Seasonal open-ground vegetables have a delicate taste and an unusual aroma, and in terms of the content of proteins, vitamins, and other useful compounds, they can give odds to most greenhouse relatives. How to grow cauliflower in the garden so that you can pamper your family with delicious inflorescences all summer? The agricultural technology of the culture is similar to other types of cabbage, but in order to get a good harvest, you need to know a lot of subtleties and secrets of cultivation.
colored beauty
Biological features of culture
Of all the types of garden cabbage, cauliflower is the most delicious, nutritious, healthy, dietary, and nature has not deprived us of beauty. Why not a queen! The cultivation of cauliflower began in Russia in Catherine's time and just from aristocratic gardens. And the plant itself has a capricious character, not everyone can cultivate it.
To understand how to grow high-quality cauliflower, we propose to comprehend some of the biological features of the culture and the subtleties of agricultural technology arising from them.
- The plant has a one-year vegetation cycle. The product head, which is a crowded flowering shoot, if not cut in time, will bloom and produce seeds in the same season.
- Unlike the white-headed variety, it has a weak, fibrous-type root system. This determines the increased requirements for the structure and mechanical composition of the soil, affects the type of moisture - mainly surface.
- Heat-loving is another characteristic feature. Seedlings grown in the cold are likely to go to the arrow and not tie the product head.
- This type of cabbage has a very narrow temperature range at which normal head development is possible - not lower than 10⁰ C and not higher than 25⁰ C. With a prolonged cold snap, the heads grow small, coarse-grained, and loose in hot weather.
- In relation to light, the plant is rather contradictory. In the conditions of a long day, the head is tied faster, on a shortened light day - it grows larger and denser. Therefore, culture likes to grow in a well-lit garden, but to tie and grow a germ in the shade. Most often it has to be created artificially.
- The food organs of most cabbage species are overgrown leaves, so they need nitrogen for biomass growth. The cauliflower head is a modified flower shoot and for development it needs phosphorus and potassium, as well as trace elements - boron, magnesium, manganese, molybdenum. In agricultural technology, this was reflected in the composition and mode of dressings.
It is interesting! Truly "colored" varieties are no less useful. The orange hybrid Chedar F1 is 25 times more vitamin A than its white relative. Purple Rosalind, Purple Ball contains anthocyanins. Green Universal, Shannon - leaders in the content of antioxidants.
The subtleties of growing seedlings
Growing cauliflower for seedlings from seeds is an indispensable element of crop farming.
After determining the need for the number of seedlings, prepare the appropriate number of individual planting containers. Due to the peculiarities of the root system, cauliflower does not like diving, it takes a long time to take root after transplantation. It is better if you sow it in peat pots, disposable plastic cups, cassettes. The planting mixture is prepared from humus, peat in equal proportions, rotted sawdust, river sand or perlite can be added.
Raw seeds must be prepared for sowing. To protect seedlings from root rot, fungal infections, thermal seed treatment is carried out. For 20 minutes, the seeds are immersed in a weak solution of manganese, heated to 50–55⁰ C, then washed with cold water and dried.
seedlings of cauliflower Timing
When to sow cauliflower for seedlings depends on the climatic characteristics of the region and your desire to have a valuable product throughout the summer (autumn). The head of the inflorescence grows quite quickly and if it is not cut off in time, it overripes, breaks up, and loses its taste. Therefore, they practice sowing seeds for seedlings in small portions with an interval of 2-3 weeks.
- March 15-20 - planting seedlings in early May, the harvest will be ready in June.
- From April 1 to April 10 - open ground - after May 20, the heads will ripen by mid-summer.
- April 25 - May 10 - we plant in a permanent place from June 10, cabbage will arrive in time for August harvesting for the winter.
- The first decade of June is for the autumn collection.
For this mode of planting, early-ripening varieties are best suited. The second option is to cultivate 2-3 varieties with different ripening dates.
Sowing and care
Unlike white cabbage, cauliflower seedlings are kept at higher temperatures; at home, it can be not only a greenhouse, but also any heated room.
Before planting, the soil is moistened, 1-3 seeds are placed in each container to a depth of 1.5 cm, covered with a dry substrate, and with the help of polyethylene they create the effect of a greenhouse. In this form, the seeds will be until they hatch. The optimal temperature range from sowing to germination is 20–22⁰, after germination – 17–18⁰ of heat.
