Cauliflower

Found these interesting tips on growing cauliflower. If you are going to plant you need to start getting it in now if your in the Huon Valley so there is enough leaf in winter to maximise the lack of sun and continue growth.

Growing cauliflower

Cauliflower beginning to grow

This is one of those strange vegetables that you know is good for you and you should eat more of but how do you make it interesting? Smother it in a cheese sauce or toss it into a stir-fry. There are heaps of cooking opportunities for this versatile vegetable.

And if you didn't know, the white curds of the cauliflower is actually tightly packed immature flower buds.
Growing conditions

• They like a free draining soil and prefer growing in cooler conditions.
  
• Cauliflower loves a heavily manured soil which has been limed.
  
• In a 4 bed rotation system cauliflower is grown with broccoli and cabbage, following or before peas and beans.
  

Garden care

• You can directly sow cauliflower seeds into their bed or into seed raising mix (our preference).
  
• Seedlings are transplanted out into the garden after they've got their first two true leaves. Cauliflowers take up a lot of space so leave at least 60cm (two feet) between plants (check spacings for your variety).
  
• Cauliflowers need the same garden care as their brassica brothers, the cabbage and broccoli.
  
• This vegetable has very demanding nutritional needs so feed them fortnightly with a potash and liquid manure mix.
  
• Keep the water up to your cauliflowers, especially if things start warming up. Remember to water the soil, avoiding the white head.
  
• Never let anyone tell you that it's impossible to grow cauliflowers in containers. You can because we've done it in the past. Just make sure you use a mini cauliflower variety, and give them plenty of space for their roots. We discovered this when container gardening during the first time we'd harvested cauliflower. We pulled the whole plant from the container. The roots had woven themselves so thickly through the potting mix that there was absolutely nothing left at all in the container. We had to shake the potting mix out of the roots for a couple of minutes. The roots really shocked us. But when we cooked our cauli it tasted beautiful!
  
• When the white cauliflower head starts developing you'll need to protect it from the sun and rain. Tie two leaves together using rubber bands. This will blanche the head. Otherwise it goes brown. Tie bigger leaves together as the head grows.
  
• When it comes to pests watch for caterpillars (Cabbage White Butterfly) and spray every 10-14 days with Dipel (Bacillus thuringienis var. Kurstaki). Don't forget to reapply if it rains.
  

Harvest time

• It usually takes around 4 months for a cauliflower to reach maturity.
  
• Harvest the head around 20cm (8 inches). Heads bigger than this may discolour and lose their firmness.
  
• Pull the whole plant from the ground. Cut the cauliflower head off and compost the rest.
  
  courtesy of http://www.thevegetablepatch.com/patch/cauliflower.htm