You need to use floating row covers to guard your crop – and take a look at our information to controlling cabbage loopers for extra concepts.
Flea Beetles
Flea beetles additionally get pleasure from feasting on rapini leaves. They’re most recognizable by the injury they do – leaving tiny, spherical “shot holes” within the foliage.
Earlier than you kill another tiny backyard beetles pondering they’re flea beetles, nevertheless, be sure to have accurately recognized them – there are some helpful bugs, equivalent to spider mite destroyers, which will be mistaken for these pests.
Flea beetles don’t often do sufficient injury to hurt broccoli raab, In my very own backyard, I ignore the minimal injury brought on by these pests.
As an alternative I concentrate on attracting pure flea beetle enemies equivalent to braconid wasps, which love the umbel-shaped flowers of cilantro, dill, and yarrow.
You’ll be able to study extra about managing flea beetles right here.
Leaf Miners
Leaf miners go away distinctive maze-like marks within the foliage.
These pests are literally flies, nevertheless it isn’t the adults that create the injury, it’s the larvae feeding as they burrow by the leaf tissue.
Along with aesthetic injury, these burrows can intrude with photosynthesis.
As with flea beetles, parasitic wasps are essential in maintaining leaf miner populations down.
To encourage parasitic wasps, develop crops they like close by. Along with cilantro and dill, cosmos is one other helpful wasp favourite.
Take away any broken foliage and provides your crops an opportunity to get better earlier than resorting to pesticides, that are dangerous to helpful bugs.
Illness
There are just a few widespread illnesses that may have an effect on your crop, however they aren’t quite common if crops are grown in optimum situations.
Alternaria Leaf Spot
Alternaria leaf spot is a fungal illness that causes brown lesions on the foliage with white or grey facilities. These lesions are sometimes surrounded by yellow halos.
The fungi that trigger this illness flourish in sizzling, humid situations.
To stop an infection, present satisfactory spacing between crops and encourage good air circulation.
Additionally, relatively than watering your crop with a sprinkler, water near the floor of the soil as a substitute.
Remedy of this illness is far the identical in rapini as it’s in its shut relative, the turnip.
To study extra, learn our article on figuring out and treating Alternaria leaf spot on turnips.
Damping Off
Damping off is brought on by a soilborne pathogen that causes younger seedlings to immediately wither and die.
Cool, moist situations and poorly draining soil put seedlings in danger for this illness. As a safety measure, be sure the soil is well-draining, and don’t overwater.
To study extra about stopping this illness, learn our article about damping off.
Downy Mildew
Downy mildew is a illness brought on by fungus-like organisms referred to as water molds (oomycetes). It’s a danger when the climate is cool and humid.
Affected crops have yellow lesions on the floor of the leaves and white or grey fungus-like development on the undersides.
Lesions ultimately flip brown and your entire leaf can grow to be papery earlier than falling off the plant.
To stop this illness, water on the soil degree with a watering wand or by way of drip irrigation relatively than with an overhead sprinkler.
To study extra, learn our article about treating downy mildew and different cabbage household illnesses.
Harvesting
Your crop needs to be prepared for its first harvest about six to eight weeks after sowing, relying in your chosen selection.
Nevertheless, relatively than sticking strictly to the calendar, regulate the buds and make you harvest earlier than they open.
If potential, plan to reap for the morning, when the foliage can be at its freshest.
A pair of scissors or backyard snips can be useful right here – simply be sure they’re clear, to cut back the danger of spreading illnesses.
Reduce many of the vegetation again in your harvest, leaving the plant just some inches tall.
For continued harvests, be sure to depart just a few leaves on every plant, to encourage regrowth.
Plan to choose extra each time the buds are prepared. Some gardeners can obtain three harvests from every plant.
Preserving
Like different leafy greens, these are finest when eaten recent from the backyard.
It should preserve within the fridge for as much as per week, however for the perfect taste, attempt to use broccoli rabe when it’s recent!
To freeze your harvest, blanch it first. Place the greens in boiling water for 2 minutes, then dip them in an icy water bathtub to shortly cool.
Drain, then place in freezer-proof containers and retailer within the freezer, the place it’ll preserve for as much as 12 months.
Rapini will also be preserved in jars, very like different greens equivalent to spinach. Since this vegetable is low in acid it’ll should be strain canned.
To study extra, discover recommendations on strain canning at our sister website, Foodal.
Cooking Concepts
Along with being utilized in Italian and Chinese language delicacies, this inexperienced is a staple in conventional Spanish and Galician delicacies as properly, equivalent to within the soup caldo Gallego.
Rapini will be cooked like another leafy inexperienced – steamed, sauteed, added to an omelet or quiche, combined with pasta, or used as a pizza topping.
The pungent flavors marry significantly properly with sizzling peppers, ginger, or garlic.
Raab additionally combines properly with beans, equivalent to on this recipe for reasonable and simple Italian model beans and greens soup, from our sister website, Foodal.
For a lightweight meal or appetizer, you may as well use it as a topping for toast, equivalent to on this recipe for tartines topped with broccoli rabe, chilies, and pecorino. Discover it on Foodal.
The Greatest Bitter Buds
You now have the entire info it is advisable sow, develop, harvest, and even prepare dinner up a scrumptious batch of homegrown broccoli rabe. So, what are you ready for?
Are you a fan of those pungent greens? Inform us about your gardening or cooking experiences with rapini – and tell us what you name it – within the feedback part under.
In case you are rising different cruciferous greens alongside together with your rapini, you may wish to assessment these rising guides as properly:
Photographs by Fanny Slater © Ask the Specialists, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. See our TOS for extra particulars. Initially revealed July 15, 2021. Final up to date October 24, 2025. Product Photographs by way of Everwilde Farms, IB Prosperity, La Semiorto Sementi, True Leaf Market, and Zamboni Raab Seeds. Uncredited images: Shutterstock.
