So it was time to til the garden bed the broccoli was in so I cut off the head with all the seed pods and put it in my shop to dry out. BAD MISTAKE! I repeat BAD MISTAKE! That thing stunk to high heaven. We had to burn candles through out the entire house to get rid of the smell, and the head only stayed in the shop for about an hour. So now the head is outside to dry, and you can smell it from many yards away.
It is time to start preparing for the early spring garden. I will be sprouting my broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage plants for about the next 8 weeks. Every two weeks I spout some seeds, and a week later pot 3 plants each of broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. This will give me a staggered harvest. I like to grow the seedlings for around 10 weeks indoors, and two weeks outdoors, before transplanting them into the garden. So if I am going to put transplants in the ground from early March through mid April, I need to start them now.
So a week ago, I put about a half dozen seeds into a moist coffee filter (a different filter and baggie for each variety of plant), folded it over on itself twice, and put it in a ziplock baggie. I prop the baggies between two bottles to keep them upright (so that the sprouts will grow up out of the filter, if you lay them flat the sprouts will grow up through the filter and you won't be able to separate the seedling from the filter) Usually within a week the sprouts will start poking their heads out. I carefully pull the seedlings off of the filter, using only the tiny leafs as a handle so as not to crush the stems. Then I pot them up in 3"x3" pots and place them under lights.
About every other day, I place the pots in the bottom of the sink filled with a couple inches of water for a few minutes to allow the soil to soak up the moisture. You don't want to water from above if you can help it at this stage. The seedlings are too tender to take it, and it can promote fungus growth on your seedlings.
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