Growing Broccoli Raab, Planting Broccoli Rabe, Rapini, Broccoletto Plants

How to plant broccoli raab when backyard vegetable gardening. Learn how to grow, care for, and harvest broccoli raab plants in your home garden.

Design Your Own Vegetable Garden Layout Using our Free "Vegetable Garden Planner" Software!

Broccoli and raab are closely related, although you would not confuse the two if you saw them together.

Raab is a leafy vegetable similar to kale with thin shoots topped by loose, small broccoli-like bud cluster.

Raab is a popular vegetable all around the world.

Download Free Garden Planning Worksheets, Garden Diary, Zone Chart, Or Planting Guide

Also Known As: Broccoli Rabe, Rapini, Broccoletto

Also a relative of the turnip and cabbage, Raab has many names as well.

Besides being called broccoli raab, it is known as rapini, rabe, and broccoletto.

The plant is a fast grower and will be ready for harvest in 45 days.

An heirloom variety Zamboni produces good yields of tender buds with side shoots.

Delicious and Healthy

These nutritious vegetables contain calcium, potassium, iron, and vitamins K, C, and A.

Raab is notably rich with antioxidants that have shown to be helpful in fighting cancer.

Studies done at Johns Hopkins Medical Center show that broccoli sprouts have at least 30 times the concentration of the anticancer substances found in mature broccoli.

Planting Raab

Soil

Planting from Seed

Planting from Transplants

The seedlings transplant well but be careful not to disturb its roots.

Companion Planting Raab

Not only does this veggie have a lot of relatives but friends as well.

Good garden bedfellows of raab are tomato, cucumber, onion, lettuce, chard, celery, bush bean, potato, beet, carrot, and spinach.

Adversaries are snap and pole beans.

When rotating crops, avoid following raab with cabbage family plants.

The crop is also a good candidate for growing in cold frames.

Watering and Fertilizing Raab

The plants require moderate yet even watering.

Raab is a heavy user of nitrogen.

Fertilize every few weeks with an organic fertilizer like fish emulsion at only half strength.

Broccoli raab like all its cabbage family cousins needs significant amounts of boron, which tends to be deficient in soils with a low percentage of organic matter.

Rotted manures or compost are excellent soil conditioners.

Harvesting Broccoletto

As raab matures, shoots begin sprouting from the plant's crown.

When the shoots have grown about a foot high, harvest the buds along with the several leaves growing just under the bud.

Unlike broccoli stems, raab's stems are usually discarded.

Raab's flavor is sharper than broccoli, but its taste can be toned a bit by blanching in one change of water.

Raab tastes superb combined with other vegetables.

A quick and easy way to serve broccoli raab is to sauté with olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes.

Summary

Back To Top

Growing Broccoli Raab to Vegetable Gardening

You Might Also like to Read:

"Get the Dirt!" on Vegetable Gardening! > > A FREE Vegetable Gardening Tips and Ideas Newsletter < < "Where to begin with my own vegetable garden? I need some help!" Should I just try planting some seeds in the ground? Is there more to vegetable gardening than meets the eye? How about a container garden? Get the answers, tips, ideas, and more by subscribing to our FREE "Get the Dirt" newsletter.

New! Comments