Growing Broccolini: A Complete Profile
By Growing Home Greens Team · August 20, 2026
Broccolini is a cross between broccoli and gai lan, both of which this site already covers separately. It is worth its own square because you harvest it on a completely different rhythm.
One small head, then weeks of shoots
Standard broccoli gives you a head and, if you are lucky, some modest side growth afterwards. Broccolini inverts that. The central head is small and arrives early, around 50 to 56 days from transplant, and cutting it is the point rather than the end: West Coast Seeds notes that removing the central head is what stimulates the regrowth, and the side shoots then keep coming for several weeks.
Cut the crown with five or six inches of stem, before the buds show any yellow. Let it flower once and the plant reads that as finished.
It packs tighter than broccoli
Territorial Seed describes an upright habit that lends itself to tight plantings, and thins to 12 to 24 inches. At 20 to 24 inches tall by the Master Gardeners of British Columbia’s measurement, that upright shape is the practical difference in a square-foot bed: it holds one square without sprawling into its neighbours the way a full-size broccoli does at the same spacing.
Our planner places one per square foot and starts it indoors about five weeks before the last frost, setting plants out around the frost date, seed a quarter of an inch deep. Direct sowing works but adds 25 to 35 days to the timeline, which is most of a month of the season spent on something a transplant would have skipped.
Same pests as everything else in the family
It is Brassica oleracea, the same species as broccoli, cabbage and kale, so flea beetles, cabbage worms, aphids and cutworms all treat it identically. A floating row cover over young plants is the standard answer, and it matters more here than with a one-and-done crop, because you are asking the plant to keep producing well into the season.
For the same reason, keep it out of a bed that grew brassicas in the last three years. Our crop rotation checker will flag that for you.
Sources: Master Gardeners of British Columbia, Aspabroc broccolini, West Coast Seeds, Aspabroc F1 Broccolini and Territorial Seed, Aspabroc Broccoli.
Companion planting guide for Broccolini · Find your planting dates
Typically viable in USDA zones 2-10. Not sure your zone? Look it up by ZIP code.
Mature height: 1.5-2 ft
Method: Start indoors: Start indoors from seed, then transplant outside. It needs a head start most zones can't give it by direct-sowing alone.
When to plant broccolini, by zone
Every zone broccolini grows in. Pick your zone in the header and it will be highlighted here. Each zone links to its full page.
| Zone | Start indoors | Sow or plant out | Harvest |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2a & 2b | Apr 15–Apr 22 | May 20–May 27 | Jul 14–Jul 21 |
| 3a & 3b | Apr 25–May 2 | May 30–Jun 6 | Jul 24–Jul 31 |
| 4a & 4b | Apr 10–Apr 17 | May 15–May 22 | Jul 9–Jul 16 |
| 5a & 5b | Apr 5–Apr 12 | May 10–May 17 | Jul 4–Jul 11 |
| 6a & 6b | Mar 21–Mar 28 | Apr 25–May 2 | Jun 19–Jun 26 |
| 7a & 7b | Mar 6–Mar 13 | Apr 10–Apr 17 | Jun 4–Jun 11 |
| 8a & 8b | Feb 18–Feb 25 | Mar 25–Apr 1 | May 19–May 26 |
| 9a & 9b | Jan 11–Jan 18 | Feb 15–Feb 22 | Apr 11–Apr 18 |
| 10a & 10b | Dec 26–Jan 2 | Jan 30–Feb 6 | Mar 26–Apr 2 |
Harvest dates are about 55 days after the sow or plant-out date, not after starting seeds indoors.
Zone 2 sows before zone 3 here, which looks wrong and is not. USDA zones rank winter cold, not season length, and zone 2 is mostly interior Alaska, where hard winters come with warm summers. More on what a zone measures.
See exact start-indoors, direct-sow, and harvest dates for your zone →
How many Broccolini plants fit per square foot?
Spacing: 1 per square foot (square-foot-gardening spacing). Mature height: 1.5-2 ft.
Good companions for broccolini
- Radish: Radish (including the daikon form) is a documented trap crop for flea beetles, which prefer its mustard oils over other brassicas and can be sacrificed or pulled once infested: the same research cited on the radish page.
Full companion guide, including what to keep away from broccolini →
Where to buy broccolini seeds
None of the seed suppliers we list carries broccolini seeds right now. A local garden center or a specialty seed house is the place to look.
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See it growing
Search YouTube for "growing broccolini" videos → (a live search, not a hand-picked video; results vary and aren't vetted by us)
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Growing Broccolini: A broccoli and gai lan hybrid grown for weeks of side shoots rather than one head, and it takes tighter spacing than either parent.
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