tall broccoli no heads yet

[Anonymous]

I don’t know where you are in Montana…or what kind of weather you are experiencing, and have never gardened there. Broccoli is generally a cool-season crop, liking to do much of its growing before hot weather sets in (meaning spring and fall are its favorite times). There are more heat-tolerant varieties nowadays, but it’s not like a pepper or a tomato. They still hate hotspells, and won’t cooperate if they come to maturity during one.
The head is the flower of the broccoli, and plants can also fail to flower when they have too much Nitrogen (are you feeding very heavily with high N? any blue liquids?), or when some other condition isn’t met that they require to set the flower buds and develop them fully. Too shady a spot, for instance (probably not your situation), or not the right temperature/daylength in some kinds of plants.
Most broccoli varieties yield starting at around 50 days to around 65 or so days from seed, or that’s the predicted timeline. I am guessing that your 6/19 transplants were sown from seed like 5/1 to 5/15, meaning they are already close to 90 days old. And 3 feet…hmmm….
So I think you need local advice top succeed with broccoli and I found you a source via the Montana Cooperative Extension Service, which actually features a hotline on email (and even a phone number!). Tell them your county and I suspect they can help zero in on what’s up. Might be that your timing was a little late and you bumped into some heat, which angered your broccoli.
http://gardenguide.montana.edu/

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