Last edited by shiny on 8 Nov 2026. View history
Broccoli
A variety of Brassica oleracea
How to sow broccoli: Sow seeds indoors and transplant outside
Sun requirement for broccoli: Plant in Full Sun
Broccoli has large flower heads known as "crowns" that are green to blue-green in color, grouped tightly together atop a thick stem, and surrounded by leaves. Broccoli resembles cauliflower, a different cultivar in its species. It thrives in cool weather.
A plant grows with warmth, not with days. A growing degree day is one day's worth of useful warmth: how many degrees the day's average temperature is above the lowest temperature the crop grows at. Add them up from planting and you know how far along the crop is, whatever the calendar says.
Say that lowest temperature is 10°C. A day averaging 17°C gives 7 growing degree days. A day averaging 8°C gives none, as it is too cold for the crop to grow. That is why the same lettuce takes about 50 days in a summer and 90 in an autumn: it needs the same total warmth either way.
Broccoli needs about 0 growing degree days.
For broccoli, the FAO EcoCrop database gives a lowest growing temperature of 5°C and a shortest growing cycle of 60 days at its best temperature, about 750 growing degree days to a first harvest.
Where you've told us where your garden is, we use this and the weather there to predict when your broccoli will be ready to harvest. We don't use it for how long a plant lives or when it finishes: we go by what members have logged for that.
Only plantings by members who have set their locations are shown.
by shiny,
There's so much baking going on here, stuck at home under the nationwide pandemic lockdown – and when we can get eggs we end up with many eggshells. These can be crushed and placed around the base of brassica like cabbage and broccoli. Snails and slugs do…
cabbages
broccoli
by shiny,
Due to the pandemic lockdown, I can't go to the hardware store to get things. I've been in semi-isolation since the start of march, and we've been in nationwide lockdown since last week.
I needed to set up the nets to keep out the white butterfly. I've had to be creative and i…
cabbages
broccoli
by shiny,
I planted some broccoli at the start of spring.. I grew fast, made long stems and quickly turned into yellow flowers. I conclude the first spring summer months aren't good for brocoli.
So I've got some new seedlings in now, in the heat of summer, hoping that by the tim…
broccoli
by shiny,
I like to automate the calculations, analysis, and plain old remembering what has happened in the garden.
Some of the challenges in my garden is knowing when it's too late to planting something, if it will cope with the weather conditions here, and working out what is killing the [tomato](/…
broccoli
potatoes
carrots
by inkstone,
I originally wanted to do this yesterday but it rained in the morning so that kinda put a damper on things.
So I did it all today instead! A bunch of the seeds I wintersowed in the milk jugs and soda bottles were getting crowded so it was time to move them to their bigger (permanent) containers….
spinach
mizuna
arugula
tatsoi
lettuces
radicchio
broccoli
Malabar spinach
okra
parsley
anise
A summary of nutritional data per 100g for Broccoli, fresh, raw.
| Energy | 131.0 kJ |
|---|---|
| Protein | 4.7 g |
| Fat, total | 0.3 g |
| Carbohydrate | 0.4 g |
| - Sugars | 0.4 g |
| Fibre | 3.7 g |
| Sodium | 22.0 mg |
Data from the FAO EcoCrop database for Brassica oleracea var. botrytis L. [L.]
| Family / Taxonomy | Magnoliopsida Dilleniidae Capparales Cruciferae |
|---|---|
| Optimal temperature | 10 - 25 °C |
| Absolute temperature | 5 - 30 °C |
| Killing temperature | growth: -5 °C, rest: -5 °C |
| Optimal rainfall | 600 - 1100 mm/year |
| Absolute rainfall | 450 - 1900 mm/year |
| Optimal soil pH | 6.0 - 7.0 |
| Absolute soil pH | 5.5 - 8.5 |
| Crop cycle | 60 - 120 days |
| Max altitude | 2000 m |
| Life form | herb |
| Life span | biennial |
| Habit | erect |
| Optimal soil depth | deep (>>150 cm) |
| Optimal soil texture | medium |
| Optimal soil fertility | high |
| Optimal soil drainage | well (dry spells) |
| Optimal soil salinity | low (<4 dS/m) |
| Photoperiod | short day (<12 hours), neutral day (12-14 hours), long day (>14 hours) |
| Optimal light | cloudy skies |
Resources outside Growstuff.
everest broccoli
Photos
tomatoes
shiny harvested 3.
View all broccoli seeds