checking on the brassicas

I have kept my kale and broccoli under row cover to protect them from the cabbage worms. Today I peeked under for a check. I found five fat green cabbage worms helping themselves to the broccoli. Not too much damage, but the idea was to have no damage. It looks like I will need to replace the cover with one that has fewer holes in it. I left the five fat worms out on the walkway for the hungry baby sparrows and robins.

I think also think the broccoli should be bigger by now. It should be heading. Not sure, but it seems like it. I'm thinking about moving them to my sunnier community garden this weekend.

Brassicaceae
Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

broccoli

I'm not sure what happened to my last batch of broccoli. I bought and planted 12 seedlings two weeks ago. Five of the plants got up eaten off at the stem. It looks like a tomato cut worm. I didn't know cut worms ate broccoli, so I am blaming the squirrels. This weekend, I bought and planted another 6 plants. Since it looked like I planted the previous batch too close, II replanted all of the plants further apart. (I think I'll go out and put collars on all of my broccoli, just in case it really was cut worms.)

Brassicaceae

planting fall broccoli

I've decided to try planting seeds indoors for a fall crop of broccoli, since my spring broccoli was so tasty this year. I picked up a package of Green Goliath broccoli seeds and potting soil at my local hardware store. I found an old seed tray in the garage. I'll keep the seedlings inside by a south facing window.

This spring was the first time I've planted broccoli and even my teenage son enjoyed it. He agreed it is better than supermarket broccoli. The small plants I bought in May have been producing small to medium sized (and even a large one!) florets off and on for the past two months. I did kind of over cook it, though I only boiled it 3 minutes. I wonder if very fresh broccoli cooks faster that older broccoli? I'll do 2 minutes next time.

Brassicaceae

happy St Patrick's day

my kale seedlings

Brassicaceae
Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

google broccoli

I couldn't resist comparing the new Google image of my neighborhood with a nice brassica crop. The new satellite images were taken early in 2007, probably March it looks like to me. Definitely early in the morning - about 7 am. My vegetable garden is that big dark shady spot to the west of the largest head of broccoli. This really makes me look forward to my new sunny community garden plot!!

Brassicaceae

more seeds

Still more seeds! I just get sucked in every time I walk by a stand of seeds. Today I found some peas, fava beans and bicolor radish. The other day I had some delicious grilled fava beans at the East Coast Grill, one of my favorite restaurants. I'll have to look up growing information for these as I don't know if they are more like beans or peas.

Vicia faba
Brassicaceae

radish (Raphanus sativus)

broccoli and butterflies

I transplanted my young broccoli seedlings from their seed tray to the garden this weekend. I gave them a space between a row of dill and one of kale. I spaced them about 5 inches apart. They seem pretty happy. I noticed that the fall crop of broccoli at a nearby farm is only a little bigger than mine now.

I've been enjoying several small white butterflies that bounce and flutter and play over my garden in the mornings. This pretty white butterfly is called a Cabbage White (Pieris rapae). It is one of the most common butterflies in North America. The photo shows one sipping nectar from one of my cucumber flowers. A little research showed me that this lovely insect has caterpillars that enjoy eating kale and broccoli. Ah-ha! So that's where the holes in the leaves have been coming from. The solution seems to be row covers. A little leaf damage doesn't affect my broccoli florets, but now I know that if I want un-holey kale I should consider row covers.

Brassicaceae
Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

cabbage white butterflies (Pieris rapae)
butterflies (Lepidoptera)

my first vegetable sprouts!!!

The kale and escarole in my indoor trays have sprouted already. Yipppeee. Its only been 4 days since sowing. (Photos later.)

Brassicaceae
Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

fall broccoli

This is my fall crop of broccoli. Since we haven't really seen much fall weather yet, with summer-like record-setting warm temperatures still, I think it is on track to make heads before it freezes.


Brassicaceae

dinosaur kale with fleabane

Brassicaceae
Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

snow on kale

Our first snow! Its a very pretty light dusting. It probably won't last more that an hour or so.

My kale is delicious now. It is getting sweeter every time I try it. The more cold and snow, the better it gets.

Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

Brassicaceae

so much for the broccoli ....

On Wednesday my broccoli was looking great. Not today. I have to blame the squirrels. The florets have been eaten, plants pulled out of the ground, and even the little collars strewn about. (I thought cut worms ate my first batch of plants, so I put collars on my second batch.) It looks like the squirrels had party in my broccoli patch. I've been thinking about a solution, but I think the answer is to skip broccoli. Out of the 40 different types of vegetables I have growing in my garden now, the squirrel only bothers the broccoli. I think that's pretty good.

Brassicaceae

radish problems

Oh well. The radish crop was not so good. I planted a 3' row (about 20 radish plants) and only one radish formed a bulb. The rest are these skinny little roots and a couple are making flower stalks. The radish that did bulb has a root pest nibbling at it. I planted another row a couple of weeks ago. Maybe that one will do better. Otherwise, I'll skip the radish.

Brassicaceae

radish (Raphanus sativus)

cabbage white butterfly

Pretty little cabbage white butterflies (Pieris rapae) are doing their dance in pairs all over the place. These are the most common butterfly in the US and BAD news for broccoli and cabbages. Tomorrow I will try to remember to bring hoops and row cover to the garden. I cover my brassicas at least until the plants are big. Same at my home garden, though I haven't seem any cabbages whites there yet. They'll find the broccoli soon. Kale too.

