Category
🦄
CreativityTranscript
00:00Most people don't realize that when you're eating broccoli, you're actually eating an
00:03unopened flower bud.
00:05It is one of the most popular vegetables out there, but we're really just munching on flowers.
00:09And in this video, I'm going to show you how to grow your own beautiful bouquet of broccoli
00:13flowers from seed to midlife stage, all the way up to harvest.
00:17This video is going to cover everything you need to know about growing broccoli at home.
00:21Broccoli was actually domesticated 2,600 years ago.
00:24This ancient vegetable has been around for a long time, cultivated by the Romans, and
00:29every single brassica plant that we actually eat today, from this mizuna mustard, to the
00:33broccoli in front of me, to cabbages, cauliflower, everything in between, are all related to
00:38the wild cabbage, brassica oleraceae.
00:41And the Romans were able to breed one that produced a large, unopened flower bud that
00:45can then be consumed, and that is how we ended up with broccoli.
00:48Now in the United States, broccoli actually wasn't a popular vegetable up until the 1920s,
00:53when some Italians immigrated over and started their very own broccoli farm in San Jose.
00:58And that's interesting, because today, most of our broccoli is still produced on the central
01:02coast, in that Monterey Bay area, where the cool climate and no extreme heat is really
01:07ideal for growing this delicious crop.
01:10So fall and springtime are generally the best seasons to grow them.
01:13Before we get into that, let's talk about some different variety options, because there
01:16are quite a few out there, and they're all interesting in their own way.
01:19They could basically be split into two major groups.
01:21The first one is Calabrese, as I mentioned, that is from Italy, Calabria.
01:26And there are three main varieties that I really love to grow and grow every single
01:29year.
01:30The first one is Bell Star, which can handle a lot of heat, which is why I like to grow
01:33it here in my garden.
01:34Then I've got the Checco, which is a classic heirloom, and Waltham 29, another classic.
01:39The cool thing about these varieties is that they produce the standard head of broccoli
01:43that you get at the grocery store.
01:45So that big ol' floret with a bunch of little stems attached, that is the Calabrese-style
01:49broccoli that you're used to seeing on a day-to-day basis.
01:52Now for me, personally, I much prefer the sprouting type broccoli.
01:57In this case I have Burgundy, which I grew last year.
01:59And let me tell you, if you want production, this is a killer.
02:02I got so much broccoli, I was handing away bouquets of broccoli florets to whoever came
02:06to my garden.
02:07The cool thing about sprouting broccoli is that instead of producing just one main head,
02:11it produces an abundance of slender stems with a little floret at the top.
02:15Now the reason why I like this one so much more is because it handles cooking much better
02:20than the standard varieties.
02:21It won't get all mushy and soft, it holds up to high-temperature roasting, and it is
02:25quite delicious.
02:27Now there are two more plants I wanted to mention that have the name broccoli but aren't
02:31really broccoli.
02:32The first one is Kailan, which is a Chinese-style.
02:35It is mostly stem and leaf with a little bit of a floret at the end.
02:39And actually this Crosswood Standard Broccoli is where you get Broccolini from.
02:43And Broccolini is one of my absolute favorites.
02:45If you want a good variety, Asperbrock is one that I would recommend.
02:48The last one is Broccoli Rob.
02:50It has the name Broccoli, it is not broccoli whatsoever, it's actually related to the turnip,
02:55and it is honestly a very bitter, not so pleasant cousin of the broccoli plant.
03:00Some people like it, it's not my personal favorite.
03:02We're going to set these two aside and focus on these four for our journey.
03:06So let's go ahead and get these started in these six cells.
03:08Whenever I start broccoli, I like to start them in cells like these six cells here and
03:12then transplant it into my garden.
03:14There's actually a couple different reasons for it.
03:16First of all, you usually are growing this in the springtime.
03:19So four to six weeks before your first frost, that is a transplant anyway, so you're going
03:23to be starting them in some sort of cell.
03:25And the other one is that the other time you start them is in late summer for fall.
03:29And usually that means that your summer garden is full of plants anyway.
03:33So it's not like you could direct seed them out there amongst your tomatoes and peppers.
03:36It's better to start them in cells and transplant them once that space is available.
03:40So when I'm doing broccoli, there's basically nothing special about it.
