Through this florida winter I chose to only grow Brassicas, I wanted to share some of the things I learned and some of the ways I learned to make the most out of my harvests by preserving food.
Brassicas are an absolutely fascinating plant.
You may not have realized that they are all domesticated from the same anecestor. Over the last 2,000 years, farmers have selectively bred wild mustard into what SEEMS like entirely different vegetables but are genetically similar.
Cauliflower was bred from the flower clusters of mustard.
Broccoli was bred from the flowers and stems.
Kale was bred from the leaves.
Kohlrabi comes from the stems.
Brussels sprouts come from the side buds.
Cabbage comes from the end buds.
Just to name a few.
Here’s what I learned growing them:
For Cauliflower; You are going to want to make sure you plant cauliflower at the right time for your zone, being a cold weather crop it’s not going to thrive in conditions that aren’t ideal for it. Make sure you blanch your leaves on varieties that aren’t self blanching. This is going to protect your cauliflower head from discoloration and disease. Blanching is just simply wrapping the outer leaves around the head. As far as watering goes, you want to make sure your soil remains cool to avoid bolting. I grew brassicas without an irrigation system the first year and the second year I used one, I saw better results with even water distribution on a schedule. My biggest issue with cauliflower was planting at the wrong time, I would get bolting cauliflower and no matter what I did I couldn’t keep the soil cool.
Kale: I had no real trouble growing kale, it really is a hassle free crop. Just grows and grows and grows. I dehydrated and powdered a lot of kale this season, I also blanched and froze a lot of kale as well to continue having greens through the summer.
Cabbage: I learned a lot from growing cabbage this season. First is that cabbage needs space, consider how big cabbage get when planting, second is that again, first year growing I did not use irrigation, second year growing… I did. I also put them on a feed schedule every 7-14 days. By providing scheduled and even distribution of water plus regular fertilization I saw more defined heads and an overall healthier plant, I fed my plants a 3-2-1 plant nutrients and BIO FISH from down to earth organics
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Kohlrabi- Kohlrabi was a very simple crop to grow, not hard to grow from seed, really just like an above ground turnip. No tricks to this one!
Bokchoy/ Pak Choi- again, very simple crop to grow nothing special needed. Grows very quickly, no head to form!
Brussel sprouts: ahhhh brussel sprouts. I did run an experiment with brussel sprouts this year regarding topping the plant so the plant can focus it’s energy on forming the sprouts. So far so good. The topped plant is producing much better quality sprouts and while the plant I did not top is still growing it’s just growing at a slower pace. I will be updating everyone on that experiment once I harvest, I’ll probably do a blog post on it!
Broccoli - I still have two broccoli plants growing but I also harvested two. The heads on them began to flower early. Again preventing bolting in Florida takes a lot of work. That being said I did utilize the whole plant by pickling the stem and eating the leaves, the thing about brassicas is that even if your plant bolts, you can still eat the ENTIRE plant! I did have great luck with the purple peacock broccoli last season through the winter months.
I hope this helps! I plan to write blogs from experience as we continue to grow in our garden!
-Bri
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