Fresh Cauliflowers Grown In A Square Foot Garden
My aim is to use the minimum varieties of seeds to get the longest possible growing season from any type of vegetable. This year I’m going to try two types of Cauliflower. Cauliflower Snowball A and Cauliflower All The Year Round. This should give me fresh cauliflowers from late June to early November, may be later if I grow some in my Hydroponic systems.
Gardeners grow cauliflowers for their central white heads (curds) and depending on your location could be grown all year round. Growing Cauliflowers in Square Foot Gardens can take up quite a bit of space and a fairly long time to mature (20-26 weeks) so they may be not be a useful crop for those with smaller gardens
To increase the yield of my garden, I’m going to sow my cauliflowers in “root trainers“. This approach will enable me to leave them longer before planting out and occupying valuable garden space.
Cauliflower seeds should be sown at a depth of 1/2 cm in individual seedling pots / trays. After germination the seedlings should be placed in a well-lit spot at around 60 deg F. The seedlings should be ready for transplanting about 6 weeks after sowing. Remember to harden of for a week before planting out. You should plant one seedling per square.
Cauliflowers are a cool weather crop, so during the middle of summer cover the head with the plants leaves.
Cabbage Root Fly can seriously damage your crop. A simple way to protect your cauliflowers is to use Root Fly discs. These disc are put around the base of the plants, which makes the task of laying eggs in the root system more difficult.
Start sowing a few cauliflower seeds every week from early February, until late march to have fresh vegetables from June until October.
