Broccoli & cauliflower: The complete grow guide
Bigger harvests, less pest, and how I never buy my mine at the grocery store
But have you ever seen anything as gorgeous as a purple cauliflower? Right, we can collectively agree that there is nothing more beautiful. However, not all caulis are created equally as delicious, so we will get into that below.
Now, I have grown my own brassicas for years, never dedicating enough space to fully replace them for the year, but certainly enough for us to enjoy them entirely during their appropriate season and never buy them during spring or winter. This is actually quite important, as seasonality impacts nutrition and flavor, with the most beautiful piece being that after you harvest your broccoli, its antioxidants and vitamin C content start to drop. This means that your homegrown harvest has the highest potential when it comes to health and flavor.
Having grown in two different climates, my experience is that fall-grown brassicas are happiest. Early spring is doable, but it's more blah and harder to get to fully form. Your sun exposure needs to be precariously perfect, and you have to get seeds started indoors (mine start in the greenhouse) earlier than you think (February here in Tennessee). Alas, I still grow them, of course, and love to dance on the line of forgetting when to start them and throwing caution to the wind each year.
As with all my grow guides, I’ll be sharing only what I have actually done and know to be true. Each vegetable is one that I have been able to grow successfully in abundance for multiple seasons. I’ll cover everything from sun to spacing, pests, and more.
Though I talk about “brassicas”, in this instance we’re only covering broccoli and cauliflower and leaving out the rest (Brussels sprouts, kale, cabbage, kohrabi, rutabaga, turnip, and bok choi), as there is some nuance with each.
