How to grow a ton of broccoli at Home.

Broccoli doesn't give you three weeks to think about harvesting. When it's ready, it's ready. And if you hesitate, it goes from broccoli to broccolate surprisingly fast. G'day, I'm Mark from Self Sufficient Me. And in this video, I'm gonna give you my five top tips on how to grow a ton of broccoli. But not only that, I'm gonna show you the perfect window of harvesting and how to get more out of this plant once the main head is gone. Let's get into it. Tip number one, grow it at the right time. You must grow broccoli at the right time for your climate. Broccoli is a cool season vegetable. It likes full sun, but forms its best heads in a mild winter or mild weather, around 15 to 21 degrees Celsius. Here in the subtropics, autumn and winter are my main two seasons for growing broccoli. In cooler climates, try spring or plant in late summer for an autumn harvest. Too much heat when the heads are developing can produce loose florets or a loose head and make it go to flower prematurely. And stress when the plant is young can also produce a tiny head before the plant has grown properly. That's called buttoning. Which sounds cute until you realize it's describing three months of hard work and growing to produce a head of broccoli about the size of a shirt button. You can sow broccoli directly, or I prefer to start seedlings four to six weeks before planting in seed trays. But don't let them become root bound. So as soon as they're ready and about three or four inches high, or even less, start planting them out so that root can develop in situ properly. Sow a few plants every two or three weeks so that you've got a succession cropping and they're not cropping all at once. I might've neglected my own advice here. And now instead of having succession crops to harvest and eat, I could probably open up my own small supermarket. Tip number two, prepare and feed the soil. Broccoli is a hungry plant. It reminds me of a teenage boy. You feed it and then you turn your back and all of a sudden the fridge is empty. Before planting, I add compost or well-rotted manures. The ideal soil is fertile, moisture retentive, but also free draining with a pH around six to seven. But I say that and I never check the pH of my soil. Most of the time, if you're giving love to your soil and giving it plenty of organic matter, doing the fist test and making sure the soil is crumbly and not too wet and not too sandy, generally broccoli is very forgiving and it'll grow for you pretty well. I would only do a pH test if I found that nothing was growing in my garden bed for some reason. I like to mix in a balanced organic fertilizer if needed. Like if I haven't used this garden bed for a while or I've grown some hungry crops in here, maybe some tomatoes the season before, I might just know that the soil's a bit depleted. So I will start with a couple of handfuls of good organic fertilizer before I even start planting the broccoli in. And then once the broccoli is established and you can see it growing well, keep an eye on it. And if the leaves are nice, dark green, they're not pale or yellow. And if the plants seem like they're growing quite well, I wouldn't feed it. I'd just leave it go. But if it seems like they slow down after three or four weeks or six weeks and the leaves look a bit pale, well, give it a liquid fertilizer feed and that'll give it the stimulus to bounce back up. Or even one of those liquid tonics. They work really good. That way a liquid tonic can pep your plants up and if there's plenty of fertilizer still in that bed, it'll just help that plant absorb that fertilizer rather than you wasting extra fertilizer on the plant or over fertilizing and then you're getting a whole heap of leaves and no head. Are you right up there cocky? Jeez, they're noisy. Yeah, so more fertilizer isn't always better. Excessive nitrogen can produce enormous leaves and delay head development. What you want is vigorous plants, not broccoli trees with no broccoli on them. You sometimes see broccoli plants on social media with all the leaves removed and the heads stand out like bull's horns. Don't do that. The leaves are like solar panels for the plant and that will help that head develop and keep the plant nice and healthy. So only remove these leaves here if they are going yellow or they're diseased and dying off. And here's some broccoli trivia for you. Broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts are all the same species. Brassica oleracea, bred from the same wild plant for different features. So cabbage isn't merely broccoli's cousin, it's the same person wearing a different hat. So imagine that family reunion. Uncle kale starts leafing early. Brussels brings all the kids. And cauliflower starts feeling sick and going a bit pale. Tip number three, give it space and consistent water. A mature plant grows much larger than its seedling, duh. Most people say allow 40 to 50 centimetres, which is like half a metre, between plants so that you can get some good cropping and plenty of space for those plants to grow and get big heads. And that's true. Here, I've probably gone half that distance, but I've still got some massive broccoli heads and I'm pretty happy with the whole harvest. Basically, broccoli likes its personal space. It doesn't like mosh pits. It prefers to get out and dance on its own. Keep the soil evenly moist, particularly as the heads form. Don't let them become bone dry and then drown it in water to compensate because that stress can produce poor heads. Mulch helps retain moisture, suppress weeds, and protect the shallow roots. Water deeply at soil level. Once the heads have formed and they're getting close to harvest, try not to water overhead too much, especially in humid weather because that is what makes this discolouration and rot set in. We've had some winter rain and some hot weather, and that combination has started this rot. If it does need water, try to water from underneath and not directly over the top of the heads. Tip number four, protect it from pests. And this is another reason why growing broccoli through the cooler months is better because it not only likes it, there are fewer pests around, particularly the cabbage white butterfly, which absolutely adores broccoli, but it doesn't love the cold. The cooler weather keeps those numbers down. If I can grow and get the crop maturing in our subtropical winter, I rarely have a pest problem. So I seldom need to protect my crops. But as the weather warms and the heads start developing, keep an eye out for cabbage white butterflies and moths. They can find an unprotected brassica bed faster than my youngest can find the cookie tin. And cabbage white butterflies, they look pretty, but their children are absolute vandals. They hatch out from underneath leaves usually, and then they'll