Sheila, thanks. I will take you up on it. I have not started anything yet. I have some Blues Chinese cabbage, I will start some for you if you like. I also have some broccoli (I never remember the name of it) that I will start for you if you want to try a different kind. I still have one broccoli plant growing. I saved it for our dog because he likes broccoli so much, but it has gotten so strong the that he wont eat it.

Sure I will try a few. He started bobcat cabbage so I will have some of that too. Not sure where I am going to put all of this!!! My garden seems to be shrinking! Oh and Larry did you happen to know Jay Graf at rheem in tool and die

Sheila, at one time I knew all the guys in tool and die. Dave Young was the supervisor at that time. It has been almost 18 years ago that I worked at Rheem, and the name Jay Graf rings a bell, but as old an I am my bell has been rung many times.

Tall skinny longer face. Sweet man was my father in law. Had lung cancer. was about the 27th person hired. Started out in welding then went to tool and die. Lived in mulberry or actually pleasant view. All I can think of to remind you. I understand the bell ringing. My bells cracked!

Sheila, I knew him, I did not know he was gone. He worked in the die change-over area for a long time. He was a very pleasant man that always did his job well and never bothered anyone. There are so many people that I worked with that are gone now, many younger than me.

I saved 1 broccoli plant from spring so our dog could have some. I was watering a while ago and broke a limb off the plant. The broccoli has gotten such a strong taste to it now that he wont eat it, but I did. I have to agree with the dog, it is better early in the year. But I was surprised it has grown this long. I was hoping to get seeds from the plant.

Larry

Larry,

If I leave broccoli plants alone, they normally will live very deep into summer. I don't usually leave them because I want to put something else in that spot that will produce a crop all summer, instead of leaving cool-season crops there that won't produce anything edible again until fall.

In 2011, some Piricicaba broccoli, which seems more heat-tolerant than most, survived that whole entire hot and miserable summer, even though I didn't water that area for about 6 weeks, and produced a crop again in the fall. It was at the shady west end of the garden, which likely helped it survive that awful summer and drought. It stopped producing side shoots when it froze in December 2011.

If you want to save seeds, don't cut off the green broccoli heads as they are the immature flowers. They eventually will flower and the flowers will be yellow. If the flowers get pollinated, you ought to get seed to harvest.

A couple of things to consider:

If the broccoli is an F-1 hybrid, plants grown from saved seed likely won't come true to type, or at least not consistently.

If you only have one broccoli plant, you might not get many seeds, and if you do, you have to be concerned about inbreeding depression. To save seeds, it is better to have multiple plants so the bees can carry pollen from one to the other. To avoid inbreeding depression when saving seeds, the more plants you can save seed from, the better.

If you have any other brassica family plants blooming at the same time, the brassicas can cross-pollinate and you may get some odd plants from those seeds.

I find it hilariously funny that you have a dog that eats broccoli. My dogs only like tomatoes, winter squashes and pumpkins. Our youngest dog, Jersey, who is only six years old, likes summer squash and cucumbers, but she only likes to chew them up as if they were rawhide chewy bones. She chews them and spits them out instead of swallowing the chewed pieces. She is in hog heaven if you give her an old, hard, dried gourd to chew up, but she's only allowed to chew up stuff like that outdoors.

Dawn