Photos??

I started Pacman from seed in late June, and I gathered the last primary heads yesterday. I had a few Premium Crop seedlings I bought and set out in late July, and they headed about a week ago.

Close spacing can affect heading, but that is not usually the case with Pacman. I use homemade liquid organic fertilizers often through Aug and early Sept - like every two weeks -- to push vigorous growth of fall broccoli and brussels sprouts.

There is still time -- your plants may head up yet. As for the cauliflower, good luck. I always set out a couple of plants in case they do well, but it's always a long shot.

It takes much longer in the fall for plants to head than in a spring planting. Patience may be your only requirement assumming the plants are vigorous and healthy. Packman is very reliable. Snowball much less so. The short season hybrid cauliflower does much better.
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I fertilize my broccoli and cauliflower and consistently get good results. I raise Emerald Crown and Imperial broccoli which head up and bead smaller better than many others I have tried. I raise mostly Symphony cauliflower and it makes large heads in October.

I set out my home raised seedlings while small...about 26 days after seeding, and I water very well.

uscjusto @ Photos??

Yuuup....... This one looks like the other 149..........

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You are close, probably a couple of weeks. Patience, that is a pretty plant.

I agree that the broccoli looks ok. It has large outer leaves and greener inner leaves denoting new growth.

Thanks fellas! This strange "headless phenomenon" started last fall & repeated itself this spring...... I've grown these plants for 30+ years & never experienced this until last fall.

I find myself wating for heads to form & waiting & waiting & about December they are pulled & tossed on the compost pile...

I believe your problem is caused by 'growth stoppage'. In the seedling stage any stoppage or slow down in growth (temp, lack of sufficient water, lack of light) will cause a 'headless' problem. Another point, loose soil in the planting area. I was taught to 'stomp' the ground down before placing the plant.
I suffered for a couple of years before curing the problem, now I get good heads.

beeman_gardener, I propagate my own transplants, so I know their history..... They were in the shade some when we were experiencing 100F+ days (as transplants) but I'm not doing anything different than I have for all these years.

I've grown under low tunnels when frost threatens for the last several years with great success, but that came to a halt last fall when all this started....

Now the ground stomping thing is supposed to work for alliums also..... Never tried myself.....

Eh? What's this ground stomping? I've never heard anyone mention it before so now I'm curious. What's it supposed to do?

I'm curious about the stomping as well. What are the reasons behind it? What does it accomplish?

Rodney

Need beeman_gardner to help us out here...... Google talks about stomping onion tops to encourges bulb growth. I

@Handsome:

I wanted photos because I just put a bunch of broccoli seedlings into the ground.
I'm a first time broccoli grower and I just don't know what to expect. I already think I spaced them too closely because I didn't have enough room in my raised bed for all the seedlings but it would kill me to just throw the extras out. So I squeezed them into every available area.

'Stomping'......using your size 11s to firm the ground where you will plant the brassicas.
Seems they don't like a loose root area and will not grow firm heads or sprouts, prevents plants from falling over.
I do know, since I remembered this my brassicas have improved tremendously.
Give it a try, nothing to lose.

Reviving this thread to do a follow up post........

Still no heads on my cauliflower (Snowball), but some of my broccoli (Pacman) is maturing........ Last fall & this spring's plantings produced main broccoli heads the size of golf balls & the cauliflower produced zip! Can't imagine what could be different.... Oh well, I'll take whatever mother nature gives!

Here's a head from this fall's Pacman.........

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