Beach Farm Broccoli

Upon arrival at the beach farm this morning, I had to make a decision. Should I pull the broccoli to make room for greens? The plants were putting out some seriously nice looking side shoots -like the one above, where new, larger florets would grow.

Since the floral meristem (what we call broccoli) had been cut off a few weeks back, the downward flow of the hormone auxin has ceased to limit the growth of side shoots. The prostrate stem above, then, is able to put out a series of new leading stems, all of which would produce broccoli florets.

But there are other problems. King Cabbageworm is back.

And Lord Whitefly remains.

So I pulled the whole lot of them.

Happily discovering that journeyman earthworms have come to work for us.

What remains is the one broccoli plant that has not had its leader cut. With no nylon on hand, I used window screening to keep out the cabbage moths -it's a little silly looking. In fact, the plan was to protect the whole patch with a fabric cover, but when we arrived on Sept. 5th, the broccoli was ready to pick and completely without cabbage worms -this despite worms being present just two weeks earlier.

Which leads me to this:
Can I plant broccoli next year in a way that takes advantage of the hole created by the life cycle of the cabbage moth? The worm-eaten leaves have little affect on the growth of the plant -we simply don't want them and their turds in our broccoli florets. What if the cabbage moths breed on a rather regular schedule? Can I plant broccoli so that its florets develop completely in the 3 or 4 weeks without cabbage worms? After all, that appears to be what we chanced upon this year. From late August to mid-late September there were no cabbage worms on the broccoli. Last week, none. This week, some. If this hole can be exploited, I can grow broccoli without much concern for the green buggers. Now, weather, location, and other factors surely come into play. But I like the idea, I like outsmarting the critters -isn't that what our big brains are good for anyhow?