How to Harvest Broccoli the Right, According to Horticulturists

Broccoli is a versatile vegetable that makes for a great side or soup addition without much effort. Growing broccoli may take a little more work, but harvesting broccoli heads is easy. If you know the best time to harvest and have a sharp enough knife to cut the stalk, you’ll soon have a mound of florets ready for eating or freezing for a winter meal.

Depending on how you like your broccoli, space the plants closer together for smaller heads or further apart for larger central heads. If you space them close together, you’ll get more of a yield from side shoots. In USDA zone 7 or warmer, broccoli can be overwintered for a spring harvest.

To learn how to harvest broccoli, we asked horticultural experts who regularly enjoy fresh broccoli buds from plants they’ve grown.

Tools You'll Need

• Sharp harvesting knife 
  
• Basket to collect your produce

Instructions

1. Using a sharp harvesting knife, cut the broccoli just below the head, says Brooke Edmunds, professor of practice and Oregon State University Extension horticulturist. Broccoli is usually too thick to use regular shears, so you’ll need a sharp knife.
2. Harvest the side shoots, if you wish, using your sharp knife.
   

When to Harvest Broccoli

Watch closely for the right time to harvest. With broccoli, it’s the actual flower buds you’re harvesting; you don’t want them to open or it will just be flower petals you’re eating, not the green buds we all know and love. What you’re looking for is a tight head, like what you’d see at a grocery store. "Gardeners will notice that the broccoli heads stop expanding," says Edmunds. "The individual flower buds have plumped up but are still closed. The color of the head is a nice deep green if it’s a green variety of broccoli." If the head starts turning a yellow-green color, then it’s a little past its prime. "You can still eat it, but the flavor won’t be as great," says Edmunds.

So when is the stalk ready for cutting? "When you look at the head and it feels really tight," says Irish-Hanson. "You’ll start to notice sometimes the flowers open up a little bit toward the bottom of the stalk."

If you wait too long and the flowers start to open, you’ll decrease the time the vegetable will stay good in storage. "Pollinators will love the flowers, but the texture is not great for eating or storing at that point," says Edmunds.

Not all broccoli heads are several inches across when they’re ready to cut. "Some people are going to get massive broccoli heads and some will have small heads, almost like one or two florets," says Irish-Hanson. 

Harvest your broccoli in the morning before the sun is well overhead—this helps to decrease field heat, or how hot it is outside to the temperature you’ll need to store the plant later. "When you harvest in full sun, it will decline very quickly," says Irish-Hanson. "This reduces the post-harvest storage time you have for the plant."