📌 Quick Summary (TL;DR): Second Harvest Brassicas
- 🥦 Never Pull Up Broccoli! After you harvest the main central head, do not throw the plant away. If you prune the bottom leaves and feed it, it will push out dozens of smaller “side shoots” (florets) continuously until late autumn.
- 🥬 Cabbage Does It Too: Even early heading cabbage can produce a second flush! If you cut the main head carefully but leave the large outer wrapper leaves attached to the stalk, it will grow multiple mini-cabbages around the stem.
- 🐌 The Slug Threat: Heavy summer rains bring out slugs in droves. They love to hide deep inside the tight leaves of early cabbage. Harvest your cabbage promptly after a rainstorm to avoid finding slimy guests in your soup!
- 🧪 The Second-Flush Diet: To fuel this new growth, feed the pruned plants immediately with Nitrogen. Follow up a week later with a balanced fertilizer and a dose of Boron.
🌍 You’re reading a translated thread from our Russian-language forum. These growers garden in climates very similar to Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maine, and Ontario (short summers, late frosts, and cold soil).
Do you yank your broccoli out after the first harvest, or wait for side shoots? Let us know below!
Getting a Second Harvest from Broccoli and Cabbage
Girls! I have 6 broccoli plants. I have already cut 3 main heads, and the other 3 haven’t sized up yet. But after this heavy rain we just got, the process should speed up.
As soon as I cut the main heads off, I will remove the lowest leaves on the stalk, weed the bed, and give them a heavy dose of fertilizer. That will trigger the second flush! It will continue producing side shoots right up until late autumn. The first plant I harvested is already pushing out new side shoots. 🥦
You can also sow a new batch of seedlings right now for a fall harvest. Just make sure you start the seedlings indoors; otherwise, in this weather, the flea beetles will devour them before they can even grow.
What about the early cabbage?
Someone mentioned their early cabbage is being attacked by slugs and that they need to harvest it…
I only have 3 heads of early cabbage left in the bed. I really should cut them, but if you cut them and don’t cook them immediately, they wilt and lose their moisture very fast. So I leave them in the ground for now, but I’m trying to use them up as quickly as possible. It’s tough, though, because absolutely everything is ripening in the garden all at once right now! 🥬
Aleksan9ra (Ludmila) wrote:
…early cabbage is being attacked by slugs…
I have the exact same problem! Yesterday I cut a small head of early cabbage to make Shchi (cabbage soup), and I couldn’t believe how many tiny slugs were hiding deep inside it! 🐌🤢
Aleksan9ra (Ludmila) wrote:
As soon as I cut the main heads off, I will remove the lowest leaves on the stalk, weed the bed, and give them a heavy dose of fertilizer.
I already cut all my main broccoli heads and now I am waiting for the side shoots to grow. But I had no idea that I needed to fertilize the plant again! What is the best fertilizer to use for this?
I also cut my early cabbage, snapped off the lowest leaves, and guess what? Side shoots are growing on the cabbage stalks too! I’ll leave one mini-cabbage on each stalk to use for soups and borscht. They are smaller than the main heads, but in the summer, you don’t really need massive cabbages anyway. I’ll make sure to fertilize them too once the rain stops.
It has been pouring rain here for three days straight. There is standing water everywhere. My strawberries have turned into absolute mush; they are only good for making jam now. 🌧️🍓
Russi (Anna) wrote:
…how many tiny slugs were hiding deep inside it!
Ugh, I’ll probably go out and cut all of mine today. I absolutely despise finding “guests” in my cabbage, and with this wet weather, they will be everywhere.
Radomila (Vera) wrote:
What is the best fertilizer to use for this?
Vera, the very first feeding after you cut the main head should be pure Nitrogen. Then, about a week later, use a balanced granular fertilizer, and also give it a dose of Boron (both as a root drench and a foliar spray on the leaves).
Make sure you remove the oldest bottom leaves, and then either hill up some fresh soil around the base of the stalk or add a thick layer of fresh mulch to rejuvenate the plant.
The secret to side shoots: You must harvest the side shoots while they are still young and tender. The more frequently you cut them, the more the plant will grow! But because it’s producing so much new growth, you have to keep feeding it heavily and watering it well. 🥦💦
Broccoli is genetically designed to produce a large central flower head. Once you cut it off, the plant panics and activates its dormant lateral buds to try and reproduce again. These lateral buds grow into smaller, bite-sized broccoli florets called side shoots. As long as you keep cutting them before they flower, the plant will produce them all summer long!Surprisingly, Early Cabbage does the exact same thing! If you harvest a cabbage head by cutting it high on the stalk (leaving the large, floppy outer wrapper leaves still attached to the root system), the stalk will sprout 3 to 5 miniature cabbage heads in the leaf axils. They are the perfect size for a single meal!
