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...

wbonesteel, I don't blame you for being sick of petunias. I imagine I would have gotten sick of them under similar circumstances. The Laura Bush petunias are generally the only petunias I grow. They are derived from a native petunia and tolerate heat like nothing else I've ever seen in the petunia world. I cut them back hard in mid-summer and they rebound with a huge flush of blooms. When I grew traditional petunias, they always began to struggle with the heat beginning in late June. Laura Bush petunias laugh at the heat. I have a great appreciation for anything that tolerates our typical July and August heat with no issues, even when not irrigated. Every year when the petunias begin appearing in regular stores (often as early as February here), I want some but then I don't buy them. I know that if I am patient, the Laura Bush petunias will start blooming in late February or early March and will outlast the standard types you buy at nurseries. I used to grow Wave petunias from seed but stopped growing them because the Laura Bush petunias were so much more heat and drought-tolerant. The little flying insects adore them, so they are great for attracting pollinators to the garden. I grow a ridiculous amount of watermelons. I currently have about 12 plants in the ground but have 12 or 15 more to plug into gaps in the garden. I grow mini Refrigerator sized melons because the large ones produce more melon than we can eat at one time. I generally grow some of my melons on trellises and on the garden fence because that keeps the melons safe from pill bugs and sow bugs. The rest roam around wherever they choose. I often underplant okra with melons. The okra gives the melons enough shade to help prevent the fruit from getting sunburned and the melons keep the ground cooler under the okra, like a living mulch. With excess melons, we either give them away or I get out the melon ball scoop and make melon balls, which I then freeze in freezer bags. If you eat them when they are only half-thawed, they aren't mushy and the flavor is terrific either way. I also make a chilled melon soup from both muskmelons and watermelons. I've even dehydrated strips of melons, but once you remove the water, the flavor is too sweet and I didn't care for it, so don't dehydrate them any more. The last two summers have been really hard on our poultry. We lost quite a few chickens during 112-115 degree days in 2011 when I was gone to wildfires a lot and wasn't home to monitor their conditions. After coming home from fires and finding them dead, I started leaving a misting system on for them when I left, had fans running in the chicken coops, and fed them watermelons, cantaloupes and Armenian cucumbers daily in an effort to help them stay hydrated. So, at our house, it is hard to have too many melons or cukes because I always can feed them to the chickens. I haven't lost a single chicken to heat since I implemented the misting and melons. They always had plentiful fans for air movement and lots of water, but in 2011 it wasn't enough. I've noticed when I have the misting system on that all sorts of birds from hummers to cardinals to doves and blue jays come play in the mist right along with the chickens. Having chickens is great for the compost pile, we enjoy the fresh eggs, and I have a built-in excuse to grow all the lettuce, melons and cukes I want because the chickens consume any surplus that is produced. Some people make watermelon rind pickles, but they are not my favorite thing, so I don't make them. I'm usually too wrapped up in tomato canning and pickle-making to worry about the watermelon rinds. Dorothy, I stopped working in the garden long enough yesterday to look inside the broccoli plants and small heads are forming. Hopefully they'll get a chance to get bigger before trying to bolt, but we're in the 90s here and staying in the mid to upper 70s at night, so bolting could occur at any time. I harvested some cauliflower yesterday and have more to harvest today. I'm surprised it has formed mature heads faster than the broccoli, but I planted it a month earlier to give it a chance to make heads and I guess that made the difference. The brussel sprouts are forming but are very slow. If they don't hurry up, we won't get any brussels sprouts, but they were a gamble all along and I never really expect sprouts in spring, though sometimes I get them in fall. We have broccoli worms all over and I don't have time to handpick them so I guess I'll spray the cole crops today with Bt. I don't mind them so much on broccoli plants because I can drop the broccoli heads in saltwater and the worms will float to the surface after a bit, but I don't care for holey cabbage. It will be a good cole crop year if the heat this weekend doesn't cause them to bolt. We have hit the 90s for the last two days and are expected to be in the 90s the next two days so the cole crops are right on the edge, so to speak. If they only produce small heads, I'm okay with that. We put up so much stuff last year that our freezer still has a little of everything left (and a lot of tomatoes) so we'll survive if the cole crops produce poorly, and I'm processing and freezing oodles of snap peas. I hope to finish them up today after the heat drives me inside this afternoon. To collect seeds I like to use nylon knee-high stockings. I just pull them down over the seed head in question. They stick to the plants well so I don't have to worry about high winds blowing them off the seed heads. I'll tie them closed around a plant prone to having pests get into the seed heads---like the hollyhocks which always have some sort of weevil looking things in their seed heads. Dawn

Is it anywhere near where someone might have been spraying for weeds? Especially a lawn? It looks suspiciously like damage from 2-4-D, a common weed killer. you might also have waited too long to harvest, and it started to bolt, but that usually is straighter and more normal looking, if still not really edible. Kevin : )

Asked : Nomen, this is off the subject a little, but do you have any of your own experience/evidence that watering a hot succulent (or any plant) can cause damage? My apologies for the waiting time for my response It's a welting warm and very sunny day with temps well into the 90's At Apx 1:00 PM a sudden rain storms strikes all your succulents when your not around and wont be around until 5:00 PM the sudden rains ends falling at 3:00 PM During the same time frame The temps then drop to a modest 73 F from the cooling rain but then climb back up to a warmer 88 F quickly after.. Are we all to believe this doesn't ever happen every where there is a succulent in a pot hanging around the adobe and then to agree that such event will also have no ill effects on any succulent ? A statement I can not agree to kindheartedly . I think you want to ask yourself is Does the succulent that is outside and already sun hardened in the sunny location have the experience to adapt to the sudden changes of outside climatic conditions/ changes I just mentioned with out ill effects ? It's not wise to water any plant in heat to suddenly cool it I consider such watering to be the equivalent as a sun bather laying on the beach for three hours until being tossed into the cooler ocean I suppose if that person is use to it someone can easily say the sunbather wont go into shock as I insist they most certainly will. We also know that most any plant in every species doesn't fair as well with sudden changes of hourly ups and downs in watering and warmer to cooler. In my experiences is only as small tid bit of information that may be of little to no value to you and maybe even less to all others. No two people will always agree to another persons methods regardless the facts that one person can produce to all others. Even when the results state to me what is common sense is also common scene to you if you think about it long enough it comes down to three things of which none are soils and/or soil less containers These three things are the potted plants location, location and location Time of year is also a consideration depending on each persons zone VS plant zone hardiness I can understand why the OP wants to address their concerns to others with observations of gritty mix use Common sense tells me that they would need to use higher volumes and more frequent watering during warmer months than what they would use ( or not use) during cooler months. Also understanding that cooler air also carries more moisture content in it the same cooler air can also ( potentially speaking) deliver more moisture to a potted succulent that specializes in getting and holding on to moisture from the air.