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Growing Cauliflower

Written by Peter Horn on .

Cauliflower Gardening

  One of the world’s most-consumed vegetables from the cabbage family, Cauliflower belongs to the Brassica oleracea specie to the Mustard family. Grown often as an annual plant, cauliflower’s edible part is it white head called the curd. Cauliflower looks much like broccoli, only having a visible difference in its color and for not having edible flowers. A very nutritious vegetable, Cauliflower is a rich source of Vitamin C, fiber and many other healthy nutrients. However, growing it might not be as easy as other vegetables that you can grow in your garden. Below, we will try covering everything about Cauliflower gardening that you must know to be able to have your own fresh, and home-grown cauliflower curry on your dinner table next season.

Different Cauliflower Types

Cauliflower has limited types including the following most well-known ones:
  • Graffiti:A beautiful purple colored, sweet cauliflower not very common in most regions.
  • Snowball:the most common white variety we all have consumed. This one has the best yield.
  • Cheddarand Flame Star: orangish-yellow in color. Often rich in vitamin A and sweet in taste.

Cauliflower Harvest Time

As a cool season vegetable, Cauliflower grows as its best only when the temperature is around 16-19 degrees Celsius and cannot bear anywhere more than 24 degrees C. Also, it has just one head as its whole useful part which increases the risks for its useful growth even further. Of all the crops that grow in cool season, Cauliflower is the most sensitive and hence you need to be very particular about the time and temperature for its plantation and harvest both. For most varieties, the best plantation time is the peak spring season. This way, the plant can grow and be ready before the temperature rises beyond its bearable limit. Some other cauliflower varieties can be grown in mid-summer but they need a lot more care than the ones you grow in spring and do not offer a very high yield as such. As far as the harvest is concerned, Cauliflower is ready for harvest around 100 days after its plantation. It then takes around 10-15 days before it has fully blanched or covered its head. You should be consistent and vigilant in keeping a check on the head and harvest the cauliflower right when the head grows more than 6 inches. Do not wait for the flower part to separate from the head before your harvest, rather do it with the flower attached. Use a sharp knife to cut the head in a way that it comes with a layer of leaves that are covering the head for protection.

Cauliflower Water And Light Requirements

Cauliflower requires regular shallow watering, aimed at directly targeting the soil instead of the plant components. You should also ensure better lighting in a way that the plant gets cool light for around 5 hours each day.

How To Grow Cauliflower?

Growing Cauliflower is a bit different but not everyone might find it necessarily harder than growing any other vegetable. It is just that you have to care for the crop a bit more than you would do for others if you really look forward to a good yield. Here is the simplest, step by step method to grow Cauliflower that you can follow on your own without any help needed from experts:
  • Prepare the soil that is very rich in manure, organic compost, and other organic matter mixed well in the bed. Cauliflower’s nutrient rich aspect makes it more demanding in a way that you have to focus a lot on adding the right kind of rich fertilizers too. Search up a bit on  the best fertilizers in this respect and use them to prepare the soil.
  • Make sure that the beds you prepared are good enough to allow for ventilation but are also capable of holding in moisture so you do not end up with button heads instead of the edible one.
  • We suggest getting small nursery cauliflower plants instead of seeds and then sow the plants in the beds. You can also sow the seeds indoors around 6 weeks before the last expected spring frost and then let them grow a bit.
  • Around 2-4 weeks before the expected frost date, transplant the small grown plants to outdoor beds. Be very particular about the time at this stage.
  • Sow these small plants around 20-25 inches apart in a way that there are 30 inches left empty between two rows.
  • Make sure you are all the time ready to cover the plants if the frost happens at night.
  • In case you want the fall crop, sow the seeds around 8 weeks before the first expected frost of fall.
  • Always add mulch to the crop to keep it richly moist and preserved

Common Pests And Diseases

As already stated, Cauliflower is a suspect to several diseases and pests, all of which interestingly affect it in different ways but end up ruining its head and making it useless for humans. Some common pests and diseases are as follows:
  • Cabbage Worms:Lady bugs and other small worms love to suck the nectar produced on young cauliflower. However, let these little ones do their job because they can keep the cabbage worms away from the plant.
  • Aphids: Like every other crop, Cauliflower is not safe from the attack of these little white devils too. They can develop in great numbers on the plant’s head, ultimately destroying it for ever.
  • Powdery Mildew:It occurs when you shower the plant’s main parts with water directly instead of watering the soil. It can rot the cauliflower, resulting in its head’s buttoning or lack of growth.

Remedies And Caring Tips For Disease Prevention

Here are some important ways, utilizing which, you can make your cauliflower garden safer and ensure its long lastingness:
  • Make sure you can provide the plant with similar water, moisture, and temperature conditions throughout for its proper growth that is otherwise ruined with even a bit of disruption.
  • Water regularly no matter how many rainfalls the crop receives.
  • Use a nitrogen high fertilizer every 3 weeks during the plant ‘s growth process.