broccoli spacing

[obsessed]

So I went to a master gardener seminar last week and found out that the space between broccoli is related to head size. The guy said that 12 inches apart results in a 4 in head but 18 inches apart results in 10 inches. That would give me a pretty good idea of how i got such tiny heads. But what does that mean for other crops. Like I wanted to plant radishes/beets and such in between the growing broccoli but will I be taking the chance of small broccoli heads?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I'm no master gardener but I would think head size is more likely related to competition for sunlight than competing for nutrients. Not that nutrients are not important, but you can enrich the soil to compensate for the extra plants. The way broccoli spreads out and blocks the sunlight, I'd be concerned about the radishes and beets getting enough sunlight in between the broccoli. Just a guess. Let's see what the others have to say.

 

[journey11]

I put mine 18" and still wondered if I had them too close together! They spread out so much... I did get nice heads on them though, so that must be the case.

 

[obsessed]

Another thing I learn which I guess I should have known but didn't was that brocoli greens are edidable. I and a few plants last spring which failed to produce a head. So when the heat arrived I just pulled them and comoposted them. Now I know what I will do if that happens again.

 

[digitS']

I was just looking at this last night, O.

SPIGARIELLO LISCIA GREENS

Pinetree has some pretty neat stuff and good prices for small packets.

Honestly, plants don't grow in rectangles along a straight line, naturally. Of course, my beds are rectangles and, generally, I put rows in them and rows out in the open garden. Everything gets too crowded but I try to think of a plant in circular terms.

Most varieties of broccoli will be plants that grow to cover about the same square inches of ground as a garbage can lid.

Steve

 

[hangin'witthepeeps]

Well after reading the Mel B. SFG book, it is very vague, but suggests the same. He says do not plant like vegetables together. He insists it for the staggered harvest of fresh veggies, I believe it's too crowded for some veggies to be planted together. I planted my tomatoes all in one row with carrots around them. The carrots did not do well, they got no sunlight. Only the carrots on the outer edge did well. So I believe its better to not plant in rows and consider the plant size. I trying this year to alternate my cabbages and broccoli. The cabbage spread low and wide, the broccoli spread up and then wide on top. I hope the cabbages get big enough to catch outer edge sun. I may just rework the bed for 18" after reading this post and stagger them.

XOXOXO
OXOXOX
XOXOXO
OXOXOX

X = broccoli
O = cabbage

 

[obsessed]

those greens sound tasty steve. I had a random broccoli plant last year that lived all winter. And I never could figure out what it was. Every time I went into the garden I would take a piece and taste it. It was sweet kind of not at all like collard greens but similar. It kind of looked like a collard green but I knew I didn't plant any. So I eventually pulled it cause I didn't know what it was. Then I went to my neighbors who had some broccoli growing and I tasted the leaf and they were the same! So broccoli greens might be a really unusual tasty treat.