Learn how to plant, grow and harvest broccoli in your own home garden with this step-by-step guide. Learning when and how to plant broccoli has a lot to do with how much pest pressure you’ll deal with, how many pounds you’ll have at harvest time, and what the flavor of the broccoli will be. Broccoli is fairly easy to grow providing it is planted at the right time and is kept weed free.

Ways To Use Broccoli

Eat it fresh dipped in homemade ranch dressing.
Make a broccoli raisin salad – this is something I look forward to every summer.
Steam it and eat it alongside any meal.
Blanche and freeze and use it as a side dish all winter long.

Why You’ll Like Growing Broccoli

Broccoli is one of the earliest vegetables that is ready to eat in the late spring or early summer.
One of the healthiest vegetables you can eat.
It’s very easy to grow as long as you plant it early in the springtime before the cabbage butterflies are out.
Broccoli that you purchase in the grocery store is highly sprayed because of the pest pressure that the growers have to deal with when growing the broccoli. Growing your own broccoli ensures that you’ll delicious organic broccoli that is healthy for your family to eat.

lady with big bowl of broccoli and cauliflower

Varieties of Broccoli

When selecting varieties of broccoli to grow, there’s really two main differences. Some broccoli varieties tend to produce one large head of broccoli and after that is harvested they are basically done producing. Other broccoli varieties will produce a slightly smaller head, but then produce a lot of side shoots that can be harvested throughout the growing season. Which kind you decide to grow really depends on whether you want a continual harvest, or prefer to harvest your broccoli once and for all. My favorite variety to grow is Waltham 29, an heirloom variety known for it’s robust growth, high yields, and ability to withstand cold temperatures. It produces a nice array of side shoots for a more continual harvest throughout the season.

Growing Zone

One of the first things you are going to want to find out is what growing zone you live in so that you know when your climate will be warm enough to plant outside. The USDA has developed a map that shows the different climates across the country. It is based on the weather history over the last century and they have broken the country up into growing zones. The zone you live in will tell you how cold your winters get on average, and when you can expect to see your last frost date in the spring and first frost in the fall.

It is also important to find other people that garden near where you live and talk to them about their experiences. Sometimes there is microclimates within the USDA hardiness zones that can be warmer or colder depending on elevation and many other factors.

Average Last Frost Date

To find out your average last frost date, visit https://www.almanac.com/gardening/frostdates and enter your zip code to find out when you can expect to have your last frost in the spring. After this date, you can safely plant out all of your heat loving plants like broccoli and peppers. Keep in mind that the last frost dates are based on averages over many years.

Free Garden Planning App – Seedtime

My favorite tool for determining exactly when to plant seeds indoors and plants out in the garden, is a free garden planning app called Seedtime. It takes all the guesswork out of figuring out when to start planting seeds indoors. Once you know when your average last frost date is in the spring, you can put that information into Seedtime. The app takes into account cool season versus warm season crops and based on your average last frost date, tells you when to start your seeds indoors. It also tells you when to transplant them outside and when to plan on cultivating and harvesting your crops. Seedtime will tell you when to plant the crops into your garden that prefer to be direct seeded like potatoes, carrots and corn. Click here to start using this free online gardening app today.

Two Ways To Source Broccoli Seedlings

Purchase Plants From Local Garden Centers

If you are a beginner gardener, I would strongly suggest that you purchase broccoli seedlings from a seed catalog or a local greenhouse. Starting your own plants is fairly simple, but they aren’t that expensive to purchase either, and it’s best to learn how to grow them successfully in the garden, and then move into all aspects of starting your own plants. I purchased my plants from my local greenhouse for a long time before I had room for my seed starting racks in my basement. And I still purchase them sometimes when I don’t have enough of my own.

Start Your Own Plants Indoors

To start your own broccoli plants, you’ll need a seed starting tray, some soil and some broccoli seeds. I prefer to start all of my seeds in soil blocks, you can learn how to make soil blocks here. Then I just place one seed in each soil block, and moisten gently with water. Cover your seed starting tray with another tray turned upside down to help keep the seeds moist until they germinate. In just a few days you’ll see the seeds germinate, and then you’ll want to put them under lights on a plant growing rack like this one.

Planting Broccoli In The Garden

Landscape Fabric To Prevent Weeds

Keeping broccoli weed free is really important for it to be able to have full access to the soil nutrients and sunlight without any competition. I prefer to grow my broccoli on landscape fabric, but you can also mulch it with straw, hay or wood chips.

