Broccoli is an exotic crop that is mostly used for garden and sometimes consumed. It can be found in several recipes of salad and it adds flavor to it.

It can be cultivated at anytime of the year and that is the reason to should take your chances and plant it.

Broccoli farming is very lucrative since its agree to any time and season of the year. However, it does not mean that broccoli is not supported by some factors.

The fact is that you can earn a good amount of money by venturing into broccoli farming in Nigeria.

This is one crop that can be exported around the world and it has a moderately intense market. So, the low competition means that you can easily get your broccoli sold at any time of the year and cash out on your own.

Benefits of Broccoli

Broccoli contains a high amount of protein and fiber, hence managing the body cholesterol level. It has a higher proportion of protein than our normal vegetables.
Eating broccoli in a while keeps the promotes for body health and increase immunity against any disease.
Broccoli serve as a source of different vitamins and minerals consumed by the body to boost the health.
It is hearth friendly and makes it easier for circulation of blood to be carried out.
Broccoli also helps to reduce the tendency of humans to get cancer.
Broccoli carries a high amount of profits or return on investment during harvest
It is also a great source of income for the farmers and another product that the masses can sell.

How To start broccoli farming

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Site Selection for Broccoli Farming

Look for a good site with optimum and adequate broccoli supporting factor. Go for a very good and reliable location, maybe a place where broccoli farming has been taking place before.

It requires moist loamy soil with a PH level of 5.0 and 6.5. The daily temperature should be about 15 C to 18 C. It requires a site where there would be direct sunlight or full sun every day.

The next step now is to get your site and land ready for planting. Clear the soil and then state tillage of the soil. Remove any pebbles that might obstruct growth later on.

After which you will also need to apply fertilizer to the farm. Fertilizer kg organic manure, just make sure you are applying this one the land.

At adequate quantity before planting. If you don’t know, this will determine the growth of your broccoli plant later on.

Varieties of broccoli for Broccoli Farming

I could have moved into talking about planting the seeds but we need to talk about the different varieties of broccoli available.

Don’t get shocked when you see another kind of broccoli that is not looking like yours.

This is due to a few different factors differentiating them.

Well, the main issue here is that there are different factors which will determine which one to go for but the best thing you can do is to ask farmers around your area about it. These are the varieties of Broccoli:

Waltham 29, Sun King, Romanesco, Purple Sprouting, Green Magic, Green Goliath, DiCicco, Destiny, Coronado Crown, Blue Wind and Belstar.

Planting

Now that you have chosen your curiosity and prepared your land. It is time to purchase a healthy and viable seed from a reliable source. Having a and planting good seeds will facilitate growth.

You can also order seeds online or browse ofarms.co for any seed.

Also, you can choose to transplant seedlings instead of going for seeds alone. But if you want to go for seeds, you can also start from the use of normally or plant directly on land.

Planted the seeds and said for the next 4-5 weeks when the seeds would have started sprouting well to germinate. You can also buy the seedling from a nearby Afro market which is reliable.

Make sure that there is about 2.5 feet space between the rows, and thin the seedlings 1-1.5 feet apart once the leaves are sprouting out. Also, you should make sure that you are watering the soil very well during germination.

Agronomy

This is a kind of plant Which agronomy is very easy to manage. Many do not know that this is just like jute leaf where you just practice your normal watering and irrigation, application of fertilizer, disease and pest control, thinning and a lot of other caring habits for crops.

To ensure optimum yield during harvest, the soil needs to be fed with enough nutrients which is later absorbed by the crop.

So, this is how it’s done: if you have a 1 kg hectare of land, apply nitrogen fertilizer of about 50kg, phosphorus at 25 kg and passionate 25 kg. Hence you will apply NPK fertilizer in the ratio kg 2″1″1 on each of your acres.

Also, wake them at least once every week during the dry season and about 10 days during the rainy season. Just make sure water is available.

Harvesting

Broccoli is one crop that you can’t predict it’s harvest because of the fast way it grows. However pence it is big enough you can harvest it and know that you should be careful while harvesting.

Remember, those stems can germinate once again if properly harvested. Just cut 25 cm of the edible stem with the leaves just like normal vegetable, and leave the remaining in the soil.