Before reaching the age of 45–55 days, the seedlings are watered, loosened, and the strongest seedlings are selected. Planted when the plant has 4-5 true leaves. Early seedlings before planting in a permanent place must be hardened off for 3-4 days. To do this, they take it out into the street, gradually lowering the temperature - first at noon, then in the morning, and finally leaving it overnight.
Cultivation in the garden
Preparation for growing cauliflower in the open field begins long before planting seedlings. The stages and methods of agricultural technology are traditional for vegetable growing - watering, loosening, top dressing. A special story is the care of the ripening head.
Soil preparation
To form a crop, all cabbage plants prefer loamy and chernozem soils, require a lot of nutrition, especially nitrogen. It is better to bring it in an organic form - in the form of manure, humus. Organics put at least 5 kg / m² under the autumn cultivation of the land.
In the spring, 25–30 g of superphosphate, 20–30 g of potassium salt are added to each square meter of the area allotted for cauliflower. Instead, you can take complete fertilizers such as nitrophoska, ammophoska at the rate of 100 g / m².
When planting cauliflower in open ground, a handful of humus and wood ash are added to the hole.
Note! Although cauliflower is not as demanding on nitrogen as compared to white cabbage, it is necessary at the initial stage of the growing season. To give a quality head, the plant must form up to 20 fairly large leaves.
Transplanting
Before planting cauliflower, holes are made in the garden with an interval of 35–40 cm in a row, row spacing - 50–60 cm. The soil is shed abundantly to the mud. A seedling with a lump of seedling substrate is buried to the cotyledon leaves, but at the same time, they make sure not to fill up the heart (growth point). The hole around the plant is mulched with dry soil or a nutrient mixture based on peat with humus.
It is better to plant seedlings on a cloudy day. If the weather is sunny, shade the bed for several days with any covering material or cover each plant with a paper or plastic cap. Water every evening until rooting.
Important! It is difficult to say what caused this, but white and cauliflower loves to plant, the soil around the root is well compressed. So the head is larger and denser.
Watering
Vegetable culture has special requirements for moisture and nutrition, but it does not tolerate waterlogging. Cauliflower immediately after planting in the garden likes seedlings to receive daily portions of water, after rooting, watering is gradually reduced to 1-2 times a week.
From the moment the ovary appears, make sure that the soil does not dry out. In dry weather, they again switch to frequent, sometimes daily watering. But it is not recommended to fill the bed, it is enough to wet the top layer of the earth. To reduce the temperature during hot hours, it is practiced to spray the leaf area with water. A good way to retain moisture is to mulch the aisles with cut grass, rotted sawdust, and other organic matter.
In order for the plant to form additional roots, to be more stable, the cabbage needs to be spudded.
Important! When growing cauliflower seedlings, the plant should not be allowed to stop growing, otherwise the ovary grows slowly and coarsens. And this is achieved just by timely watering and top dressing.
top dressing
An effective means of increasing the yield and quality of inflorescences is top dressing. They need at least 3 per season.
- 10-12 days after rooting seedlings. Emphasis on nitrogen to build up leaf mass. You can pour with a solution of mullein in a ratio of 1:10 or use complex mineral fertilizers of about 100 g per bucket of water or according to the instructions.
- After two weeks, give a second serving of food. To the above dosage add 30–40 g of ash. Additional potassium promotes the formation of a flower shoot, is an immunomodulator.
- At the beginning of the formation of the head, the third top dressing is carried out. At this time, it is desirable to enrich the soil not only with macro-, but also with microelements. The best option is garden mixtures such as Agricola, Clean Leaf, Fertik Universal-2, Zeovit Multi Cabbage.
Care for unopened inflorescences
Having planted cauliflower, be prepared for the fact that at the time of the formation of the ovary, the plant needs special attention to the nuances of growing and care.
The heads are afraid of direct contact with irrigation or rain water, open sunlight, so do not miss the moment when their diameter reaches 5–7 cm. The flower-bearing shoot must be covered by breaking two or three of the nearest leaves. The lace shadow creates the appearance of a shortened daylight hours, ikochan grows larger, more elastic, snow-white.
On a note! A good article about cauliflower - "Guaranteed good cauliflower harvest" (personal experience of our reader)
Harvest Features
Cut the cauliflower when the head reaches a weight of 1.5-2 kg, while remaining collected in a tight ball. If you miss the moment, the inflorescence will disintegrate and proceed to flowering and fruiting.
