"col" wrote in message
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What fertilizers are good for growing broccoli ?

will get to that in a minute ;-)

Which are the ones trhat don't flower as my last crop flowered when
the plant was only about a foot of the ground if that

they all flower - the green buds we eat are flower buds :-) if they bolt to
flower too soon, it means they're not happy for some reason. alternatively,
perhaps you just weren't ready for it, even though the plants were, & the
flowering caught you off-guard before you had a chance to pick it...?

ime, broccoli planted in winter (which i have done) probably just wants to
bolt when spring comes, so don't do that - it's just too late.

the broccoli i put in last spring lasted most of winter (it just went on &
on!) & i took the last one out last week (the sprouts were just getting too
small to be bothered with, but they were still coming). the broccoli i have
in currently, i planted in autumn, & we're picking it now in droves. n.b:
these autumn plants are _much_ smaller (only about knee-high as you have
said) but the heads & sprouts are good. they WILL flower when the buds are
ready, though, so it's up to you to pick them before they flower.

I've planted a second batch of seedlings down with blood and bone.

that sounds good.

Using pot ash once a week and so far about two thirds are dying and
the left over looks ok for now.

if 2/3 are dying, something is wrong. i feel potash once a week is just far
too much & might be the problem. i'd water it out & leave things for a
couple of weeks, jmo.

i put my veg (in general) into manured mulched & composted (when i have
enough) soil. in my own case, the soil isn't that good yet, & needs more
organic matter (but then, all soils do). however, this practice means the
stuff rots over the lifetime of the plant & feeds it as it grows, too.

the other thing i do for the brassicas (in fact, most of my veg) is use poo
stew or weed stew: in a smallish receptacle of some kind, fill with either
weeds/comfrey/other green stuff, or old poo (any kind). fill with water &
leave for 2-4 weeks. it will need straining & will smell ghastly until the
3-5 week mark (but you can use it before it stops smelling, any time after 2
weeks - just try not to get it on your hands ;-). put about a litre of
strained liquid into about 8-10 litres of water in the watering can, or at
any rate dilute until it's quite a light colour. apply every 2 weeks (or in
my case, when i realise i haven't done it for ages ;-) either onto the
plant's soil, or you can use it for foliar feeding (apply directly to
leaves). it's very simple & is free & brassicas love it. because brassicas
are flowering plants, you don't want too much nitrogen but equally, you
don't want too much of anything else, either. blood & bone, or weed stew, or
just very healthy soil with lovely organic matter breaking down in it
continually, should be the limit of what you're doing re fertilising. i
think you've overdone it with potash, in this case. they love their feeding
& watering but ime not quite enough feeding is far better than too much -
they won't die of underfeeding (they just might not perform as well), but
they will die of overfeeding.

hth! broccoli can be a bit weird at first ime, but quite simple once you get
a grip on what to do & how long they take; when almost ready, they need
watching so you catch them before they flower.
kylie