My First Broccoli Head
Well I just harvested the first broccoli head yesterday
My mom was anxious to have some so my broccoli cheese soup will need to wait.
About a 2 or 3 weeks ago I made a mistake that caused many of the leaves on the broccoli plant to be damaged then turn brown and die. We were in the middle of a cold snap and my mom had me convinced that it would begin to frost that night. I knew they were calling for cold nights and that the few days before that were getting down to 36 degrees, I have 2 digital thermometers that record the lows and highs for me. I really didn't think it would get any colder than 35 or 36, and of coarse it didn't but I decided to cover the broccoli plants and use a small hand held travel hair dryer to warm them up with anyway.
I made a holder to hold the hair dryer so I wouldn't need to stand there holding it, then set it under the plants. I think everything was fine until I turned it to HI. The next day I noticed that many of the leaves were wilting and pail in color. Especially the leaves that were the closest to where the hair dryer was aimed. Then they slowly turned brown and I cut them off as they did. All the broccoli heads were fine because they were at the top of the plants and blocked by the leaves. But all the plants except one had major damage. I expected there growth would slow down for a while as a result, but the plants are still doing well considering. All the Broccoli heads are noticeably bigger. The biggest plant (one I harvested the head from) even has 3 side shouts with other heads growing.
Broccoli plants are cold weather plants and as long as the
nutrient temp does not become to cold they seem to grow fine here in the winter. I have a waterproof heating pad that I got at the salvation army for $1 submerged in the nutrient solution, keeping the
nutrients from getting too cold at night. It seems to be working fine but I will probably get an adjustable fish tank heater in the future as funds are available.