(Full Latin name: Brassica oleracea var. italica)

Broccoli is a nutritious vegetable that can be used in a variety of ways. You can eat it fresh, lightly sauté it, or use it in stir-fries, soups, pasta, or rice dishes. If you follow a few simple broccoli growing tips, growing your own broccoli isn't difficult at all. Read all the tips here, from sowing to harvesting broccoli.

Broccoli is a green vegetable that vaguely resembles a miniature tree. It belongs to the plant species Brassica oleracea.

It is closely related to cabbage, Brussels sprouts, kale, and cauliflower—all edible plants that are cruciferous vegetables.

There are three main varieties of broccoli:

• Calabrian broccoli
• Sprouting broccoli
• Purple cauliflower - despite its name, a type of broccoli

Broccoli is packed with vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants. According to the Dutch food table, the nutritional value of the edible portion per 100 grams of broccoli is: 112 kJ or 27 kcal.

According to this table, the composition of 100 grams of edible portion is as follows:

• Water 92 g
• Energy-providing nutrients:
  • protein 3.0 g
  • fat 0.2 g
  • carbohydrates 2 g.
• Minerals:
  • calcium 38 mg
  • phosphate 69 mg
  • iron 0.6 mg
  • sodium 5 mg
  • potassium 227 mg
• Vitamins:
  • thiamine (B-1) 0.07 mg
  • riboflavin (B-2) 0.11 mg
  • vitamin B-6 0.17mg
  • vitamin C 47mg

Broccoli is a vegetable with no fewer than four crops to choose from (early harvest, summer harvest, autumn harvest, and winter harvest). Depending on when you want to harvest, you decide when to start the cultivation. As a rule of thumb, broccoli seeds germinate within 4 to 7 days at ambient temperatures between 7 and 29°C.

• Early cultivation: Sow under glass February-mid March; plant outdoors end March-April; harvest in June
• Summer cultivation: Sow outdoors in late March-May; plant outdoors in May-June; harvest July-August
• Autumn cultivation: Sow outdoors June-early July; plant outdoors July-August; harvest September-October
• Winter cultivation of sprouting broccoli: Sow outdoors mid-May to mid-July; plant outdoors July-September; harvest: March-April

When sowing indoors, ensure sufficient light to prevent your seedlings from stretching. If long stems do develop, transplant the seedlings deeper (up to the first leaves) and then give them more light. Wait to transplant spring seedlings into the garden until the weather is frost-free. Harden off the young plants by gradually exposing them to direct sunlight and wind.

Plant the seedlings 35 cm apart in the row and 60 cm between rows. More space between the plants will result in larger heads in the center. Broccoli thrives in full sun. Choose a garden location with at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sunlight daily.

The edible part of the broccoli plant is the unopened flower. Ideally, the central head should be harvested when it is fully developed, but before the individual flower buds open into small, yellow flowers.

Signs that broccoli is ready to harvest include a dense head of 10 to 18 cm (4 to 7 inches) with large, dense flower heads. When the flower heads begin to open, harvest immediately. Once the plant has bolted (bloomed), it's too late to pick. To harvest, remove the central flower head with a sharp knife. If you leave the broccoli plant in the ground, side shoots (flower heads) may develop. Although they are smaller than the central flower head, this allows for a longer harvest period and therefore a larger yield.

To maintain the quality of freshly picked broccoli heads, it's advisable to harvest them in the morning and refrigerate them as soon as possible. Unwashed broccoli heads can be stored in the refrigerator for 3 to 5 days. Blanched broccoli freezes well and retains its quality for up to 12 months.

Broccoli seedlings

Cultivation starts from tiny seeds. How can they grow so enormously large and strong? That's the magic of gardening, isn't it? No broccoli tastes as good as broccoli grown from seed in your own garden.

To start seedlings indoors, you'll need a seed tray , seed and cutting soil , and a grow light or propagator with grow lights (or a reliably sunny windowsill).

Step-by-step plan for sowing broccoli indoors:

• Fill your tray with seed-starting soil, sow two seeds 0.5 to 0.5 centimeters deep in each hole, and cover lightly. Place your tray on a stand if you're not using a propagator.
• Moisten them with a plant sprayer and keep them moist until they germinate, which should happen within 5-10 days (at a temperature of about 15°C).
• Once they've germinated, place the seeds on a sunny windowsill or under your grow light for at least 8-10 hours per day, or simply leave them in the propagator. From now on, continue watering them in the base or propagator. You want to keep one strong, healthy seedling per pot. When the seedling(s) are about 3 centimeters tall, choose the strongest and healthiest seedling. Carefully cut away any other seedlings as close to the ground as possible with scissors.

First come the cotyledons, then the first pair of true leaves, when you see the second pair of true leaves you can go to the next step.

Transplanting seedlings

Second pair of true leaves visible

Transplant your seedlings into p7 pots and let them grow for about 4 weeks until they are ready to be planted out.

Step-by-step plan for weaning:

• Prick out your seedlings in P7 pots, planting them within 2 cm of the top edge with a mix of 2/3 vegetable garden potting soil and 1/3 perlite granules. Press the soil firmly with the bottom of another pot to remove air bubbles, but don't press too hard.
• Using your fingers (I use my ring and middle fingers), make a hole in the soil slightly smaller than the root ball in your seed tray. When pressing down, fill the hole completely.
• With hard trays, you can push the root balls out with your finger; with soft trays, you can remove them with a spoon. The more well-rooted the root ball, the easier this will be.
• Place the root ball in the hole in the soil you made and press it down firmly.
• Fill your pot further with potting soil up to just below the cotyledons, but keep the soil at least 0.5 to 1 cm below the top edge.
• Place a planting label in your pot so you know what you've sown. Write on it with a sun-resistant permanent marker.
• Now place your pots in a Danish tray, filling them with 1 to 2 cm of water, depending on the moisture content of your potting soil. Your plants will now have nutrients for four weeks. Continue watering the Danish tray so the roots can drink from the bottom. Weigh each pot individually in your hand to determine if your plants are thirsty. Plants on the outside (more direct sunlight and warmth) of your Danish tray may need more water than those on the inside.

Prevent sunburn, harden off your plants

If you've started your seeds indoors, it's best to let the seedlings harden off first. Place them outside in a sheltered spot, out of direct sunlight, for half an hour. The next day, increase the time by an hour. After a few days, your plants will have adjusted to their new environment and you can plant them out with confidence.

If you choose to grow broccoli from seedlings, your cultivation starts here.

Avoid planting in areas where cabbage family crops have been grown in the past four years. For cabbages, the general recommendation is to grow them in the same spot only once every four years. If you have fertile and calcareous soil, you can also grow them once every three years, or perhaps even once every two years. It's best to lime your cabbage bed with seaweed lime; 100 grams per m² works well.

Plant broccoli plants alongside French beans, beets, carrots, celery, Swiss chard, cucumbers, lettuce, and peas. Strong-smelling herbs like dill, sage, rosemary, basil, mint, garlic, and thyme also make good companions for broccoli. The strong aroma of these herbs helps repel pests that can attack broccoli.