More often next to all the famous vegetables (potatoes, carrots, beets, cabbage, etc.) on the beds you can see broccoli, celery , artichoke and leeks. They are very useful and rich in useful substances, so their popularity among gardeners is growing every year. Before starting to grow them, you should learn how to properly care for them and when you can already harvest.
Broccoli is a kind of cauliflower, but they ripen at different times, and the process of cutting finished heads is different.
When to harvest broccoli?
In order for a given vegetable to be eaten, it is very important to cut it off in time. Harvest the broccoli is necessary until the moment when from the green buds collected in the inflorescence, the yellow little flowers will unfold. If this has already happened, then this plant should be left for seed breeding.
Most often broccoli begins to ripen in mid-August. Due to the fact that cabbage is cut gradually, this process can be delayed until October. It is very important to have time to finish it to collect before frost, otherwise the vegetable will turn out not so tasty and useful.
Do not be afraid to remove the harvest of not matured broccoli and wait for the inflorescence to become very large. It is better to cut it small, but dense and dark green color, than to wait until it becomes loose and yellow.
How is broccoli harvesting?
When you saw that the broccoli is ready, you should cut the central part, that is, the main inflorescence. In this case, the cut must be made at a distance of 10-12 cm from it, capturing part of the stem. This procedure should only be done early in the morning and using a sharp clean knife.
After the central head has been removed, lateral, located in the axils of the leaves begin to develop. They ripen fast enough, as they grow smaller than the main one, so they should be constantly monitored to avoid missing the right moment. If there is sunny weather, it is necessary to cut broccoli approximately every 3 days, and if overcast - once a week.
Knowing when to properly harvest the broccoli, you will get a very useful dietary vegetable, which will be kept with you for a long time. It should be borne in mind that early broccoli should be eaten immediately, and collected in the fall can be left for later.