Broccoli question

Question from Christine:

I planted this Broccoli di Cicco (heirloom) from seed in February and it’s growing in a 16″ deep planter box in south Carlsbad 5 miles from the ocean. A few weeks ago I noticed this purplish blemish on the main trunk and it grows larger as the plant grows larger. I also see that the first head has a bit of purple too. Have you seen this before? I’m using only organic methods.

Answer from Pat:

Purple stems on plants mean phosphorus deficiency. Always fertilize your vegetables with a complete or “balanced’ fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium (NPK) plus trace minerals.

The scar looks as if a rat ate off a sprout. Rats sometimes get a taste for a particular plant. When a rat bites off something, it looks as if the plant was cut off sideways by a sharp pair of secateurs, like this scar.

Also, you need to water and fertilize more in order to get vegetable plants to grow bigger. Your central head of di Cicco broccoli should look robust like this:

Next time why not use transplants when planting broccoli? If you plant your transplants on September 1 you should have been eating broccoli all winter long until March 1 when it is time to plant the summer crops. (Can you attend one of my vegetable lectures sometime?)

Whereas I often tell gardeners not to plant cucumbers, melons, or squash from transplants—transplants of these crops are seldom disease resistant—it’s fine to plant all cole crops (members of the cabbage family) from nursery transplants. Unlike squash, cucumber and melon’s, most if not all varieties of cole crops local growers sell as transplants in nurseries are good ones for our area and day-length. Also, it is quick and easy to grow squash, melons and cukes from seeds, but it’s a long slow process to grow good cole crops from seeds and requires great diligence, frequent feeding with liquid fertlizers or manure tea, etc. For a small garden, it’s simply not worth the effort. You can get great looking and tasting broccoli from nursery transplants by using humic acid as a transplant fluid, feeding with good organic vegetable fertilizer and growing in moist soil. After harvesting out the central head a couple of months after planting, then you will have months of harvesting masses of side sprouts.

I plant my cole crops on the first of September. All my cool-season crops are over by now (in late April). I am now growing my summer crops which I planted on March 1. Getting in tune with the seasons is one of the most important skills of local gardening.