Our plant breeding partners are developing broccoli hybrids capable of producing quality heads under highly variable and often stressful eastern growing conditions. Until those new cultivars appear on the market, which currently available varieties are best for eastern growers?
In the first several years of this effort,seed companies have released new varieties that perform better than the old ones. Based on our trials, several varieties stood out from the rest with respect to bead uniformity and dome structure: Lieutenant, DuraPak 16, SV2062 and Eastern Crown.
Even under more optimal fall or spring conditions, some commercial varieties are better choices for eastern production than others. The list below includes hybrids that, based on our experience, have done well in some eastern environments and seasons. Updates will be made as more information and varieties become available.
Within each seasonal planting list, varieties are listed in order from earliest to latest maturity. See the bottom for more information on relative maturity.
For early spring planting, late spring/early summer harvest
| Variety | Best for: |
| Castle Dome | crowns |
| Lieutenant** | crowns |
| BC1764** | crowns |
| Diplomat | crowns, bunches, florets |
| Bay Meadows | crowns |
| Belstar* | crowns |
For late summer harvest (tolerates some warmth)
| Variety | Best for: |
| BC1764** | crowns |
| Lieutenant** | crowns |
| SV2062 | crowns |
| Abrams | bunches |
| Burney** | crowns |
| Emerald Crown | bunches |
| Diplomat | crowns, bunches, florets |
| Eastern Crown | crowns |
| Bay Meadows | crowns |
| Imperial | crowns, bunches |
| Tradition | crowns, bunches |
| DuraPak16 | crowns |
| Belstar* | crowns |
For fall harvest
| Castle Dome | crowns |
| Lieutenant** | crowns |
| BC1764** | crowns |
| Emerald Crown | crowns, bunches, florets, processing |
| Eastern Crown | crowns |
| Bay Meadows | crowns |
| Arcadia | bunching, florets, processing |
| Tradition | crowns, bunches |
| Belstar* | crowns |
| Fiesta* | crowns |
*Organic seed is also available. Additional information on organic choices for eastern growers can be found in a report by our colleagues at NC State.
**The first releases from this project.
Relative maturities of entries in Quality Trial. The deviation tends to be fairly consistent.
These values are obtained from fifteen replicated trials in 2020-21, at sites from from Maine to Florida that represent the conditions experienced by eastern growers. The bolded checks are based on 68 replicated trials over five years. The average maturity across all trials was 61 days from transplant to harvest. The average of the checks varied from 47 to 86 days among the 68 trials.
| Variety | Relative maturity (days) |
| Castle Dome | -11 |
| Packman | -10 |
| Power Dome | -5 |
| SV2062 | -3 |
| Lieutenant | -3 |
| Burney | -3 |
| Eastern Crown | -1 |
| Green Magic | -1 |
| Emerald Crown | -1 |
| Corato | 1 |
| Imperial | 2 |
| Bay Meadows | 2 |
| Abrams | 3 |
| Roxanne | 4 |
| Willandra | 6 |
| Benni | 7 |
| Tahoe | 7 |
| Kariba | 8 |
| DuraPak16 | 9 |
| Maracaibo | 10 |
| Darien | 12 |
| Ironman | 12 |
| Marathon | 13 |