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.
Method: Start indoors: Start indoors from seed, then transplant outside. Broccolini needs a head start most zones can't give it by direct-sowing alone.
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.
Where to buy broccolini seeds
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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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