Cauliflowers

[steev]

I wonder how it would be as kimchee or "sauerkraut". Hope your kids like cauliflower. I ate a lot of pre-cooked cauli scrambled with eggs, in El Salvador.

[diane]

The picture was taken in 1977. The kids have their own kids now.

So there's just the two of us at home, but family, friends and neighbours to share with.

I grow most of my vegetables at an allotment garden now (it has sunshine and no deer). Any extra vegetables get put down by the sidewalk and neighbours help themselves.

[billw]

I've tried just about every OP cauliflower I could find.

For spring sown, Amazing, Early Snowball A, and Goodman were the best.

Closely followed by Minute Man, Snowball X, and All the Year Round.

Not so great: Snow Crown, Igloo, Lecerf, Snowball Y. What I received for these may be in need of some reselection as the results were pretty variable.

For fall sown, Winter Roscoff, Leamington Giant, Autumn Giant, and Galleon, from best to still pretty good. Autumn Giant might be a spring-sown variety as well.

If I could only grow one for each season, I would grow Amazing and Winter Roscoff.

[12540dumont]

Thanks Bill. I'll hunt those out!

[ilex]

I'm very happy with my old Spanish genes. Got just about continual harvest for 11 weeks from 1 sowing. Lots of diversity, and some are bad guys and didn't follow the rules, they are perennial. Not like 9 star, they are perennial after setting seed. Might start a perennial cauliflower landrace. I like the idea of not having to start seeds every year.

[billw]

Wow. Do you ever read something that you've written and find what it says to be completely wrong? Sometimes I wonder how often I do that...

Mar 24, 2013 7:11:28 GMT -5 billw said:

For spring sown fall harvest, Amazing, Early Snowball A, and Goodman were the best.

Closely followed by Minute Man, Snowball X, and All the Year Round.

Not so great: Snow Crown, Igloo, Lecerf, Snowball Y. What I received for these may be in need of some reselection as the results were pretty variable.

For fall sown spring harvest, Winter Roscoff, Leamington Giant, Autumn Giant, and Galleon, from best to still pretty good. Autumn Giant might be a spring-sown variety as well.

Both are sown in spring. I don't know what the heck I was thinking.

[billw]

I should add, I'm testing some more overwintering cauliflowers - Aalsmeer, Chelsea, and Malvern - and they're looking pretty good. I'm shooting for a seed crop next summer.

I'm thinking about dropping all the fall-harvest cauliflowers and just growing winter types. There are plenty of other things to eat in the fall.

[12540dumont]

Billw, don't forget to let us know how they did.

[robertb]

Any chance of some seeds, Ilex? Perennial caulis sound really interesting.

[ilex]

Yes, seed available. Also drought resistant and low fertility tolerance genes in here.

[hortusbrambonii]

perennial cauliflower sounds like a keeper!!

What do you mean with 'low fertility tolerance'?

[robertb]

Perennials don't have to grow so fast, so it's not surprising if they don't need such rich soil. I had thought truly perennial brassicas were all kales, since they're a bit closer to the wild type, but it seems I was wrong. Do you have any other perennial brassicas in Spain? Some of the Iberian varieties don't survive our winters, but they'd be worth trying. According to what information I have, caulis were once difficult to grow this far north, and only became common in the 19th Century after the Dutch started growing them in greenhouses in order to overwinter them and get seed the second year. After some of my failures with Portugese varieties of couve tronchuda, I can see the difficulty! However, it's always worth trying.

[ilex]

Oct 13, 2013 15:22:19 GMT -5 hortusbrambonii said:

What do you mean with 'low fertility tolerance'?

I mean they don't need very rich soil to do well, they will make a decent crop in less than ideal conditions. Some will kope with conditions other varieties can't. Some varieties are dry farmed in summer, so must have a very vigorous root system to survive. Dry farming vegetables here is very close to an art (almost lost), but in any case, planting and growing caulis in those conditions is very remarkable.

[ilex]

Oct 14, 2013 14:04:27 GMT -5 robertb said:

Perennials don't have to grow so fast, so it's not surprising if they don't need such rich soil. I had thought truly perennial brassicas were all kales, since they're a bit closer to the wild type, but it seems I was wrong. Do you have any other perennial brassicas in Spain? Some of the Iberian varieties don't survive our winters, but they'd be worth trying. According to what information I have, caulis were once difficult to grow this far north, and only became common in the 19th Century after the Dutch started growing them in greenhouses in order to overwinter them and get seed the second year. After some of my failures with Portugese varieties of couve tronchuda, I can see the difficulty! However, it's always worth trying.

Only some individuals are perennial, not all. They were not supposed to do that, as I was not supposed to let them flower and wait a couple more months to let them resprout. I was also not supposed to plant them when I did, as some of these are really summer caulis.

I know some somewhat perennial kales in Spain. Iberian peninsula is very diverse, you can find all kinds of climates in a very small area. That means lots of diversity and varieties adapted to just about anything. I live in zone 10, 40km from here it's zone 6. They grow cabagge there.

[ilex]

Today I talked with a fellow gardener that grows caulis. I had seed some green ones he grows, and always thought they were the Italian ones ... just learned they are a local Spanish variety.

I will have (more) work ahead.