Just a short time ago they had Briggs Quantums for ~ $129 that fit those. Better engine all around and a big plus is the company is still in business. Call them.

I don't think you were wrong at all in believing they were bolting when the heads started getting loose. Once they start getting loose, they are just a few days away from blooming. For what it is worth, you can harvest and eat the loose heads, and even the flowers if you catch them and cook them on the first day the flowers open. I think the problem lies in purchased transplants. I always had trouble with my broccoli bolting when I purchased transplants instead of raising them from seed. Yes, to a certain extent bolting is caused by the hot weather, no matter whether you are using your own home-grown transplants or purchased ones from the store. However, other factors contribute to bolting and that's where the purchased transplants come into play. Stress of various types, not just the air temperature, can cause broccoli plants to bolt. One example of the kind of stress that causes this would be drought/moisture stress, especially in combination with warmer air temperatures than broccoli likes. When you purchase transplants, they're often rootbound and they've often been allowed to get too dry before being watered. Those are other stressors that can cause bolting. I think they when the broccoli seedlings are rootbound and their growth stalls, being biennials, they loosely interpret the stall in growth as dormancy. Then, when they are put into the ground and eventually overcome being rootbound and start growing again, they "think" (well, plants don't think as far as I know, but you know what I mean) it is their second season and is time to make seeds...so they quickly bolt. Poor nutrition also can lead to stress and poor production/bolting. I call broccoli a "garden diva" because everything has to be just the way she likes it or she won't form heads. In the years since I began raising my own broccoli transplants from seeds, I hardly ever have broccoli bolt until late May....and by then I've already harvested heads or am about to harvest them. This year's weather is horrible for cool-season crops that need to grow and mature in cool temperatures because we started hitting the 80s and even the 90s in March. There's not much you can do to combat that. This year's weather reminds me of the early 2000s through about 2005 or 2006, when we went from winter cold to summer heat with no mild weather in between here in my part of the state. After a couple of years of having everything bolt or produce poorly, I quit planting all cool-season crops for a few years except onions and potatoes. It was pointless to try to raise a crop like broccoli that prefers temps between 45 and 75 when we were having late winter and early spring highs in the 80s and 90s. Once the winters began acting more 'normal' with a slower transition from winter to spring to summer, I started planting more cool-season crops again. If only we could "know" in February if the weather would stay cool and mild for another 60-90 days or if we were going from winter one day to summer the next, then we'd be able to plant cool-season crops with some reasonable assurance they'd make a crop, or decide to skip them because it was getting too hot too early.

Thanks so much everyone for sharing your experiences! The flower beds are untouched clay! Its a 2 yr old house and nothing has ever been planted in the beds. Weeds are growing like crazy though! Huge 2 foot diameter weeds that we've been clearing out! We are nailing weed cloth (the 20 yr kind) to the bottom in over lapping layers and we'll lay it down between the beds as well for walkways to get to the trellises. If I do the rebar, they'll be back along the house with the boxes in front of them basically. There is little risk of tripping on them. The rebar sounds appealing as its pretty cheap. Can rebar be bent? I'm wondering if I could use it as a stake to secure the front of the beds to the ground and secure the back with the hardware to drill onto the beds? Or maybe it would be better to not drill them on to the beds so there is no way they could be ripped out of the wood box if the trellis did go down in a wind storm. Hmmm, the rebar would look pretty unsightly in the front though wouldn't it! Maybe I'll go walk around and see if there are more attractive and cheap options!

Ok, just one more set of dumb questions: Since my old school plumbing supply guy is still out of commission, I doubt I can sweet talk my way into any of the other pro shops, leaving me with the big Orange & Blue boxes as options. So let's talk Fluidmasters. I would want to replace both the Fill and Flush valves. (Plus I'll be replacing all tank bolts and gaskets.) Fill valve question - can I get a fluidmaster fill valve that will fill a 5-7 gallon 1940s tank? I know that sounds like a dumb question, but is it just a matter of adjusting the valve to be long enough to reach the waterline marked on the tank - I just want to be sure all the "water saving" features they promote won't leave me short of water. Same sort of question with the flush valve - can I get the amount of water out of the tank I need? Bonus question: if any or all Fluidmasters will work for me, I'm intrigued by the Dual Flush idea, which might let me save a little water, and still get the job done of getting enough water down the 90yr old 4inch pipes to move things along, but one of the things I love about this old 1946 Kohler is it still has it's original flush handle - I know those Dual Flush valves supply a handle so you can push it up for #1 and down for #2 - has anyone tried to use their OEM handle with the FM mechanism? As in just to replace their chrome (or whatever they use) bits back to original look, keeping the rest intact. I know this is nitpicking, but if I have to choose between Dual Flush and original flush lever, I'll keep the old chrome and 5 gal flushes for #1. Always ;-) Hunzi nitpicky on the look of things but demands good performance too!