them both. Method I involves direct seeding, and Method II involves starting seed indoors in paper cups and transplanting it outside.

METHOD I: It can be hard to get the seed of cool-season crops to germinate outside, especially when temperatures are exceeding 90 degrees. For fall crops like broccoli, you could sow in the ground. To have success using this method, I'd pre-soak the seed in water in a cup or bowl indoors for 12 to 24 hours before planting it. That way, the seed can soak up the moisture before it is planted and this helps it to germinate better and more quickly.

If you are going to direct sow, I would water the ground where you are going to plant your seed a day or two before planting, and I'd water it deeply. You want the soil to be fairly moist, but not sopping wet. Then, pre-soak your seed, plant it, pat soil down over it gently and sprinkle lightly to get the soil to settle down around the seed.

To improve the chances of germination, keep your soil as cool as possible. I like to do this by making a redneck sunshade. Since it is a TEMPORARY sunshade that I'm only going to use for a couple of days, I normally take two or three or four lawn chairs or tomato cages (whatever is handy) and position them strategically along the strip of the garden where I'm planting the broccoli. Then using zip ties, clothespins, duct tape or whatever is handy, I attach old sheets or leftover fabric mulching material or old sheer curtains or whatever else is handy, and temporarily shade the soil to keep it cooler. This helps the seed to germinate more quickly, and I remove the sunshade as soon as the broccoli sprouts.

Once the seeds have germinated and the plants are an inch or two tall, which doesn't take long, you can mulch around the plants, but keep the mulch pulled back away from the plant because some bugs, like pillbugs and sowbugs, are attracted to the mulch and you don't want them to climb on the mulch and eat your broccoli seedlings. It is best to water with a soaker hose that drips soil directly into the ground because water on the foliage can cause some diseases like powdery mildew and downy mildew.

OK, so you have watered the ground, soaked the soil, planted the seed, and shaded the soil. The seed sprouts, so you remove the shade canopy, mulch, water the seedlings regularly, mulch the plants and keep moist but not excessively wet.

In July and August you will see slow but steady growth. If you want, you can fertilize with a gentle organic fertilizer like Espoma Vegetable-Tone or liquid seaweed or liquid fish emulsion. Watch carefully for signs of insect infestation.

If you want to keep a shade cloth over the broccoli for the first month to six weeks to keep it cool, you can use a commercial shade cloth that blocks a certain percentage of the sunlight, or something like cheesecloth (which, if you are not familiar with it, is very lightweight and gauzey) which only partially blocks sunlight.

To keep the cabbage loopers and other caterpillars away, use the organic product Bt. Specifically, you want to us Bt 'Kurstaki' which you spray on the plants. When the caterpillars ingest it, they stop feeding and die within a day or so. Be VERY careful with this product if you use it because it has the potential to kill every butterfly and moth that visits your garden. When I use it, I spray carefully and take extreme care to get it ONLY on the targeted plants, and I never let it drift on to nearby flowers that are planted for the butterflies and moths. Bt is sold as a Caterpillar Killer and I'll link a photo of a commonly sold brand below to show you what to look for in the store. If you follow the label directions, and spray at whatever intervals they specify, you shouldn't have a problem with caterpillars. And, for what it is worth, I see far fewer cabbage worms and cabbage loopers in fall than in the spring.

Your broccoli plants will grow fairly slowly but steadily in the heat, but will enlarge rapidly as fall temperatures arrive and weather becomes more mild. You should have plently of time before the first frost to harvest the main heads and many sideshoots as well.

METHOD II: If the thought of direct sowing makes your nervous and you are worried you won't get good germination, you can sow your seed in small containers and transplant them into the ground. I like to use the little 3 oz. bathroom-sized cups. Be sure to poke holes in the bottom of the cups for drainage. Fill with a sterile soilless mix, plant your seeds, and water. Keep the soil moist until the seed sprouts. (Pre-soak 'em if you want to.) I'd keep them inside until they germinate OR in a sheltered location like a porch. As soon as they germinate, though, move them out into either full sun or dappled shade. Once they are 2 or 3 inches tall, transplant them into the ground, paper cup and all. (If they are going into an area that gets significantly more sun than the area in which they have been raised, harden them off by gradually exposing them to more and more sunlight over about 5 to 7 days.) If you want, you can tear or cut the bottom off the cup, but if you leave the bottom there, the roots will grow right through it. Try to transplant on a cloudy day or in late afternoon to early evening. DO NOT transplant in full sun in the heat of the day. Once they are in the ground, the process is the same as described for plants that were direct-seeded. I start almost all my veggie seeds in paper cups because planting them in this way drastically reduces transplant shock.

If the usage of Bt is totally out of the question because you are a butterfly gardener, then the alternative is to cover your plants with a lightweight summer row cover, but you have to make sure all its edges are completely covered so the moths cannot sneak under the row covers and lay eggs.

If you have more questions, ask.....it is the only way to learn!

In the link below, you will see the Bonide (brand name) Thuricide product that contains Bt 'Kurstaki'. There are many similar products. The ones I see most commonly here in southern OK are the Bonide in the link and the ones marketed by Safer and Green Light.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Example of A Bt Caterpillar Product

Dawn, thank you so much. I can't believe how helpful you are & how much time you take to do it.
I will try to direct sow since my cats knock everything off any windowsill in my house.
The caterpiller stuff will be great. Last year I had a tomato hornworm that ate most of the leaves from my tomatoes. DIL got it off for me since I couldn't bring myself to touch it. I can use it for both.

Patty,

You're welcome. Just trying to spread the "joy of gardening".....and I can "talk" about gardening endlessly, especially this week.

Dawn

Patty, let us know how succesful you were with the fall planting of broccoli. I plant mine in the spring, having given up on the fall so I am interested to know how it does for you. The only thing I would add is that if you are in a part of Ok with acid soils, (That would be the eastern half) broccoli, liking slightly alkaline soil, will benefit from a sprinkling of woodash--kept back away from the stem--or some agricultural lime to sweeten the soil a bit. Dorothy

Thank you for posting this Patty. I live not to far from you :-)

I am planting broccoli as well and was keen to read what Dawn shared.

Mari

Well, I started my broccoli in paper cups after soaking as Dawn suggested. They came up beautifully & I kept them out on a potting bench that got dappled morning sun, then moved them to an outside windowsill that got full morning sun. Next I had to go out of town for the week-end I they fried. It will be 99 here today so I am going to start them again in a few days. I can't keep them in the house due to wild cats. I'm thinking of pulling up some non-producing tomato plants & putting them there instead of the new bed, but glad to know about the ash, I will use that.

Patty,

Seedlings will fry in the sun this time of year. I can keep them alive in full sun if I water twice daily and feed them liquid seaweed weekly.

In shade to dappled shade, I can usually get by with watering them only every other day, but once we're hitting the hundreds like we have been lately, I water them 1 to 2 times daily even if they are in the shade. Seedlings just don't have large enough or well-enough developed root systems to go long without water.

In the spring garden, the main challenge is to get the seeds to sprout in cool weather and to keep them from freezing. For the fall garden, it is exactly the opposite--getting them to sprout in our heat and keeping them alive until cooler weather arives.

Dawn