Guide to Growing Cauliflower

• Cauliflower is not the easiest brassica to grow, vulnerable to pests, hungry and requiring good cultivation techniques.
• However, successfully growing cauliflower is a source of much satisfaction.
• They can be grown in pots (minimum size 25 cm/10 inch) or a bucket, but do better with more space in a border or bed. Remember that those varieties described as suitable for close spacing will produce small heads/curds.

Growing and sowing

• You don't need to grow a lot of cauliflowers to supply the average family and they are best eaten fresh, so sow successionally into modules (three seeds per module), thinning at seedling stage to one plant per module.
• Follow the instructions in brassica growing advice.
• Cauliflower are a hungry crop and benefit from plenty of nitrogen.
• Pot on before the plants become pot bound and plant out deeply and firmly, up to the base of the first seed leaves. Water in well. Damage to the root system or the minute root hairs will result in early, poor crops.
• For a good specimen – rich, firm soil, plant properly and protect against pests.
• To prevent yellowing, off-colour curds, bend some of the inner leaves over the heads to shade them from the sun.

Harvesting

• If you leave cauliflower standing too long after the head has formed, the curds continue to grow, coming apart. Harvest as soon as they are ready.
• Some varieties will stand longer than others, check the description in the seed catalogue.
• To store cauliflower in the fridge for a couple of weeks, wrap tightly in cling film; they can be frozen, but tend to become a little mushy.

Pests and Problems

• Vulnerable to club root. Read the advice on coping with club root, or consider a new, club root resistant variety.
• Cauliflowers are troubled more than any other brassica by the brassica pests, caterpillars, slugs and cabbage root fly.

Varieties

• Mayflower is good for an early crop (sow in early or mid-January).
• Gypsy is a good summer variety, sown in October, over-wintered in a cold frame and planted out in March.
• A favourite autumn variety is Pavilion, which produces pure white heads of a good size, and holds in the ground reasonably well.
• Cauliflower comes in yellow and purple varieties, as well as the familiar white.
• Purple Graffiti, a bright purple, retains its colour when cooked, but its flavour is not as good as a traditional white variety.
• Avalanche, Igloo and Lateman are all described as suitable for close growing.

Eating

• Cauliflower is a good source of vitamin C as well as other vitamins and minerals.
• Best cooked rapidly, both to prevent the cauliflower smell filling the house and to retain its firmness, or consider roasting it. Cauliflower is also good raw in a salad.

RHS Award of Garden Merit

• Pavilion
• Gipsy
• Aalsmeer
• Galleon
• Mayflower
• Prestige
• Nessie
• More information on the Award of Garden Merit