eat their way through the leaves and into the head of the broccoli plant. And sometimes they'll get there before you even notice them. The easiest prevention is fine insect netting installed immediately after planting. Seal the edges and support it above the crop where practical. Without netting, go around regularly and inspect both sides of the leaves for eggs. Look for holes and green droppings, and then hand pick the caterpillars or squash the eggs. Aphids can also cluster underneath the heads of the broccoli, you'll see them sometimes. A good firm spray of water can get rid of them. And of course, beneficial insects like lady beetles help a lot too. So don't spray if you can help it because even organic sprays can harm good bugs. Check the plants often, just five minutes, a couple of times a week can save you from a crop disaster. Caterpillars are excellent at social distancing, especially from the gardener. And rotate your broccoli and other brassicas rather than continually using the same bed. That helps reduce soil-borne diseases such as club root, where a buildup of pathogens in the soil prevent the root from being able to suck up nutrients and moisture and the plants slowly suffocate. Tip number five, harvest at the right time. And that's where this array of plants, this crop is the perfect demonstration because I inadvertently done this, but I thought why not make it into a teaching point? I would have much rather had perfect heads to show you for this video, but instead I've got several different types and over in my planter garden, I can show you broccoli going to flower. Those were plants that I planted earlier. A head is ready when the buds are firm, tight and closed. Don't wait for it to match a supermarket specimen exactly because variety, spacing and weather all affect its size. This one here is ready now. It's not the biggest, but basically you cut it 10 to 15 centimetres down the stem. By the way, the stems are good eating. And if the skin is a little tough, just peel that outer layer of skin off a bit. And then you'll find the core is just as good as I reckon the head of it. But you can see how nice and tight this is. There's no disease. It's not starting to open up. That's the perfect pick. Every one of those little green bees is an unopened flower bud. When the head starts to turn loose and yellow like this one, the buds are just starting to open. Now you could leave this grow on. If it's an heirloom variety, it'll open up and start to properly flower. It'll attract pollinators, bees, all lots of lovely creatures to your garden. And then you can save the seed and replant it next season. But I'm not gonna do that. I'm gonna harvest this big fella and we're going to eat it because even though it is starting to open slightly, it's still a beautiful specimen. And from my experience, look, they taste just as good. Yes, when they get a little bit more than this, then you're starting to talk a little bit more chewy, less flavor, less nice to eat. But at this stage, it's still very much savable. But once the heads start to go slimy, off color, start to smell a bit unpleasant, start to drawing the flies in. I should have got a saw to do this. I haven't got a big enough secateurs like this one. Well, then I wouldn't eat it. That's pretty yucky. But I might be able to salvage some of the florets around the sides here. In fact, I will be able to salvage them. Yeah, it's starting to smell a bit rotten. Before serving broccoli, I check for small green grubs hiding among the florets because they can camouflage themselves incredibly well. And you don't want one suddenly repelling into your child's dinner onto the nice white plate because that might put your kid off broccoli for life. What I do is I soak the head in clean water for about 10 minutes and give it a gentle swish around. Hidden grubs will often let go and fall into the water and sink to the bottom. Then I separate and rinse the florets and that prevents a side dish of caterpillar. After removing the main heads, don't pull the plants out. Leave them in there, leave the leaves on, maybe give it a light fertilizer. And most varieties will continue to punch out these beautiful broccolini shoots. They can be really tasty, tender, young, and you can get that for sometimes weeks or months. If you harvest more than you can eat, broccoli freezes well. Cut it into even florets or not even, doesn't matter that much. Blanch in boiling water for one or two minutes and then plunge straight into iced water. Drain, dry it a little bit. I like to stick it on freezer trays to individually freeze first. That way it doesn't freeze in one big block, which can be really irritating when you're trying to get it out of the freezer and put it into a pot to boil, especially if you just want one meal or two meals. So freeze them individually and they'll come apart a lot easier and you'll be able to portion it up a lot easier. Once they're dry on the trays, then you can bag them up. The blanching side of things helps preserve its color, flavor, and texture because no one wants gray, soggy broccoli as a side. If you freeze broccoli just straight off the plant, those enzymes in the broccoli itself can still slowly break down quicker in the freezer than if you had blanched it. There's another good one. So they were a bit squashed in. That's why the heads are smaller, like I was saying earlier on about spacing. These ones on the outer here had plenty more space and they grew bigger. This one here is nearly almost perfect timing. It's only just starting to open a bit, but it's very nice. There's a little bit of discoloration in the centre, but that's almost a perfect timing. That's probably the biggest one so far, but too late. Although I'll be able to get a whole heap off the, around the outside, around the outside, around the outside. What I'll probably do later is come back and I'll trim these leaves off closest to the cabbage so that the cabbage can now branch out a bit, just like that. And I'll leave as much as I can on the outer here and let them sprout up. Give that cabbage some good space. We've got to have some of that sauerkraut. I want plenty of cabbage this season. Well, those were my five top tips on how to grow a tonne of broccoli. And if you do those five tips right, you will, unlike this overcooked head, you will grow nice, big, firm, tight broccoli heads. Don't forget my app, Home Grow. That's just new. Check that out, as well as my book. Just follow the links below and check out all my other links on my support me page on my website. And those are the types of businesses that I recommend to you and that I use myself in my own garden to grow a tonne of food. Give this video a big tonne of thumbs, thumbs as ups and share it around because that helps more than anything. Thanks a lot for watching. Bye for now. Cheers.