I'm growing broccoli for the first time this year, Imperial F1. I have grown other brassicas however. When they go in depends on the weather. As Farmerdill said, they're quite hardy. Here, we tend to go below 20 until late March or early April, so I'm probably looking at planting around Easter, weather permitting, sometime, but not too late or else the heat will catch them in the summer. I'm sure up in Ohio you guys don't get quite as hot as us down here in AR, so you likely have a longer time frame to put out. Knowing your last frost helps as well. I've always put out my cabbages about a month before my last frost, as long as the temps stay above about 27 F, so I'd imagine broccoli is the same!

You're likely not late, I'd guarantee. It's just now coming seed starting time for most brassicas here, so farther up north you've likely got plenty of time! There's always an autumn cropping as well, don't forget, if you don't have time this spring :)

Yeah I think I might be ok on time. I don't think I'll be able to reuse the beds for peppers and tomato plants. Would you say that the brassicas go in the ground before seeds for such things as lettuce, carrots, radishes, etc or around the same time? Seems like when I buy the plants, they never have them available early enough and it's always the same time as the stores have pepper and tomato plants.

It would probably be about the same time you sow the FIRST of all of those crops. They can technically be sown all summer, though possibly not desirable because of heat, but broccoli would possibly bolt if sown too late to face the summer heat.

You might be able to reuse the beds, again depending on the variety DTM. I'm putting a crop of cauliflower in after Easter, with a supposed DTM 52 days, to harvest (hopefully) before early June. My peppers, more heat loving than cauliflower, will go in once it's harvested. I have until Oct. before my usual first frost however, so I might have more time than you. Check your frost dates, and the days to maturity on both the summer crops and the cooler weather crops you'd like to successive sow, then evaluate it from there.

I'll add Early Dividend to farmerdill's list of early broccoli. It is 45 dtm and very dependable. Seed is not easy to find but there are a couple online sources. I'm lucky and can get seed locally. I just started my broccoli and cauliflower yesterday and today and will plant them out at then end of March or early April.

Concur, Early Dividend is excellent, Packman is good, so is Green comet, Southern Comet, Candid Charm, Bay Meadows, Windsor, Athlete, Everest. Green Goliath is the best OP variety that I have grown. Add to the list that did not impress me, Sun King, Lieutenant.

I have raised Imperial, Emerald Crown, and a third trial variety for several years. I like good tasty broccoli. Symphony is a great cauliflower.

what zone you are in is irrelevant to when you seed start ;transplant and what variety you plant. Zone only tells you the coldest average winter temperature.

You want to start seed for broccoli 12 weeks before your last frost date and transplant 5-6 weeks outside before your last frost date.

I transplant at about 25 days after seed sowing...great results time after time.

I'm in 6b, and the local organic growers use Diplomat. Big and dependable.

Green Magic and Imperial have been good spring varieties for me. Arcadia has done well for fall cropping.

I’m starting broccoli right about now under lights, and I get a bit hotter (and get hot earlier) than you do in Columbus. I think you’ll do OK.

On Saturday I went to my favorite gardening store and was very surprised to see that they already had broccoli, lettuce, and cabbage plants for sale outside the store. I wouldn't dare plant out broccoli until the last weekend in March here and that is pushing it. I guess with protection they might have a chance.

They did have a nice selection of broccoli though. Packman, Arcadia, Green Magic, Emerald Crown, Gypsy.

I placed an order for two different varieties of both broccoli and cauliflower. On my phone so it's hard to flip over and see what they are. The supplier was Reiner? And I was definitely not a fan of their website. I was forced to create an account and they said I was automatically added to their email list and I couldn't find a way to unsubscribe. Should have bailed on that order but they had the varieties that I wanted. Terrible shipping prices. I might still have some seeds from last year. I started broccoli and cauliflower from see last year but did not realize that I needed to transplant into larger containers and remove the greenhouse dome. Seems like I had better luck with less tech. I need to go look for some see starting trays (recommendations?) Because Parks mini greenhouse started seriously deteriorating over the last year and I refuse to give them more money after the strawberry plants I received last year were doa.

What do people use for transplanting? Are the peat pods large enough for a full size transplant? My seedlings did well last year, the just started small as I didn't transplant them out of Parks mini greenhouse.

Thanks for the advice guys!

Thomas - I start most everything in the 72 cell or 60 cell packs. Then when they get their first set of true leaves I pot up to larger single pots. Tomatoes go into 4.5" pots, Peppers go in 4", broccoli and cauliflower go in 3.5" pots. If you buy the heavier plastic ones they will last longer than the flimsy plastic. I only use domes for a few things that take over a week to germinate.

I hope you have better luck with Reimer seeds than most people do. Lots of negative reviews over on the Garden Watchdog website. Terrible customer service, poor germination rates, seeds that are not true to type. They do have a wide variety of seeds which I think draws a lot of business because people don't want to place orders with multiple vendors.

Oh no! I thought I read a post on another thread that said Reimer seeds was a good vendor.... I can understand why they aren't.

Good luck with Reimer. They are sort of hit and miss.

I keep transplanting simple. I start all brassicas in a cold frame. Hole in the ground lined with wood ,covered with glass with full southern exposure. Use commercial potting mix ( Bacto). Use a trowel to remove plants at 6-8 weeks and stick them directly in ground.

Walmart has cheap 72 cell trays that I use for tomatoes, peppers, eggplants.