broccoli plant

Broccoli Plant Problems that Could Threaten Your Harvest

Dan Field & Row Crops, Fruits & Vegetables, Pest Update, This Land of Ours

The broccoli plant problems that could threaten your harvest. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.

broccoli plant
Salinas, California, USA: Agricultural farm workers harvest fresh broccoli. They cut and box the crop and load flatbed trucks, directly in the fields, ready for worldwide shipping.
(Editorial credit: David Litman / Shutterstock.com)

There are two primary types of problems you may encounter when growing your own vegetables: pest problems and health issues. And, Broccoli is no exception. Pests seem to love this member of the brassica family.  Especially slugs, cabbage flies, and aphids.

When seedlings fail to emerge from the soil or disappear altogether both cabbage root maggots and cutworms are suspect.

When full-grown plants also develop slimy tunnels in the roots, you know cabbage maggots are probably to blame.

Insects aren’t the only problems that impact your broccoli. Rabbits, groundhogs, birds, and even goats tend to go for brassicas first when they invade the garden.

Mushy black spots on on your broccoli plants are the sign of bacterial rot. While Brown or yellow spots are the sign of powdery mold.

Perhaps your broccoli plants aren’t even flowering. If that’s the case, there’s probably a root issue problem at play. Typically a sign the plants are overcrowded.

Or, if seedlings collapse when you’ve moved your plants outside, it’s a sure bet you didn’t harden your plants off well enough.

Listen to Cathy Isom’s This Land of Ours program here.

Broccoli Plant Problems that Could Threaten Your Harvest