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Old 08-04-2009, 07:41 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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I plan on Growing Broccoli when the weather cools down here. I am wondering if anyone has any experience with growing Broccoli? As far as I can tell it's quite a large plant. So before I build the system I want to make sure it will be able to accommodate a plant that size. I am considering a 3-5 gallon bucket because I think it will need the root space. I also think it will be able to keep the plant from being top heavy thought its growing cycle.

I am also wondering what to expect in the way of production. I have never grown Broccoli, so I don't know how much Broccoli I should expect from a healthy plant? I understand once you top off the first Broccoli head it is supposed to continue trying to grow more flowers. I also understand that it is a cool weather plant and it grows bigger Broccoli heads when it is cool, but when the weather warms up they flower faster and before they have a chance to get large. I am also assuming that it will be a heavy feeder?

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Old 10-07-2009, 07:30 AM
Harlequin Harlequin is offline
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I've never grown them Hydro but I have in dirt.

I'm in Brisbane which is pretty much warm through winter and hot in summer. I planted my first set in early spring and ended up with something that had more in comon with broccolini in that it was long tall and spread out. Temps 15c - 25c.

I tried again in the first week of winter when the temps would range between about 5c and 16c. Then I ended up with proper brocolli. 1 brocolli will produce enough for a couple of meals for a family of 4 in a meat and 3 veg type serving. If I had to guess I would say each plant produced about 500g of flower. I didn't try to get a second head out of them though and just cut them off and dug the plant in so can't comment on whether it would grow another. Harvest time was between 9 and 13 weeks.
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Old 10-07-2009, 03:09 PM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Harlequin View Post
I've never grown them Hydro but I have in dirt.

I'm in Brisbane which is pretty much warm through winter and hot in summer. I planted my first set in early spring and ended up with something that had more in comon with broccolini in that it was long tall and spread out. Temps 15c - 25c.

I tried again in the first week of winter when the temps would range between about 5c and 16c. Then I ended up with proper brocolli. 1 brocolli will produce enough for a couple of meals for a family of 4 in a meat and 3 veg type serving. If I had to guess I would say each plant produced about 500g of flower. I didn't try to get a second head out of them though and just cut them off and dug the plant in so can't comment on whether it would grow another. Harvest time was between 9 and 13 weeks.
Thanks for the info.
I am putting this system together right now and it will have 4 broccoli plants in it. They tell me when I bought the plants that it is supposed to get about 2 foot by 2 foot, but I think it will get a bit bigger than that. It's getting much cooler now and this should be the right time to do it. Because everything I have read about them tells me they like cool weather, and produce better heads when it is cool. I have read that after you cut off the first flower it would continue trying to grow more, and I certainly hope it will because financially it wouldn't be worth the cost of building the system if it doesn't. But well see, I will post pics of them when I get it going.

Actually I am going to be quite ambitious this time and be growing broccoli, tomato's, butter lettuce, spinach, snow peas and green beans, in 4 separate hydroponic systems. I will post the pics of all of them when I get them running.
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Old 10-08-2009, 07:07 AM
Harlequin Harlequin is offline
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Good luck. I found Broccoli pretty easy to germinate from seed so thats why I never bothered trying to get multiple heads. As for size they don't seem to mind being a bit crowded as their outer leaves seem to get very woody and they don't seem to mind them being trimmed or covered, so 2ft x 2ft should be heaps.
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Old 05-15-2011, 12:12 AM
silkcom silkcom is offline
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Hey GPS, what ever happened to the broccoli? I'm interested in doing many of the plants u mentioned here, and would love to see what type of system you used, and what kinds of results you got. (i know this thread is forever old, but i'm trying to learn without repeating too many questions from the past )
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Old 05-15-2011, 12:39 AM
GpsFrontier GpsFrontier is offline
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Hello silkcom,
wow, I forgot I even started that thread. But no problem, I did wind up growing my broccoli. And the system I built for it was one of the simplest, least expensive setups. It also worked very well in the end, and is one of my favorite setups. Here is the thread I posted it in: http://www.hydroponicsonline.com/for...w-systems.html

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