This is my first time planting a fall garden. I live in zone 7B just below Atlanta, Ga. I sowed cauliflower (early snowball A - 55 days to maturity) and broccoli (DiCiccio - 48-85 days to maturity) on August 23. I also transplanted cauliflower (Snow Crown - 50 days to maturity) and broccoli (unstated variety - matures in 40-70 days) on Sept 3. First frost date is supposed to be about Oct 25. Neither the cauliflower nor the broccoli have started to even form a head yet. Is something wrong. Or am I just being impatient.

Randy, What you need to know is that the cole family is picky, picky, picky. Productivity can be impaired by low soil moisture, low soil fertility, and temperatures that are either too high or too low. Other than that, they're a cinch to grow. Beyond those issues, broccoli plants can bolt and go to seed if exposed to hot weather, or can form buttonheads (small heads about the size of a quarter) if exposed to cold weather while small although you won't know the weather was 'too cold' for them until you get those buttonheads. Normally, if you plant broccoli a couple of weeks before your average last frost date, it will grow and produce well. Unfortunately, we've had later and later 'late freezes' the last 3 or 4 years and I have been sliding my broccoli planting date later and later every year because of that. I have been planting more like the week or two weeks after my average last frost date instead of 2 weeks before and that's worked out fairly well. If you used transplants that had 4 to 6 leaves, were about 4 or 5 weeks old, had good healthy green color and were not stalled in their growth, you should get broccoli heads from 60 to 80 days after you transplanted, assuming you planted varieties that perform well in Oklahoma. Last year's weather was oddly rainy at our house (almost 13" of rain in one day in late April which severely waterlogged our entire garden and stalled its growth) and cooler than usual, and we didn't harvest broccoli until June. Usually by late-May here in southern OK, the broccoli has either formed heads and has been harvested or has bolted and flowered. This year, our broccoli is just beginning to form heads the last few days, and it has been subjected to very cold temperatures and snow and also to temperatures in the upper 80s, so I have no idea if I'll get buttonheads or no real heads or nice, big heads or what. Cauliflower is even harder to grow successfully in Oklahoma in the spring. I have better luck with it as a fall crop--planted in mid- to late-summer for harvest in the autumn. It has the same temperature requirements as broccoli--performing best if it matures before temps begin regularly exceeding 75 degrees, but has even less tolerance for early cold weather. Even if you set out transplants that are the right size/age (roughly 4 or 5 weeks old) at the so-called right time, you have to cross your fingers and hope the weather doesn't get too high or too low during its growth. So, even though you do everything right...choosing the right varieties, transplanting them out at the right size/age, etc., there is so much you cannot controlo...namely the extreme temperature variations we usually have here in spring. As long as the broccoli and cauliflower plants are not yet going to seed and forming flowers, you still have a chance of getting a harvest. However, the closer our daytime highs get to the 90s, the less likely the chances of a good harvest. My broccoli has been very slow this...

I started mine (along with cabbage and brussel's sprouts) inside by first of June and will transplant out this month. Brussel's sprouts will go out this week and others week later. I just prepared beds today. Transplants are few inches tall and got some liquid fertilizer today. Last year I planted out on the first week f august and they did not have enough time before it got really cold so I pushed transplant time up a few weeks this year. I am in southern New Jersey. I am picking spring planted cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower now although broccoli is starting to bolt.

NCHFP website says to water blanch broccoli and cauliflower for 3 minutes which I find too long for broccoli but OK for cauliflower. I blanch broccoli for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes and then ice water bath for about 5 minutes. Drain, pat dry, flash freeze on cookie sheets, and then vacuum pack with a food saver using the gentle setting. I've only ever frozen the tough ends of asparagus so far to use in Cream of Asparagus soup. I blanch that for about 2-3 minutes. NCHFP guidelines say 2-4 minutes for gus depending on thickness of the spears. Since CoG soups requires boiling the gus for 15 minutes is really doesn't matter much if they are mushy after blanching.