I tried a late spring planting the first time. Plants grew large and leafy over the hot summer, no heads. I tried a late summer/early fall planting the second time. Smaller plants, mostly stalk, no heads. I've got a couple germinating now that I plan on shoving out the door and into the cold as soon as I can, see how that works out. Its just been really tiresome. I keep planting because I want to get the heads, and each year I end up with pretty healthy plants that just never head.

Seedmeals are a good source of nitrogen, notably alfalfa meal, soybean meal and kelp meal (although a touch weaker in the N dept. and more expensive). Blood meal is also a good nitrogen boost, but may attract animals. Bone meal is a great source for phosophorus. A very good recipe for a Complete Organic Fertilizer comes from Steve Solomon, and is as follows: 4 parts seedmeal or composted chicken manure 1 part lime (ideally 1/2 dolomite and 1/2 horticultural...just not quick lime) 1 part bone meal or rock phosphate 1 part kelp meal (ideal, but not necessary) Mix by volume, not weight. Work 1 gallon into 100 square feet a few days to one week prior to planting. Side dress existing plants as necessary (I know this was one of your questions, but it really depends on the plants as to when to apply). As for fertilizing after spring crops, really depends on what your spring crops were. For instance, if you were growing peas, I wouldn't really touch the bed. Cut the vines/bushes off at soil level and leave the roots intact. Otherwise, I would work in some of the COF above after you have taken out the plants. Just broadcast and rake it into the surface. Hope that helps. Michael

It's the first time I've seen ether one of them, but from the pics I've seen they look the same to me. Guess I'll just have to wait & see which one it testes like. Thanx E G G

Randy, What you need to know is that the cole family is picky, picky, picky. Productivity can be impaired by low soil moisture, low soil fertility, and temperatures that are either too high or too low. Other than that, they're a cinch to grow. Beyond those issues, broccoli plants can bolt and go to seed if exposed to hot weather, or can form buttonheads (small heads about the size of a quarter) if exposed to cold weather while small although you won't know the weather was 'too cold' for them until you get those buttonheads. Normally, if you plant broccoli a couple of weeks before your average last frost date, it will grow and produce well. Unfortunately, we've had later and later 'late freezes' the last 3 or 4 years and I have been sliding my broccoli planting date later and later every year because of that. I have been planting more like the week or two weeks after my average last frost date instead of 2 weeks before and that's worked out fairly well. If you used transplants that had 4 to 6 leaves, were about 4 or 5 weeks old, had good healthy green color and were not stalled in their growth, you should get broccoli heads from 60 to 80 days after you transplanted, assuming you planted varieties that perform well in Oklahoma. Last year's weather was oddly rainy at our house (almost 13" of rain in one day in late April which severely waterlogged our entire garden and stalled its growth) and cooler than usual, and we didn't harvest broccoli until June. Usually by late-May here in southern OK, the broccoli has either formed heads and has been harvested or has bolted and flowered. This year, our broccoli is just beginning to form heads the last few days, and it has been subjected to very cold temperatures and snow and also to temperatures in the upper 80s, so I have no idea if I'll get buttonheads or no real heads or nice, big heads or what. Cauliflower is even harder to grow successfully in Oklahoma in the spring. I have better luck with it as a fall crop--planted in mid- to late-summer for harvest in the autumn. It has the same temperature requirements as broccoli--performing best if it matures before temps begin regularly exceeding 75 degrees, but has even less tolerance for early cold weather. Even if you set out transplants that are the right size/age (roughly 4 or 5 weeks old) at the so-called right time, you have to cross your fingers and hope the weather doesn't get too high or too low during its growth. So, even though you do everything right...choosing the right varieties, transplanting them out at the right size/age, etc., there is so much you cannot controlo...namely the extreme temperature variations we usually have here in spring. As long as the broccoli and cauliflower plants are not yet going to seed and forming flowers, you still have a chance of getting a harvest. However, the closer our daytime highs get to the 90s, the less likely the chances of a good harvest. My broccoli has been very slow this...