Although I think that I know the answer to this question, I really need some of you great gardeners out there to give me some advice.
This year I planted 3 varieties of cauliflower; Early Snowball (60 day), Igloo (70 day) and Silver Cup (40 day). I have grown cauliflower in the past and always ended up with an OK harvest. This year I was determined to grow bigger and better cauliflower. I have read that the plants should be about 4 weeks old when they go in the ground. Mine were about 5 weeks old due to the weather when they were planted out. All of the cauliflower plants were put in the ground on April 30th. I harvested the small Silver Cup heads from June 6 - 19. The Silver Cup produced small heads, much smaller then I have ever had before. I was hoping that the two other varieties would do better.
To date only a couple of the other two varieties are forming some itsy bitsy heads. The plants are nice and healthy. I really think that the plants should be pulled and I should start some fall cauliflower. What are your thoughts....should I wait or just pull them now and amend the soil and start over???
Great timing-I'm dealing with that with my broccoli. Only, now I know the answer--because as I read this, I though---wait it out. So, that's what I'm going to do.
ReplyDelete(AND squeeze some starts into openings in the garden!!)
:)
Patience is a Virtue, are you a virtuous woman :o)
ReplyDeleteI'd pull them. In future, very rich soil is a must, as they are heavy feeders, that might help with the size, and plenty of water.
ReplyDeleteAli
Experiement! Do a bit of both!
ReplyDeleteI'm with Apple Pie Gal...do both. Pull half and let the others do their thing...go a head and plant for the Fall. The weather has been so crazy here I've had broccoli since November! That's a ton of broccoli!
ReplyDeleteI'd help but I know nothing about cauliflower. I don't like it so I've never grown it. But I can add my two cents. I'd do both also. That way if you are in the same situation in a future year, you will know what to do.
ReplyDeleteI have a bed full of healthy spring broccoli, cauli and cabbage that just don't want to form heads! I have been waiting them out as long as they are healthy, but I plan to try to plant fall ones anywhere I can squeeze them in if those don't hurry it up already!I have a terrible time with brassicas! Maybe I need more nutrients! I have harvested plenty of cabbages in the heat of summer in the past though! But last year I had one rot while I was waiting on it!
ReplyDeleteThanks for all your comments and suggestions. I think that I will do both. I will pull half the plants and start some fall starts today. I have to start some broccoli, since it bolted from the weather...so while I have the mess I will start some cauliflower also. I really think the extreme fluctuations in the weather was the main cause.
ReplyDeleteI can only tell you what our fall plans are. We're going to seed our cauliflower indoors on Monday along with cabbage. Then we'll seed broccoli indoors on July 30th. We'll transplant the cauliflower and cabbage outdoors on September 6, then the broccoli on the 17th. We're basing these dates on an estimated/average October 10 first frost and following Brett L. Markham's seeding schedule in, "Minifarming, Self Sufficiency on a Quarter Acre."
ReplyDeleteI realize doing things this way really pushes the indoor seedlings and also the risky end-of-fall weather, but risking the early freeze is worth it to us for several reasons. It frees space in the summer garden (priceless!). It pushes our fall vegetables into longer growing season. And that's not a huge risk because fall vegetables are quite hearty and we can always throw up a hoop house or cover the plants with plastic when it gets too cold. That's what we did last spring when we had all that freezing weather late in March. The plants did fine and we were able to harvest them early.
Couldn't you feed up the ones that you leaf with maybe a foliar feed to try and kick start them
ReplyDeleteI agree.... I think you should do both. Maybe give the ones you leave in some extra fertilizer. Let us know how it ends up!!
ReplyDelete~~Lori
Jody, your fall seed starting and planting sounds a lot more in line then what Johnny's calculator comes up with. They suggest starting fall broccoli and cauliflower seeds inside at the end of June and planting out at the end of July. That is with a 10/15 frost date. It seems way too early to start them since the hot weather has such an affect on them growing. Why are you starting your broccoli so much later and how many day varieties do you have?
ReplyDeleteSue, I'm going to leave half of them in and I'll feed them to see if that helps. The plants are big, just no heads forming. It's been so hot here that I really don't know if the heads will be viable.
I think the half and half method is the way to go. I have problems growing cauliflower, so I gave up on it. I decided it's to "iffy" to give it space in a small garden.
ReplyDeleteRobin, I don't know why Markham recommends putting the broccoli out 2 weeks later than cauliflower and cabbage. I suspect it's because broccoli is more vulnerable to heat than cauliflower or cabbage. We have only one variety of each vegetable. I wish I could tell you what they are, but I'm not at home. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI'd say jump start your next start of seed and then transplant when they are ready. If the plants by that time haven't done anything, pull them and put in your new ones:)
ReplyDeleteWell I'm good for nothing here, I always get tired of worms and pull the whole plant before it even head up LOL
ReplyDeleteOne year I did not even harvest until August and those were planted in April also. The heads were beautiful and huge. This year is a strange one, so do not give up on anything. I just now have peas coming in and it is in the 90's. Go figure.
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is that cauliflower does better here in the fall than in spring. I still think it's still a challenging crop to grow.
ReplyDeleteI started my fall cauliflower the other day. I'll be interested to find out if fall planted perform better in general. I have a feeling that it will.
ReplyDeleteI would go with the consensus and pull half.
No help to offer you as I never grow cauliflower anymore - while we like it we do not love it and the plants are quite fussy and low producers for the amount of space they use. Broccoli is our preferred crop because it produces the central head AND side shoots and is more reliable (plus we like the taste a lot more!).
ReplyDelete