Cauliflower SUCCESS!
 

[FONT=Cambria][FONT=Verdana][SIZE=2]After many failures trying to grow cauliflower I was giving up the effort until a few of you urged me to try 'Amazing'. Ok, I'll bite... just ONE more time and that's it. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU![/SIZE][/FONT]

[/FONT] [SIZE=2]The plants had gotten real big but I couldn't see or feel any head forming. Then all that rain came over the past ten days. All of a sudden, two days ago I discovered four heads had just appeared out of nowhere! Three were about 3-5" wide but here's the best one, which I cut today. Although it doesn't look it in the photo, it's the purest white and 7" wide. Wow! [/SIZE]:?:

[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/OEUVoQp.jpg[/IMG]

[SIZE=2]Since the heads have outgrown their covering leaves, I pulled up the leaves on the other four and held them together with a clothespin. That should do the trick. I love clothespins. Nine gazillion uses.[/SIZE]


[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/OKtTUtc.jpg[/IMG]

Those look, well, AMAZING! Nice work! :yes:

Great!!!!!!!!

Note to self: Move to Georgia and grow Amazing cauliflower in December! - Lisa

I tried these in the spring and only one puny, discolored head formed, confirming that spring weather is way too iffy. Fall is definitely the key here. So glad I keep good notes on planting dates!

Congratulations. Amazing is the only cauliflower that I ever grow. I don't even pull the leaves over it and it seems to self blanch. It's very tasty too. I don't look at it every day and then one day I look and Poof! there's a head forming.

What a beautiful cauliflower. I am so glad that you persistence has finally paid off. ;)

I usually give everything new three strikes before it's out. Cauliflower got four or five because I just can't stand not being able to grow some stubborn brassica when I can grow others well. It was just a matter of finding the right variety.

Now beets are another story. I have officially given up on them. :?

[QUOTE=greenthumbomaha;751971]Note to self: Move to Georgia and grow Amazing cauliflower in December! - Lisa[/QUOTE]


Exactly my thought, haha.

Dawg growing cauliflower down here is more a matter of getting the timing right than the variety. I have gone as long as two years without getting a single decent head and then for the next few year every kind I plant does terrific in both fall and spring. If you set your plants out in late January or very early February they will usually make really good in the spring. It is important to cover them with hoops if it gets below freezing for long. They are a lot like Brussels sprouts in that some years they just do terribly and then the next year you can't eat them fast enough.

I usually have good luck with Snow Crown but it will make small heads if it is too hot when they are set out or if it gets too warm too early in the spring. The heads on them usually range a bit larger or smaller than 5 or 6 inches but then sometimes they are all small or you can get some huge ones. If I want a bunch of really larger cauliflower I grow one called Bishop. You can get some heads close to 10 inches across but they generally around 7 to 8 inches across but they take a week or two longer to make.

I haven't grown Amazing but will get a packet next year and try them. I too am a big fan of the clothespins for keeping leaf cover over large cauliflower. If you can keep them well shaded they are so much whiter.

Congratulations on your success.

Bill

Bill,


Do you hear that noise? It's the sweet siren call of Romanesco. ;)

I just can't grow any. If I try in the spring, it won't do well because it will bolt since the weather is hot in the summer. If I try for autumn, thousands of flea beetles appear from nowhere and destroy them, no matter how big the transplant.

? When cauliflower bolts, that is when the heads form. Same with romanesco.

Bolting in cauliflower means premature flowering before a real head forms. The head will grow fast once it starts, and if the conditions are not good at that time, like too dry or sudden heat, it will stop growing and will flower.

I tried this fall with purchased transplants and agribon over it. I ran drip tape and kept it somewhat watered. Plants looked great. Moths seemed to be over so I took the cover off for a day and a half, then put it right back on due to cabbage moths. Out of 6, all somewhat buggy, 1 good head, 1 smaller head, 2 tiny heads,, and two nothings. Broccoli in the next row grew 10 good heads out of 12. I just can't seem to justify the work and space for cauliflower. But I'll probably give in and try again sometime. That Amazing is what I should try next but I think I have to keep it covered the whole time. Maybe take a coleman stove under the tunnel and cook the cauliflower right so there is NO CHANCE for worms?!

That would be the freshest cauliflower ever!!! Would the tunnel catch fire though?

Good point, I will use some Sterno.

This has surprisingly been a relatively moth-free fall season for the brassicas. There were a few out and about early fall but none since. Go figure.

I read about a short soak of broccoli and cauliflower heads in a salt water solution that will bring out any worms so you don't get any surprises in your cooked veg.
Can't remember the salt:water ratio but it can be looked up.

[QUOTE=GoDawgs;752247]This has surprisingly been a relatively moth-free fall season for the brassicas. There were a few out and about early fall but none since. Go figure.

I read about a short soak of broccoli and cauliflower heads in a salt water solution that will bring out any worms so you don't get any surprises in your cooked veg.
Can't remember the salt:water ratio but it can be looked up.[/QUOTE]

Speak for yourself on the moths. This fall they have been the worst I have ever had this time of the year. I had to resort to using Sevin on my seedlings just after they were set out to harden off or I wouldn't have had any plants at the rate the worms were eating them. I didn't have enough plant left to wait on Dipel to starve them, I needed them dead right then. It worked for the seedlings but for the plants in the garden I like to stick to Dipel but this year has been very difficult as frequent rains and nice warm spells keep the worms very active this season. Usually fighting worms like this is a spring problem but not this year.

I'm not falling for the allure of Romanesque no matter how pretty it is and I do find it intriguing. Any broccoli that takes that long to make would just be too much to worry with down here with our volatile changing weather. It is not unusual to have it in the 20s and a day or two later suffer in the heat of the 80s or more. This quick changing weather is one of the reasons cauliflower is so difficult to grow most of the year down here. I like to plant it at least three times from fall into January or February. It will usually do okay at least one of those times and sometimes when I get really lucky all three will do well.

Bill