GardensAll said:We planted our broccoli seedlings in early March in a straw bale garden, but they never formed a head. ...
Gee, without your location, it would be a pure and 100% guess. Too early, too late, too hot, too cold ... no way to guess.
Sometimes when plants are very vigorous but never fruit, it's because too much Nitrogen fertilizer encouraged them to grow leaves, branches and more leaves, but not seeds (or broccoli-like seedheads).
Here are some questions, not necessarily
answerable questions.
Is "too much Nitrogen" a likely problem? Lots of dark-green leaves?
Are they pretty vigorous and growing taller other than "no heads"?
What is the average first frost date where you live?
Size of seedlings when transplanted?
How's the color? A photo might help us help.
Heat, cold, rain and daylength might affect flowering.
If you put your growing location into your public profile, it will always show up in posts like these.
Here's how:
Click the head-and-shoulders icon in the upper-left corner to go to "Your Profile".
Click "Change Your Public Profile"
Now these fields let you create text that always appears on your posts:
- - - - - "Your location" and
- - - - - "Extra one-line info that appears in your threads"
(Then scroll down farther and click "Save Your Changes".)
And, when you change Your Public Profile, all your past posts will be updated with the new text!
Let's see what Dave's generic garden calendar suggests for your location and broccoli:
http://garden.org/apps/calenda...
Darn, this is the FALL calendar!
Start seeds indoors: Jun 21 - Aug 5
Transplant outdoors: Aug 2 - Sep 16
OK, scroll farther down for the Spring calendar:
Start seeds indoors: Jan 24 - Feb 7
Transplant outdoors: Mar 6 - Mar 20
If you transplanted seedlings in early March, that agrees exactly with Dave's "generic" planner for Gresham OR.
Did you "harden them off" before putting them outside all day?
If you direct-sowed into straw bales, maybe they went in too late in the season.
But it also sounds like you have hills and valleys, so your microclimate might want you to plant either earlier or later than "generic" dates for that area.
Anyway, if you have seeds left, you're only a week or so late starting seedlings inside for a fall crop.
If you find fall broccoli seedlings available to buy, now might be a good time, or in the next 4 weeks.
You COULD look for other members in your exact area, and ping them with the "@" sign in front of their user name. For example, if I type "@GardensAll", you should get a system notification that someone tapped you on the shoulder in a forum post, to get your attention.
Check out the member map, and search for people near Gresham, OR. If they listed their location in their public profile, they can be searched for in the "Member List" (link at bottom of every NGA page, in fine print).
http://garden.org/users/member...
http://garden.org/users/member...
@duane456 and
@Purplebloomcactus, and
@Greenfield, do you have suggestions for a new member, for planting broccoli in or near the Willamette Valley?
