They are ready to harvest when the florets are just about opening. Also, remember that Broccoli is a vegetable with multiple harvests. When you cut the main head, more side-shoots will grow.

Make sure to wash the head of broccoli really well unless you appreciate extra protein in your produce! I only grew broccoli once, was grossed out by the cabbage worms hidden in all the little crevices...

I don't know if the broccoli in zone 7 is any less tasty than in zone 5, but I let my broccoli form side shoots until it freezes solid in late fall. It's actually even better in the fall than in the mid summer. You could underplant lettuce and let the broccoli shade it from the heat of summer, and get good lettuce all season -- that's in case you want to leave the broccoli in AND use the space at the same time.

You can get the cabbage worms out by soaking for a half hour in water with a tablespoon of salt added. If the worms get too bad in late summer, just wait until fall and they'll be gone. But you have to keep cutting the side shoots before they turn to flowers (yellow) because if they do the plant will stop making side shoots (because it will have successfully gone to seed)

Howdy neighbor and fellow SoMDer. I can't answer your question directly, but I can say that you don't want to let it go through frost. The high heat of our summers makes it taste pretty gross and at a certain point they become laden with tons of harlequin plant bugs. Having grown up in zone 4/5 where they do indeed grow it all summer long, I think the difference is our hot nights. In my old garden (down here) I used to harvest the big head, then pull the plants because I had small space to work with. Sounds like you may want to do the same. When I lived in Alexandria, I harvested around late May through early June, depending on the weather. Here we're averaging 5 degrees cooler, so that probably shifts things a little later. Basically when it gets hot and stays hot they will start struggling and you'll see it. Here at the new house I didn't get a good crop last spring, this spring we'll see. Hope that helps!

Firstly, you can use the heads at any time you want. They are at thier peak just before the buds start separating . They go down hill fast when the yellow flowers began appearing. Packman produces good side shoots, but two cuutings is as far as I go with them. The cabbages worms are easy to control with Bt. Harlequins take a little heavier artillery like carbaryl or permethrin.
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Thanks for all the responses, they've been really helpful! I'll post a picture when i'm not lazily lounging in bed on my tablet.
I'll definitely remember about soaking the broccoli. I've seen signs of something munching but not found anything yet.
@Sunni-yay! Nice to see another SoMDer here; I'm a Virginia transplant but the only gardening I ever did before moving here was watch my grandfather tend his roses. But back to broc, I didn't think it would be able to last until May. That makes me feel better!
Its kind of funny to me when you think about it, I imagine most people you talk to would say they don't eat flowers, but if they eat broccoli then they actually do...

Hmmmm -- yeah, sounds like I can't really speak from zone 5 to a zone 7er about broccoli! I tend to forget how differently things act in different conditions.

I was given 40 (!) cabbage seedlings last November. I planted most of them in my Z5 garden under cover, and some of them in North Carolina in a friend's bed. All my Z5 plants gave lovely tasty leaves during the winter, then bolted this spring--no heads. I just got the report from my friend -- the ones I planted in his garden made heads!! I guess they didn't "vernalize" or whatever brassicas do in cold weather.

Elisa, it is really hard to imagine the difference until you experience it! When I moved down here I had allthe wrong instincts about when to plant what. And it took a really long time to adjust my thinking. Warm weather crops are a little more similar, but even so, I didn't know about tomato pollen and high temperatures until I moved here either. Probably because upstate NY doesn't have but a week of what I would call really hot weather a year.

Jo- yes, May is a month for fretting over the cool weather crops, wondering if they are going to produce before they croak from the heat. In a typical year, early to mid June is when I clear them out.

I took pictures of the broccoli today! :)

[IMG]http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b180/CherryFristado/Garden/2012-04-18_18-57-52_435.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b180/CherryFristado/Garden/2012-04-18_18-57-19_511.jpg[/IMG]