Any tips on growing broccoli?

[BOSSHOG]

I was at my local feed and seed stocking up on Chrysanthemums (awesome crop this year I might say) and I bought a three pack of broccoli plants for a buck. I've got each in a separate large pot and have them in the sun on the south patio. I've never grown them before and have no illusions of success (my thumbs are a light shade of green) but as my wife knows I always have to be fooling in the dirt. Any secret tricks to make a bumper crop??

[TygrBright]

1. Well, yer gettin' kind of a late start, but...

...a lot depends on how much sun they get and what kind of weather, etc. They want what I would consider an "average" feeding regimen (that means that I'd douse the soil with fish juice-type fertilizer a day or two before I planted, and let it soak in and dry out enough to work the soil, then another shot of fish juice as they started to set heads, nothing else, really, but my soil already had a fair amount of compost in it.) Wormy-type things like them, keep an eye out and pick 'em off quick. Step on 'em, cut em' in half and leave the corpses 'round the stalk, or drop 'em into a jar of soapy water.

They want cool, sunny days and chilly nights. No frost until they set heads, but once they do set heads they'll tolerate mild frosts just fine as long as it warms up a bit during the day. And most of all, they want ROOM. Those plants get big! A square foot per plant, minimum. The leaves will shade out anything planted too close, including other broccoli.

Then when they set the head, WAIT until it gets fairly big, but before it blooms, and whack off the "main" head. With luck, and depending on what variety you have, you'll get side shoot "mini-heads" for a few more weeks, as long as you promptly snap 'em off before anything looks even remotely like blooming. Back when I was in MD I'd start planting in August, put another half dozen in every two weeks until mid-September, and cut my first heads in early- to mid-Octobe. I'd get yields up through New Years in mild winters.

helpfully,
Bright

[BOSSHOG]

2. Thanks very much for the great information

We are in South Mississippi. Our temps now are ranging from low 60's to low 80's. We usually don't get our first frost until the last week in november. I hope to have a big crop to report about. Maybe we'll be eating homegrown broccoli for Thanksgiving. Thanks again.

[FloridaPat]

3. The leaves are also edible, but don't take too many off.