Late varieties that have formed the bud, but did not have time to give the harvest before the onset of frost, can be grown. A plant dug up with a root is lowered into the basement, the root is added dropwise. Due to the outflow of nutrients from the stem and leaves, the food organ noticeably increases.
The use of cauliflower has a beneficial effect on the body. Therefore, it is a favorite vegetable crop for many people. However, when growing a vegetable on your own, you need to know that the quantity and quality of the crop are determined not only by the characteristics of cultivation, but also by the principles of harvesting. An important factor is the term: heads cut ahead of time will not be able to reach the maximum size, and overexposed in the beds will significantly lose quality and become unsuitable for further storage. Therefore, in this article we will take a closer look at when to harvest cauliflower and how to determine the time for harvesting.
Cauliflower
How to determine the time of harvesting cabbage
Properly caring for your cauliflower will ensure a harvest. The timing of the collection is determined by the variety of planted crops:
- The formation of inflorescences of early varieties is two to three months. Harvested in late June-early July;
- In mid-season varieties, the growing season takes from 100 to 130 days. Harvesting starts in late July-early August;
- Late-ripening varieties are harvested in late August-early September. The growing season takes 5 months or more.
REFERENCE: Late-ripening varieties have a long shelf life.
What weather to harvest
The cauliflower is harvested on a dry and cloudless day. They begin to cut the vegetable at noon, but not longer than until seven in the evening.
If frosts have set in, and the entire crop has not yet ripened, the unripe heads are removed along with the root system and an earthen clod, and planted in a cool room (greenhouse, cellar). But only on condition that the head has a radius of at least 2.5 cm and there are about 20 leaves.
How to properly cut cauliflower
Harvesting cabbage crops must be carried out not only at the appointed time, but also adhering to certain rules. This will keep the vegetable crop for a long time.
You need to cut according to certain rules
Existing rules for the collection of cauliflower:
- When reaching a diameter of 20-24 cm, the inflorescence is fully ripe. Inflorescences of large sizes are often not suitable for cooking, because they do not retain color and structure;
- Ripe inflorescences must be removed from the plant immediately. Harvest gradually, controlling the maturity of the heads every two to three days.
REFERENCE: If this is not possible, you need to cover the ripened heads to protect them from sunlight
- Cut off the heads with a sharp knife. Cut off the lower leaves along with the head. You can ensure long-term storage by pulling cabbage out of the soil along with the rhizome;
- Collected vegetables are stored in a cool and dark room. A cut vegetable left in the sun will quickly lose its nutritional value and wither.
Finally
Cauliflower is almost as popular as white cabbage, but the content of some vitamins, minerals and fiber in cauliflower is much higher. Compliance with the basic rules for storage will allow you to save the cabbage crop in the winter. Even if the rules of cultivation are observed, gardeners need to carry out a timely harvest with minimal losses.
Having planted cauliflower in the garden, you need not only to properly care for it. You need to be able to harvest on time so that it is not a shame when the inflorescences separate and outgrow. The basic rules for harvesting cauliflower can be found in this article. And for late autumn specimens of this vegetable, a method of ripening in a basement or greenhouse is described.
When to harvest cauliflower?
There is no specific collection date. Since it all depends on the variety and its ripening time. There are three groups:
- Early ripe - ripen in early July. Suitable for eating. Stored 7-10 days. You need to store cabbage in a cool place, it is better - in limbo, then the shelf life increases.
- Mid-season varieties - inflorescences are suitable in late July - early August. They keep for two to three weeks.
- Late-ripening varieties of cauliflower ripen in autumn, in September. Stored for a month.
You can cut off the head when its diameter has reached 10 cm or more. But when the small head has formed, but it is already getting dark and the inflorescences begin to separate, you need to cut off such a cabbage.
Cauliflower with overripe inflorescence Rules for cutting cabbage flowers
In order not to spoil the crop with one wrong move, you need:
- Collect on a sunny day.
- The air temperature must be at least 8°C.
- Daytime hours: from lunch to 19 hours - the most optimal for harvesting cauliflower.
- Cut the cabbage three to five centimeters below the head.
- Grab five or six leaves for cutting.
- Cut off the top of the leaves to the level of the inflorescences.
- Immediately after harvesting, transfer the cauliflower to a dark place.
