Cauliflower
Brassica oleracea, Botrytis Group
Cauliflowers are clusters of buds of cabbage flowers, selectively bred to grow into firm curds before the full flowering stage. The word cauliflower is from the Latin caulis (cabbage) and flōs (flower).
They were first written about in Roman times and then were much grown in mediaeval Cyprus. During the 16th century, there are first mentions of Romanesco broccoli, which is actually a cauliflower. They are pale green, while recent breeding has given us cauliflower curds of varied colour.
Cauliflowers are mostly annual, but not exclusively. I have grouped them in this lesson with family relation kohlrabi, because both of these vegetables have a similar time pattern of growth, just for a totally different result!
Cauliflowers (and kohlrabi) grow extremely well in no dig soil, as the gardeners and presenters discovered in 2016–18 at the BBC Beechgrove Gardens in Scotland. They ran a trial of vegetables in dig and no dig beds, and started off feeling sceptical. Soon they were, and continue to be, enthusiastic for no dig, as you can imagine from the photo below comparing cauliflowers – dig on the left and no dig on right.
Harvest period
- Days from seed to first harvest: 100–150 for annuals, 270 for biennials.
- Best climate is moist, not dry, temperate without extreme heat.
Why grow them
There is something special about seeing the emergence of a small cauliflower in the middle of a huge mass of leaves. Then to watch it turn into a beautiful and tasty harvest.
Cauliflower plants are demanding for the results we desire, and need fertile soil plus temperate weather. They pose a challenge, but it’s worth the attempt for harvests of great flavour, colour and beauty.
- Each variety needs sowing at its best times.
- They need fertile soil.
- They are vulnerable to insects.
When you succeed, you know you are a good gardener.
Suitable for containers/shade?
You can grow cauliflower in shade, but I do not recommend growing them in containers because of their size. The harvest of food, per square metre and time needed, is relatively low, and I see them as a luxury. You may disagree!
Varieties
The nomenclature varies and can be confusing. Sometimes one sees the phrase ‘Italian cauliflowers’, which include Romanesco and all kinds of different coloured cauliflowers. In this lesson, my main differentiation is between annual and biennial types of cauliflower. There are four common colours: white, purple, orange-yellow and green.
Annual
Read the small print for each variety to check the maturity time, because they all take a slightly different amount of time from seed to harvest. Many good varieties are hybrids now.
You have exotic colour choices, all of which are hybrids. Graffiti is best for a fast-maturing purple cauliflower. Its colour is from anthocyanin and survives boiling in water, unlike purple broccoli which turns green when boiled.
For green curds try Trevi, and for orange I like Sunset. The orange colour comes from beta carotene or vitamin A.
The old open-pollinated variety All Year Round can be sown from February onwards and is reliable, if not remarkable.
Clapton F1 is white and claims resistance to clubroot.
For Romanesco, I have found recently that the old open-pollinated varieties are giving smaller heads. I recommend hybrids such as Celio and Navona.
Biennial
Walcheren, Aalsmeer and Medallion F1 are examples of the many varieties you can grow to overwinter, from sowings in late June to early July. In seasonal terms that means sow before midsummer, for harvest in early to mid-spring.
Maybach F1 can be sown in October/early to mid-autumn, to overwinter as a small plant in a pot in the greenhouse, and then transplant in March for cropping in May.
Purple Cape F1 is both beautiful and productive, and is also hardy in temperatures as low as -15 °C/5 °F, before the curding stage in early spring,
Clear
Simply twist each stem firmly, to remove it with a few large roots, leaving the rest in the bed. In dry weather, I find it’s worth walking on the bed after any such removal, when it has caused unwanted loosening of soil.
Follow with
Usually one clears ground completely before the next planting. See the photo above showing how we experimented with planting leeks between cauliflowers. This did work, although the leeks struggled for their first month until we cleared the cauliflower plants, and they took time to grow strongly.
Summer harvests can be followed by French beans, salad onions, chard, beetroot and many salads.
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Kohlrabi
Brassica oleracea, Gongylodes Group
I apologise, to German readers especially, for giving kohlrabi a small, but sweet, mention. It's an amazing vegetable, with the swelling of its stem just above soil level being the part that we value and eat. It is sometimes mistakenly considered a root vegetable.
Kohlrabi is of the Brassica family, and susceptible to the same pests. It is strictly an annual, often maturing in half a year, and keen to flower in springtime, according to variety.
Kohlrabi is sometimes compared to turnip. This is totally unfair because the flavour is way more agreeable, the texture is firmer, and it's tasty both cooked and in salad. The main thing to beware of is woodiness, which happens only in early summer, the time when flowering initiates.
Harvests in temperate climates are best either before midsummer, from sowing very early, or in late autumn through winter from summer sowings.
- The first, early sowing date can provide about six weeks of harvest before midsummer.
- Summer sowings can give six months of harvest, plus the possibility of storage in autumn and winter.
- Kohlrabi are beautiful plants, floating their swelling stems above the ground.
Raise plants as for cauliflower, and transplant at 30 cm/12 in.
Pests are the same as for cauliflower. A fleece cover helps spring plantings to grow in warmth, and keeps off many insects. Summer plantings benefit from a mesh cover for their first month.
Kohlrabi are frost-hardy, although I don't know the lowest temperature possible. Mine have survived to -6 °C/21 °F, the coldest it usually gets here in winter. I leave them in the garden, but they also store well in a crate, from harvesting in early winter.
- A problem can be splitting across the top, which is maddening in a first sowing when a proportion of the fine kohlrabi suddenly open up. There is still an edible harvest, just less of it, and this seems to follow periods of uneven soil moisture. Keep them well-watered in spring.