By Garry 
Broccoli: sowing, planting, growing and harvesting
Learn when to sow, plant, care for and harvest broccoli in your garden.
🌱 Broccoli : key growing facts
📅 Growing calendar
Indicative Northern Hemisphere temperate-climate calendar only. Adjust to local frost dates, climate, variety and growing conditions. In the Southern Hemisphere, seasons are approximately six months later.
🔎 Growing specifications
🧺 Harvest readiness & expected yield
When to pick
Cut the main head while buds are tight and green, before yellow flowers open; many varieties then produce side shoots.
What to expect
Usually one main head, often followed by smaller side shoots depending on cultivar.
Indicative only; variety, climate and care affect harvests.🌿 How to grow successfully
🤝 Companion planting
Use neighbouring beds for lettuce, peas or onions if their watering needs fit; no companion plant reliably prevents cabbage pests.
↔️ What to avoid
Do not grow brassicas repeatedly in the same bed; rotate crops to reduce clubroot risk.
🐛 Pests and diseases
Cabbage white caterpillars, flea beetles, aphids and clubroot.
🧤 Ongoing care
Use fine insect mesh against caterpillars and keep growth steady with consistent moisture.
🧺 Harvest and storage
Cut heads while buds remain tight and before yellow flowers open; refrigerate promptly.
🧑🌾 From sowing to harvest
Prepare the soil
Firm a compost-enriched bed with pH near neutral; brassicas need steady fertility and moisture.
Sow or transplant
Start in modules or a seedbed, then transplant sturdy seedlings to their final spacing. Fit fine insect mesh immediately.
What to monitor
Inspect leaf undersides for cabbage white eggs and caterpillars; check for flea beetle damage and moisture stress.
When and how to harvest
Cut the main head while buds are tight and green, before yellow flowers open; many varieties then produce side shoots.