- Staying in the sun for about 5 hours or more is harmful for cauliflower: it loses color and taste.
These simple grafts will save the harvest and all the beneficial properties of cauliflower.
ripening cauliflower
An excellent autumn option is to ripen cauliflower in suitable conditions. By removing such plants for ripening in September, you can get fresh inflorescences for the new year: tasty and healthy. For this you need:
- Choose healthy specimens with lots of leaves.
- The diameter of the inflorescence should not exceed 5 cm. If the diameter of the head is 3 cm, it is ideal.
- Dig up plants with roots, along with a clod of earth.
- Transfer to a growing place (greenhouse, basement, cellar).
- Plant in moist soil. You can plant cauliflower close to each other.
- Remove all bad leaves.
- Observe the necessary conditions: humidity 70-90%, air temperature - no higher than 15 ° C.
- The higher the temperature, the faster the head will ripen.
- So, at 15°C, the head ripens in 20-25 days, at 8°C - 40 days, if 5°C - 50-60 days.
- You can adjust the ripening period, taking into account your own needs.
- Remember: cauliflower ripened in this way will have a smaller weight and diameter than in the garden.
You need to harvest cauliflower in several stages. Looking through the heads every 4-6 days. Thus, you can provide yourself and your family with a useful vegetable for a long time. And the simple rules and recommendations described in this article will help with this.
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It is necessary to choose the right time for harvesting, use the appropriate tools and prepare the cabbage for long-term storage. You will also have to take into account the weather conditions and timely monitor the degree of maturity of a whimsical product.
Are you afraid of frost?
Is cauliflower afraid of autumn frosts? Cauliflower is known among other vegetables for its extreme thermophilicity..
If the ambient temperature drops below + 8-10˚ C, then small heads begin to form at the base of the white inflorescence, which will subsequently become spare shoots. The development of the main inflorescence, most likely, will stop.
The growth of cauliflower with the onset of cold weather slows down significantly, which requires immediate sending them for ripening at home. Severe frosts can damage cabbage heads, but they still have the opportunity to save with the help of greenhouses.
This is easy to implement only if a stable temperature of +10°C is maintained inside.
Whatever variety of cauliflower you have growing in your area, pay close attention to the ripening period, keep track of those that are already ripe, and carefully cut them with a clean knife. A great time to harvest will be warm weather, when there have been no rains for several weeks.
Try not to overexpose the vegetables in the garden for longer than the prescribed period, otherwise the inflorescences will turn yellow, loosen and lose an impressive amount of taste and nutrients.
There is no cause for concern if the cabbage is not yet ripe, and it starts to get colder in the yard. You can collect heads of cabbage with a diameter of 5 cm affected by low temperatures and send them for ripening in a greenhouse.
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Growing cauliflower is a more delicate matter than caring for an unpretentious and familiar white cabbage. Cauliflower is demanding on top dressing, and snow-white inflorescences turn yellow in the sun if they are not covered with leaves in time. But let's talk about everything in order.
Varieties of cauliflower
Here is a cauliflower that grew in my area last year
Let's start by choosing a variety.
A good variety of cauliflower should match your preference for shape, head color and early maturity, be self-covering and resistant to slime bacteriosis.
As with white cabbage, cauliflower varieties vary in their precocity. The traditional cabbage rule does not apply to this cabbage, which states that late-ripening varieties have a greater keeping quality than early-ripening ones.
According to the timing of the return of the crop, three groups of cauliflower varieties are distinguished:
- early - 85-100 days;
- medium - 120-130 days;
- late-ripening - more than 130 days.
On the shelves of stores you will find varieties of this vegetable with rounded and cone-shaped inflorescences.
If we talk about the color of the inflorescences, the choice of varieties is amazing. Firms offer cauliflower seeds with yellow, greenish, orange, mauve, and even purple heads.
You are unlikely to find all this variety in your local gardening store. But you can buy cauliflower seeds of any color and shape in online store.
When choosing a variety, make sure it is self-covering. The fact is that direct sunlight adversely affects the growing heads - they crumble ahead of time and change color to yellow.
In order to prevent this trouble, at the beginning of the tying of the crop, the cauliflower inflorescences are shaded. To do this, wide outer sheets are broken at the cuttings. Then they are either completely opened and used as a cover, or tied with ribbons in the form of bundles.
For some cauliflower hybrids, this operation is no longer necessary, as their leaves close over the inflorescences without additional help.