03:44It's a very common seed.
03:45It's a nice round seed, nothing too small, too big.
03:48I like to just sprinkle two to three seeds per cell.
03:51Make sure they're spread out a bit so that they don't compete once they come up.
03:54And then we're going to be thinning them down to the final selection.
03:57So what I'm going to do here is go through and seed all of these and I'll get some soil
04:01and we'll cover these up.
04:02A few things I'll mention really quick is that I started with wet soil.
04:06Broccoli is a plant that likes to stay moist.
04:09That includes the leaves, the soil itself.
04:11It doesn't really want to stay dry at any point in its lifespan.
04:15And that's just a quick little note for you guys.
04:16Now all I have here is some nice sifted potting mix, something that's equivalent to seedling
04:21soil.
04:22I just sifted my own.
04:23You want to use a fine mix when you're covering your seeds, especially when they are smaller,
04:26like this broccoli seed, because anything that sits on top of it like a stick might
04:31impede its germination.
04:32So we want to sift it down some nice fine soil.
04:35Then I'm going to water this in, set it aside, and we'll check back in a week or two when
04:40those first sprouts have emerged.
04:41And then eventually we'll get them planted out in the garden.
04:44It's been about a month since we first started all of these broccoli seeds.
04:47The good news is that all of the burgundy have made it, so we are going to be planting
04:51all of them.
04:52But on the other front, the Dacheco, Baltham, and Balstar, only two of each made it.
04:56So I've consolidated them into a single tray.
04:59And now we could go ahead and plant these.
05:01When it comes to broccoli, you really want to wait for like two to four true leaves before
05:05planting them out.
05:06You could also just pot them up if it's too early or if you don't have space in your garden.
05:10They do just fine potting up and then being planted later.
05:13The one thing you do not want to do when it comes to any type of brassica is let them
05:17sit in the trays for too long.
05:19If they sit for too long, they think that they are actually older plants and they will
05:23begin to produce a flower.
05:25Even though the plant is really tiny, you'll get a tiny little bolted flower and your season's
05:29over.
05:30So never leave them for too long.
05:31Make sure you plant them out.
05:32And when it comes to finding the right space in your garden for them, you really want full
05:36sun, especially in the wintertime where sun is already at a premium.
05:40It's limited.
05:41So you want to find somewhere that gets plenty of sun like this bed right here.
05:44Now whenever I plant brassicas, I like to make sure there's plenty of fertility available
05:48in the soil, the container, or the bed I'm planting in.
05:51That's why you see the surface layer here of fresh compost that I've added.
05:54I'm also going to be adding some organic slow-release fertilizer directly into the planting hole.
06:00Now you don't have to go crazy.
06:01You could do multiple feedings throughout the season, but adding a little bit in the
06:04hole never seems to bother these plants and in fact, they should benefit from it.
06:08So there's burgundy number one.
06:10What I'll do here is I'll plant one of each of these varieties in this section here so
06:14we could compare them easily.
06:20All four broccoli are in the ground now and we will be following these guys and doing
06:24updates regularly.
06:25Now I want to talk a little bit about spacing here because this is quite tight.
06:29I've only given them about 12 inches apart.
06:31Ideally, you'd want 18 to 24 inches apart for traditional spacing when it comes to broccoli,
06:36but I want to keep them nice and tight so you guys could see how they grow and how they're
06:39all a little bit different.
06:41Now it is totally fine doing them this tight.
06:43You might end up with slightly smaller heads, but you will get a overall larger amount of
06:47broccoli in the long run.
06:48Now keep in mind some of these will get bushy as we continuously harvest them.
06:52So it'll be really interesting to see how crowded and tight these guys get.
06:56I'm going to plant the other set of the same plants over here.
06:59I'm going to space them a little bit further apart and we'll have a little bit of a comparison
07:02once we do that update.
07:03It's been about eight weeks since we transplanted this broccoli in the garden and it is looking
07:08really good.
07:09Just a quick caveat though, that I am growing this in true winter time.
07:13This was planted out in December, it is February now and they are looking really good, but
07:18they're not growing crazy fast.
07:20In spring, if you plant your broccoli, it'll grow much faster than this.
07:23So just keep that in mind.
