Broccoli and Flower FPJ

Brassicas in general are typically pretty bacterially oriented on the spectrum of plants grown for consumption, as compared to something like a tomato, corn, or beans. This means that evolutionarily they are much simpler in terms of how they grow and interact with the ecosystem.

This simplicity also applies to the growth cycle. However, I am in the process of refining the vocabulary and my understanding of what is meant in the original language of the nutrient cycle theory. I am not sure the original attempts were any more clear, so here goes another attempt.

The “flower stage” as I have in my app is actually closer to something called puberty. Just cause a girl has menses does not mean she is ready to have a baby. Sure, she is now capable, but it’s not wise to reproduce at this point.

Take this concept and apply it to your broccoli, your plant is ready to put out a head, this represents puberty, but you don’t quite want it to bolt yet, this represents pregnancy. So, at the stage where it is putting out the head, it’s no longer really growing leaves, which is analgous to the vegetative or “leaf stage”, but now it instead beginning to have a menses, indicated by putting out a head.

Master Cho has specifically talked about broccoli and that 5 days before the heads start to form, one should treat with “flower solution” to ease this transition and to get even more heads than thought possible. This does not mean it will encourage it to bolt, but rather help the plant ease from accumulative growth to get ready for reproduction.

As a rule of thumb the time to apply flower solution is 1/3 through the life of the plant. So with 80 days for broccoli, that would be at day 26 or so, but you want to actually precede it by 5 days, so day 21 would be optimal. Of course this will vary widely in practice, but with your experience you should be able to anticipate and treat in the correct window.