Choosing a place to grow cauliflower
Cauliflower is a long day crop that loves the sun. It also belongs to cold-resistant vegetables - in the rosette phase, seedlings can withstand frosts down to -5 degrees. If the cold is prolonged, it usually results in the formation of small, underdeveloped heads.
Not good for cauliflower and too high a temperature above +25 degrees. This gives a delay in the formation of heads, negatively affects their size and quality.
Cauliflower does not tolerate sudden changes in weather and grows best at a stable +18...20 degrees.
For growing cauliflower, choose a place with good lighting, but protected from the prevailing winds in the region. I advise you to place a bed in front of the house, a fence, a tall bush or stage plants - sunflower, corn.
Cabbage is generous in yield only on lush, neutral, light and moisture-permeable soils with a deep arable layer. The soil for planting cauliflower is prepared in the fall.
When laying the beds, keep in mind that the need for fertilizer in cauliflower is about 1.5 times greater than that of white cabbage. Therefore, for autumn plowing, 8-10 kilograms of compost or rotted manure per square meter are brought in.
The rate of fertilizer is reduced to 4-5 kilograms when growing cauliflower after a crop under which fresh manure was applied.
Planting seedlings and caring for cauliflower
To prevent the inflorescences from turning yellow in the sun, cauliflower leaves are tied in a bunch with a ribbon.
Cauliflower seedlings are ready for planting in open ground when the seedlings have 5-6 leaves. 2-3 hours before planting, the soil in containers is abundantly moistened with warm water.
Early varieties are placed in the garden according to the scheme 70 x 25-30 centimeters, and mid-season and late - according to the scheme 70 x 30-35 centimeters. Modern hybrids make more serious demands on the feeding area: they are planted according to the scheme of 70 x 50 or even 70 x 70 centimeters.
The holes are made deep so that later the cabbage sits in small holes. This prevents splashing of water during watering and fertilizing.
If you have well seasoned the bed for cauliflower in the fall, add 1-2 full handfuls of ash to the holes when planting seedlings. Otherwise, half a liter can of humus, 50 grams of ash and 1-2 tablespoons of complex fertilizer are poured into each hole.
I advise you to add a little to the landing holes , nettle or dandelion - their leaves are a good source of potassium and molybdenum.
In the first week after planting, I recommend isolating the plants from the external environment. To do this, put cut 5-liter bottles on top of them. Bottles will protect the cabbage from the attack of slugs and various midges, protect it from frost when planted in the first half of May.
Proper watering plays an important role in growing cauliflower.
This culture is abundantly watered once a week. Watering is carried out only by the "under the root" method, and not by sprinkling.
It is especially effective to deliver water directly to the root system of plants through five-liter cut-off bottles. They are dug in evenly throughout the garden, one piece per one or two seedlings.
Drying out of the soil negatively affects the return of the crop. Therefore, in dry weather, watering is carried out twice as often - once every 3-4 days. After each watering, the soil is loosened shallowly and cabbage plants spud.
Helps reduce the amount of watering. A variety of materials are used as mulch: cut grass, weeds, humus, compost, stale sawdust, straw, and so on.
If you are growing cauliflower in a raised bed, you can cut the amount of dressing in half. Don't forget about micronutrients!
Cauliflower needs frequent feeding.
In order for the heads to grow large, the planted cabbage must grow more leaves. Therefore, the first feeding is done on the basis of nitrogen - diluted mullein (1:10), chicken manure (1:20), herbal tea (1:10) and so on. The first time the plants are fed two weeks after planting.
Cauliflower heads are, in fact, inflorescences. Flower formation requires phosphorus and nitrogen restriction. Therefore, the next top dressing is carried out two weeks after the first with a complex mineral fertilizer with trace elements.
For the third time, the cabbage is fertilized at the beginning of tying the heads with the same fertilizer as the second time.
If you are an opponent of "mineral water", treat your cauliflower 1-2 times with nettle infusion with the addition of calendula greens (1:10), the third time with wood ash. To do this, a glass of ash is added to a watering can of water and plantings are watered at a rate of 2-3 liters per plant.
This concludes my article on the basic rules that I use when growing cauliflower.
I hope you grow a wonderful crop of this useful and largely underestimated crop! As long as the weather doesn't disappoint...
I also suggest watching Oktyabrina Ganichkina's video tips on growing this healthy and tasty cabbage.
