If you haven't noticed already, I'm retooling the layout of the blog and adding new features and widgets. Please forgive any untidiness during this time. Because of its size issues, the calendar has been suffering from all sorts of permutations. For the time being, I've decided to move it from the sidebar to the bottom of the page beneath the posts. It should make the events more readable. (I'd also like to stop a moment and give wholehearted thanks for Wikipedia. I think we all take its information resources for granted, but as a blogger wary of copyright infringement, I am inexpressibly grateful for Wikimedia Commons and its archive of photographs, i.e. broccoli.)The giant picture is a rather loud transition to my next topic. There's been some discussion as to why the broccoli leaves are yellowing. I had thought, based on some past discussion with Celia Barss over at Woodland Gardens, there actually might be too much nitrogen in the soil. However, after some cursory googling, the answer is indubitably more simple and obvious: cold. August and September are average harvest times in the Northern Hemisphere. It's been unseasonably chilly in North Georgia this year. If you're florets are limping along and the leaves are getting puny, your plants probably need some nighttime cover.
Here's what the The Guardian says on the matter:
Calabrese needs to grow steadily and so will need a fair bit of attention. Keep weeds back and make sure you water your crop in dry weather and protect under cloches if cool weather sets in (while the leaves of calabrese are hardy, the flowering shoots are susceptible to frost). As your sprouting broccoli begins to flourish, you may find you need to stake it and/or build soil up around the stem to support it. Remove any yellowing or fallen leaves and burn them to prevent fungal diseases setting in.
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