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Plant When It’s Cool

Broccoli is a cool weather loving crop, and it does not like to grow in the heat. It can tolerate frost down to 26 degrees, and can usually be planted out in the garden up to a month before your last frost date. I always use the Seedtime Garden Planning app to tell me exactly when to start my seeds indoors so they’ll be ready to plant out in the garden at the right time. Depending on your climate, you can actually plant a spring crop for an early summer harvest and then a fall crop of broccoli to be harvested before the snow flies.

Planting Your Broccoli

Gently place each broccoli plant into a hole in the ground that is deep enough to cover the roots and the soil around the roots. It’s best to transplant in the evening, or when it’s cloudy to keep the plants from getting sunburned. After planting, water the seedlings well to encourage new root growth.

Watering Broccoli

I like to water my garden with drip line because it’s an efficient way to water and I can easily control how much water the plants get. If you don’t have a drip line set up, you can also water with a sprinkler, but dripline is my preference.

Weeding Broccoli

Even when growing in the fabric there will usually be a few weeds that will germinate in the holes of the landscape fabric. I just take a few minutes and pull them out when they’re small, being careful not to pull up any broccoli. I usually only have to do this a couple of times before the broccoli grows large enough to shade out the growth of any new weeds.

Pest Pressure

Once the temperatures are consistently above 90 degrees during the daytime, the cabbage moths will hatch out from their winter hibernation and become active. They lay their eggs on the plants, the eggs hatch into worms, and the worms feed on your broccoli plants and can entirely desimate your plants if you aren’t careful. The way I get around this problem is that I plant the broccoli early enough that it’s pretty much fully matured before the cabbage moths start becoming active. Once the plant is well established, the moths won’t be able to hurt it much. I also make sure my soil is well amended in the springtime before planting. Healthy soil means healthy plants, and pests are not as drawn to healthy plants as they are to sickly plants.

You can also cover your plants with floating row cover and sandbags to keep the moths from reaching your plants, but I find it impossible to keep the row cover in place in our windy environment. So I just plant them early, and they always turn out beautifully.

Harvesting Broccoli

Usually about 60 days after the broccoli has been transplanted into the garden, the plants will have produced nice large heads. You want to harvest the broccoli before the flower buds on the broccoli head start to open up. When you’re eating broccoli, you’re actually eating the flowering part of the plant, and if you wait to long to harvest them, they will develop into little yellow flowers and not be very good to eat. When they are still nice and tight, that is when you want to harvest them. To harvest, just cut the head off the plant with a sharp knife. (See video).

heads of broccoli ready to harvest — Screenshot

If the cabbage moths are out by the time you harvest, you can just soak your broccoli in salt water after harvest, and the cabbage worms will come right out of the broccoli. I don’t mind doing this at all if it means that I’m getting high quality nutritious organic broccoli.

The smaller side shoots will begin to grow after the main broccoli head is cut and can be harvested all summer long. Sometimes I find that the flavor of the broccoli side shoots gets really strong when it gets hot outside, so I sometimes pull up the plants at that time and plant a fall crop to be harvested in October. Keep in mind I’m growing in a zone 4B.

large basket full of broccoli and cauliflower

Storing Broccoli

Broccoli is best when eaten fresh. But when I get the first big harvest out of the garden, I always cut it into bite sized chunks, blanche it (or cook it for 3 minutes), dunk it in ice water to stop the cooking and freeze it in freezer safe bags. Then I have it to make broccoli cheese soup with or as a side dish for any meal all winter long.

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Landscape fabric, optional
Propane torch – only if using landscape fabric
Broccoli seeds – available from True Leaf Market, Johnny’s Seeds or Berlin Seeds
Drip Line

FAQ

Broccoli takes about 60 days to grow from when you plant it into the garden.

Plant it early, usually about a month before your last frost date so it has time to mature before the cabbage moths are active. Growing broccoli in cooler temperatures also keeps it sweet tasting and tender.

When the broccoli plants are first transplanted into the garden, they should be watered a little bit everyday to help their roots grow and develop. After that you can begin watering them less until they are only getting about 1 inch of water per week. If you can reach your hand down several inches down into the soil and feel moisture, than they probably don’t need water. The less water you give them the more it will encourage their roots to grow in search of water. If it is extremely hot outside and you see your plants looking stressed, then they probably need a little water.

My favorite fertilizer for any of the plants in my garden is a liquid fertilizer called BioThrive. I mix it up in a little sprayer and fertilize my garden plants once a week for the first few weeks after transplant.

Broccoli should be grown 16-18” apart. I suggest growing them on a 30” wide bed with one row of broccoli down the center of the row.

Broccoli prefers to grow in full sun, in fertile well-drained soil. They prefer a soil PH of 6.0 to 7.0 but are widely adaptable and will grow almost anywhere.

To learn more about how I test my soil, click here.

I hope you try growing your own broccoli, and let me know in the comments below which varieties you’re growing and any questions you may have.