07:25Now for the update on the varieties over here, we have Bell Star, which is forming its first
07:29nice loose style head of broccoli.
07:32It's more akin to like a broccolini than a true heading style broccoli, which is what
07:36DiCecco is here.
07:38And this one is the furthest behind.
07:40And that's not too surprising for me, DiCecco, since it forms one major head of broccoli
07:45at the beginning, it tends to take a little bit longer for that first one to show up.
07:48Burgundy though, is very far ahead.
07:50It has the first crown form, which looks really nice, but also has a ton of side shoots coming
07:56on the way.
07:57So that one will probably be the first to harvest.
07:59And in the back here, we have Waltham 29, it has its little head of broccoli starting
08:03to form.
08:04And overall, these plants are looking fantastic.
08:07So the next update will be when we do our first harvest, because one of the interesting
08:11things about broccoli is that it's not a just one time harvest plant, especially depending
08:15on the variety and how you harvest it, you could really extend your broccoli harvest
08:19season quite dramatically.
08:21So I'll see you in probably two to three weeks when we harvest some of this broccoli.
08:24So it's been about a week or two since our last update, and it's actually time to harvest.
08:29Now, this is going to be kind of crazy, because if you look at this burgundy broccoli plant
08:33in front of me, it's really not that big, but you are going to be shocked by the harvest.
08:38And there is one more harvest that we're going to do today.
08:40And I think this one was the Walthams 29.
08:42I honestly don't remember, it looks a little bit looser than it should, which makes me
08:47think that I might have accidentally planted a broccolini.
08:50And usually if I'm growing broccolini, I wouldn't let it get this tall first, I would actually
08:53chop it near the top just like this to produce more branching and more of those side shoots
08:58of broccolini florets.
09:00So this is still good eating, I'll set it aside.
09:03Today we really want to harvest this guy.
09:05So what I'm going to do here is collect this main bunch, and I'm just going to bunch them
09:09together in my hand, take my knife, cut right across.
09:14So right there is the first part of the harvest, but all of these extra side shoots here are
09:18going to add up.
09:19Now, keep in mind that it is a purple plant, a purple broccoli, but when you cook it, that
09:23color will fade and it will turn into a sort of green color again.
09:27Now that is expected, so don't freak out if that happens to your broccoli when you actually
09:31cook it.
09:32Look at this guys, I have a true handful here, I can't even fit it in my hand.
09:38This is all from that one plant that is this small.
09:41And the real kicker here is, this plant's not even done, it's actually just getting
09:45started.
09:47Over the course of the next month or two, you are going to be shocked by how much broccoli
09:50this plant produces, because every one of these branches here that I've left behind,
09:54and even the branches I've cut, are now going to start to produce second, third, fourth
09:59side shoots, and it's going to be a huge bush of purple.
10:02So this is a wonderful harvest, it's going to be dinner tonight.
10:05My other ones are just around the corner here, the Duchecco up front here is definitely starting
10:09to form that first tight little head, so we'll check back when we get our next major harvest,
10:14and you will definitely see some progress on this one when that happens.
10:17And now it is time to finally harvest our heading broccoli, the Duchecco.
10:22Now unfortunately I missed this one by about three days, which is exactly how long I was
10:26gone traveling on the road, but it is still perfectly good eating.
10:31Now the thing that I'm looking at here that's telling me I missed the window a little bit,
10:34is that some of the floret is loose around the edges where they meet, you can see they're
10:39starting to space out a bit, so it's starting to unfurl and open.
10:42What you really want, ideally, is for really tight heads where there is no gaps, there's
10:47no looseness like this, but honestly there is essentially no difference in the eating
10:51quality from this stage to what it looked like three days ago.
10:54So now what I'm going to do is come just beneath the head here, and what I want to do again
10:59is make sure that I leave a leaf below my cut.
11:02That's going to trigger that next set of broccoli that's going to grow.
11:05So I'm going to give it a snip, and right there we've got ourselves a nice little head
11:10of broccoli.
11:11Now this year I have to say that overall, not my best basket year.
11:14I am getting a decent amount of production, but the weather has been very strange.
11:18It's been extremely dry this year, it's been a little bit more warm overall, so I'm not
11:24surprised that they aren't doing as well as they could be, but I am still getting plenty
11:28of harvest.
