Love it or hate it, broccoli still holds its own in the vegetable kingdom, ranking as the world's fifth most popular vegetable. President Barack Obama certainly would agree, and at a state dinner at the White House he once stated that broccoli was his favourite vegetable!

Health benefits of Broccoli

No matter your taste, broccoli remains one of the world's most nutritious vegetables, and is also low in calories and virtually fat free. It is high in calcium and one ounce of broccoli has an equal amount of calcium as one ounce of milk. It’s one of the richest sources of vitamin C and A, and also contains vitamins B1, B2, B3, B6, and vitamin K. Besides all this, broccoli is a good source of iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, lutein, folic acid, and dietary fibre. The sulphur it contains has beneficial antiviral and antibiotic properties, and its wonderful anti-oxidant properties will certainly keep you in top form, and also help prevent cancer, so eat your greens!

When is the best season to grow Broccoli? 

Broccoli that matures during cool weather produces healthy heads that are sweeter tasting than those you pick at any other time and although hybrid Broccoli seed is available that will extend the growing season into summer, in South Africa Broccoli is essentially treated as a fast growing cool season crop which requires cool, moist conditions to develop good heads. The best advantage of growing broccoli during the winter is that there are very few pests around, reducing the need to spray.

How to grow Broccoli

Broccoli can be grown throughout South Africa, and we now know that broccoli loves the cold, in fact, the colder it gets the more your broccoli will thrive, tolerating freezing temperatures with ease. However, in regions which experience several hard freezes, followed by thaws, protection is often provided with floating row covers, which provide an additional four to eight degrees worth of warmth.

For smaller vegetable gardens it is often more convenient to purchase trays of broccoli seedlings to plant out, but sowing from seed is still the most economical. Broccoli grows best in full sun, and because it needs to grow quickly, requires a well-prepared bed with deeply dug soil and lots of added compost or well-rotted manure, plus a dressing of organic 2:3:2.

Keep the soil moist at all times, but not saturated. Hill the soil up around the stems of the plants as they grow, this is especially important on windy sites, and gently pull any weeds out by hand because broccoli roots are very shallow. 

Feed with a balanced, high nitrogen fertiliser one month after planting out, and again after the main heads have been harvested in order to encourage side shoots.

When to harvest Broccoli

The main head should be ready to harvest about 9 to 10 weeks after transplanting, and must be cut immediately when it reaches full bud development, and before the yellow flower buds open. Once the main head has been harvested Broccoli will produce numerous side shoots that can be harvested later.

I hope you are inspired to grow your own Broccoli and put it at the top of your list of winter vegetables.