Determining Heat Unit Requirements for Broccoli Harvest in Coastal South Carolina

Abstract

The objective of this research was to determine the least variable method to predict the dates of the first and last broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var Italica) harvests based on heat unit summation using coefficients of variation (cv). The method with the lowest cv for predicting first harvest was to sum, over days from planting to harvest, the difference between the growing season mean (GSM) temperature and a base temperature of 7.2 °C. If the GSM maximum (max) temperature, however, was >26.7 °C, an adjusted max temperature was calculated by first subtracting 26.7 °C from the GSM max temperature and then subtracting the GSM mean temperature. Then the growing degree days (GDDs) were summed by subtracting the base temperature of 7.2 °C from the average of the GSM minimum (min) and adjusted max temperatures. This method produced a cv of 3.96 compared to 4.13 for the standard method of summing over the entire growing season, the mean temperature minus the base temperature of 4.4 °C. The method with the lowest cv for predicting last harvest was to sum, over days from planting to harvest, the difference between the GSM max temperature and a base temperature of 7.2 °C. If the GSM max temperature, however, was >29.4 °C, the base temperature was subtracted from 29.4 °C and not the actual GSM max temperature. This method produced a cv of 3.71 compared to 4.10 for the standard method of summing over the growing season, the mean temperature minus the base of 4.4 °C.