Hi,

I bought some Broccoli seedlings a couple of months back and they are now
quite large with plenty of flowers on them. However I am wondering where the
actual broccoli comes from, do bees need to pollinate the seeds in order for
the broccoli to grow. The reason i ask is that i already have one broccoli
plant which has flowered and is now just a stalk in the air and nothing
else. I really have no idea of how broccoli should be grown, any ideas would
be great.

Cheers
Luke

Hi Luke,

Sounds like your broccoli has bolted. The edible broccoli is actually
the immature flower - each of the little green bud bits in the head is
just that, a flower bud. So if you've got pretty yellow flowers waving
high up in the air, then you, like me, have left it too late, and it
will shortly go to seed.

However, you may get a second chance. Broccoli will often sprout
additional heads when you cut off the main one, so try cutting off the
flower stalk, with a diagonal cut so it doesn't collect water and rot,
and you may get little mini broccoli heads sprouting from the sides of
the main stalk.

And don't forget, if all else fails you can still eat the stalk - very
good in stir-fry. Does anyone else know if you can eat the leaves? I
always thought you should be able to, but wasn't willing to be the
guinea-pig!

Angela.



Luke wrote:

Hi,

I bought some Broccoli seedlings a couple of months back and they are now
quite large with plenty of flowers on them. However I am wondering where the
actual broccoli comes from, do bees need to pollinate the seeds in order for
the broccoli to grow. The reason i ask is that i already have one broccoli
plant which has flowered and is now just a stalk in the air and nothing
else. I really have no idea of how broccoli should be grown, any ideas would
be great.

Cheers
Luke

Luke wrote:

Hi,

I bought some Broccoli seedlings a couple of months back and they are now
quite large with plenty of flowers on them.
..... I really have no idea of how broccoli should be grown, any ideas
would
be great.

Cheers
Luke

Yeah, everything Angela said... cos of this post i actually cut the top
of the most successful of the seedlings i bought - i missed the other
one, and am waiting for its seeds - and when i cut the top off, i
noticed two very fat caterpillars nearly beat me to it! Also, a while
afterwards, when i next looked at it, a large gob of water had collected
where it had been cut, so i got the two largest leaves and folded them
over; not sure if i should have just let the hot hot sun dry off the
water, but i don't think so.

i got all-year round seedlings, but apparently they don't like full sun,
and hence this procedure of putting the leaves over the middle, altho
i'm not sure if anyone (let alone the plant) would appreciate me doing
it with a clothes peg!

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