11:29Now the main thing I really want to tell you guys about growing a heading broccoli, or
11:33really any type of broccoli, is that this plant is not done.
11:37You do not want to remove it at this point, because right next to it I have the exact
11:41same type of broccoli, a heading style broccoli, and I've already collected the head.
11:46So now what's happening is I'm getting all of these different side shoots that are starting
11:49to form, and now let's go ahead and harvest them and see how much broccoli that gives us.
11:52Alright guys, so there is the original head of broccoli that we harvested from this plant,
11:56and here are all the side shoots that I got from that second plant.
11:59It's roughly a third of the total volume.
12:01Now the nice thing about this is that it's already pre-floretted, they're nice and tender,
12:06they grow quickly, and the cool thing is that that was the second harvest.
12:09This will now go on to its third harvest, and it'll have even more sites to branch from.
12:14So that third harvest will probably be bigger than the second harvest, and overall you're
12:18definitely going to get at least two heads worth of broccoli.
12:22Now let me show you how to break down a standard head of broccoli and store it in your fridge
12:26so it can last plenty of time, giving you that confidence to cook it when you're ready.
12:30So the first thing I want to say about storing your broccoli is that oftentimes not washing
12:34it will allow it to last longer in the fridge, unless you wash it and 100% let it fully dry
12:40before storing it.
12:41Now I don't have the time or setup to do that, so what I do instead is I will break this
12:45down, store it, and then wash it as I need it.
12:49Now the cool thing about broccoli is that it has all these extra florets on the outside,
12:52so one thing you could do is you could just take your knife and just tap it like that,
12:56and they will just snap off, or they'll cut all the way through.
12:59You could also just break them by hand if you want, that works perfectly fine, so you
13:02could start processing some of these outer shoots just like that.
13:05Now once you get to the top crown, what I like to do is just get close where I get essentially
13:10every floret that's a majority floret left, and then set aside the stalk, and then now
13:15I can break out all of these individual little florets.
13:19Pretty easy to separate broccoli honestly, I think it's worth it to do this beforehand,
13:23it's going to make it more likely that you will cook it.
13:25When I have a big floret like this that's stuck together, I'll just go to the back here,
13:30cut down the middle, and then rip it apart with my hands, and that'll give me a nice
13:34manageable sort of single bite or two bite floret.
13:38So all of this is now split up, the other thing I want to mention is that you can use
13:43the stalk of your broccoli of course, what people like to do, I'm not a big broccoli
13:47stem consumer, but if you cut it into thinner pieces like this, what you could then do is
13:52then cut it into julienne, like little matchsticks, and this can now be used in a stir fry, something
13:57like that.
13:59It's actually very crispy, and if you grow it at home through the winter, it's also quite
14:02sweet.
14:03It's actually really good, I'm actually surprised by how delicious that is.
14:06Once you have your florets processed and ready to bag, what I like to do is I will use produce
14:10bags like this, I wash and reuse them, and they do substantially increase the lifespan
14:15of your fruit or veg.
14:17So with veg, I'll get my bag, I'll start loading it up with all my florets, just like that.
14:21Now if you stored it in the bag just as is, what can happen is condensation builds up,
14:26and that'll actually break down your broccoli faster, so I suggest getting a paper towel,
14:31just a single one like this, and you could even just put this near the bottom of the
14:34bag just like that, and that'll help soak up any moisture that condenses in this bag.
14:39And just as an example, here's actually some broccoli that I collected and stored exactly
14:44this way, you can see the little paper there.
14:46This was collected, I think it was ten days ago, it might be a full two weeks, and it's
14:52looking totally fine.
14:53So it's very rigid, it's upright, it actually will still snap, so it's still crispy.
14:59Perfectly fresh, stores a very long time if you do it like this.
15:03Now remember, water is the enemy, which is why that paper towel is making such a big
15:08difference.
15:09So there you have it, we've grown our broccoli from seed to harvest and stored it so it could
15:12last a long time, and then we could cook something for somebody that we love.
15:16Now if you have any other issues with growing brassicas such as broccoli, check out this
15:19video right over here, which will give you some tips on problems to avoid.
15:23But good luck in the garden, thank you guys for watching, and keep on growing.