Broccoli
 

I have a Broccoli plant in a pot in the greenhouse. It is about 1 1/2
foot tall and bushy. For the sake of space can I put a tie around it
to pull it together or will that not be good for it. At this point I
could probably just move it out side but what do you think?
MJ

You should be okay to transplant it now, make sure the soil you're planting it in holds moisture well. If you're worried about the occasional cold nights, put a floating row cover over it until it gets warmer. And I would not tie up the leaves, give it the space it needs. You may get side shoots after you harvest the main head.

I took a couple of pictures of my broccoli plants a few days ago. One is in
a 4 gallon bucket. The other is in a 5 gallon bucket. They were both started
from seedlings at about the same time at least 8 weeks ago.

As you can see, the 4 gallon one is quite a bit smaller than the 5 gallon
one. Also, the part of the plant that we eat has already "gone to seed" on
the 4 gallon one.

Silly me, you know I never realized that broccoli (the "head" that we eat)
is actually a many faceted flower! Well duh, that's why they're called
"broccoli florets". Well anyway, the florets on my 4 gallon broccoli were
obviously left on the plant too long. I was hoping the broccoli head would
get bigger. But it just started to spread out and develop flower petals.

You can also see that the 5 gallon broccoli is much larger. I think that its
flower has the potential to grow quite a bit more. We'll see.

I am convinced that using anything less than 5 gallon buckets is not the way
to go on a balcony, unless you want small plants.