Greenhouse Broccoli and Cauliflower

I went out to harvest some of our broccoli and cauliflower from the greenhouse yesterday. These were grown in our 4" tubes hydroponically! Not bad for a harvest on December 12th!

I think I've now learned how to grow great broccoli and cauliflower. Look at the size of that one head of broccoli.

We have a bit more and the broccoli will make side shoots but I've started seeds for a spring repeat! After cutting our lettuce three times, I'm restarting our hydroponic lettuce tubs as well.

Growing lettuce

One of the things we love growing in our greenhouse is lettuce. It's wonderful to go and cut a head or some leaves and then come in and fix a salad.

We have some soft heads like butter crunch and Simpson and then some lettuce mixes.

We grow them in an easy hydroponic way by putting water and organic liquid fertilizer in a plastic containers that fit under the bed. We added some aeration that you get for aquariums (but you can use a whisk by hand).

You plant some seeds in some small cups that have holes in the bottom. Then you cut holes in some Styrofoam and put the cups in the holes. The roots grow out the bottom.

Tube plants 12 days apart

On February 26 we redid our hydroponic tubes and put in some very small plants in with a trickle of nutrients.

Here are those plants two weeks later.

They have more than tripled in size. . . in 12 days.