My parents' broccoli did fine last last year without any covers. And I notice others at the community gardens don't cover their cabbage. Maybe it just mine they get into. Or maybe the other gardeners spray. In any case, I'll be covering up soon.

Added later:
Here are some more photos of this pretty little butterfly.



cabbage white butterflies (Pieris rapae)
Brassicaceae
butterflies (Lepidoptera)

sowing broccoli

Broccoli is my son's favorite vegetable, so I keep trying to grow it. Last year I bought plants and was able to get a meal or two of crowns. I tried planting seeds in the fall, but planted too late.

Growing Information:
CULTURE: Broccoli requires a fertile soil with good moisture-holding capacity or irrigation. It is relatively tolerant to environmental stress. Broccoli does not generally do well in hot weather and does best as a spring or fall crop. For spring, start seeds indoors 6-8 weeks before the last frost. Sow seed directly for fall crops 10-12 weeks before killing frost. Temperatures below 40°F will cause chilling injury. 66 days to maturity.

Brassicaceae

checking under the row covers

My broccoli seedlings look like happy campers under their row cover. And when I checked my dinosaur kale I was amazed at the beautiful big crinkled leaves. I've never used row cover in the summer before and am impressed at how warm and bright and humid it is underneath. The plants are growing very well.

I covered my kale and broccoli because of green caterpillars of cabbage white butterfly. These were eating holes in the leaves of the kale and eating entire baby broccoli plants.


Brassicaceae
Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

cabbage white butterflies (Pieris rapae)

two types of broccoli

This year I grew two varieties of broccoli: Green Goliath and Green Sprouting Calabrese. Unfortunately, I don't know which plants are which. But I do notice that some of my plants make compact heads and some make taller sprouts with very small heads. I suppose the compact heads are Green Goliath and the taller sprouts are Green Sprouting Calabrese. I planted seeds on March 22 and am harvesting now.

Green Sprouting Calabrese is an Italian heirloom that was brought to America in the 1880s. It is supposed to have 5"-8" heads and many side shoots.

Green Goliath is a large headed, tight budded, blue-green variety bred especially for the home gardener, to give an early and extended harvest. Center heads mature over a three-week period, not all at once. Good side shoots follow after center head is harvested.

Gardeners around here have mentioned small broccoli heads. My heads are about 2-3 inches (above). I think the weather warmed up too fast for the plants to form large heads. Maybe my fall harvest will be better though the small heads taste great too.

My dad got much bigger heads from seedlings I gave him (below). A good 4 inches! He's located a bit north of me and his garden is almost a full zone cooler.


harvests from my vegetable gardens

my dad's garden

Brassicaceae

bok choy

These are growing well in the cool weather. I'm hoping to harvest a bunch for a BBQ this Friday. It'll be one of my first harvests. I'm looking forward to grilled bok choy. I'm glad to have some garden produce for the guests who are coming. I think I'll have my first lettuce ready too and some garlic scapes.

This bok choy is the same variety Dan is growing this year and he warned that they are a baby variety and can bolt fast. I don't know how big I can let them get.

A couple weeks ago, these bok choy were growing in my home garden with my broccoli and both were being eaten by slugs under row covers. Not knowing what else to do, I moved both to my community plot. Both are doing well now - growing fast and getting no more bug damage. The broccoli was more heavily damaged, but its growing good too. Its nice of have the option of moving plants when you don't know what else to do. I squeezed them into my asparagus bed.

surprise seeds from Dan
Brassicaceae

kale survived the winter

Yesterday I finally made it over to my garden (10 feet from my house) and checked on the kale. The Tuscan is dead. The Red Russian lost all its leaves, but looks like it is regrowing some small leaves now. The Winterbor looks fantastic. It also tastes great fresh from the garden with no cooking. Sweet and a bit of a broccoli-like bitterness. I love vegetables that have a real flavor!

So I picked a big bunch and cooked it up. I love the combination of potatoes, garlic and kale. Unfortunately, the result was mealy and flavorless. Oh well. I'm wondering if it was the way I cooked it or if the kale just isn't good anymore. It did get well down into the single digits (about 7*F) this winter and has been a long, cold and snowy one.

My recipe was to blanch the kale for 4 minutes, boil potatoes til tender, saute spring onions and garlic in butter and olive oil, then add kale and potatoes and saute about 3 or 4 minutes. I think this would be a really good recipe with fall kale, but was lousy with late winter kale.

I think I'll give the kale another try with a very quick stir fry (with garlic and thyme?) or even try it uncooked in a salad.




Kale (Brassica oleracea, Acephala Group)

Brassicaceae

too late broccoli

Dan in Ontario asked me about my fall broccoli. His is doing good. Mine is not :(

I wasn't going to show mine because it looks like I didn't plan right. Its just now getting ready to form heads. Way too late. With the cold weather, its not really doing much growing. It'll be killed by the winter weather soon and will be added to my compost pile. Next year I'll plant my fall crop of broccoli earlier.

I planted these broccoli on August 27. Next year I suppose I should plant about 3 weeks earlier - about August 7 I think.

Brassicaceae