Help us with our cauliflower seed strategy

[ferdzy]

Edwin and I have been very frustrated with our inability to grow cauliflowers ever since we started this garden. Brassicas in general do not like out soil, and caulis do the worst. We have a number of strategies to deal with this; soil improvement isn't the question. However, we noted that our cabbages improved enormously once we started planting our own saved seed. We would like to do likewise with cauliflowers. But how to get cauliflowers to seed when you are struggling just to get them to (cauli)flower?

Kale, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, and occasionally broccoli have overwintered in the open garden for us. Cauliflower never has. I tried digging up a few plants and storing them in the cold cellar last fall. I have yet to haul them out but my impression was that they promptly - and I do mean promptly - died.

My thought is that while cauliflowers are technically biennials, if they are producing a head in the first year it should go to seed in the first year if there is enough time. So if you got plants to head up really early, you could get seed without having to overwinter them.

So, looking for suggestions for starting cauliflowers early and getting them to "bolt". I don't need good heads, I just need flowers. We'll worry about quality later, assuming there is a later.

Suggestions for varieties that might be easier to save seed from also gratefully accepted, although we have collected 9 varieties to try already. Seven OP, 2 hybrids. I will watch for CMS assuming we ever get that far but we have a fair bit to work with here. DTMs are all over the place, so several different strategies may be needed. We don't tend to have lots of each individual variety. Cauli seeds are pricey, and given that I have yet to achieve any after 20 years of gardening I can kind of see why. But it definitely limits our ability to experiment.

Any advice about saving cauliflower seed gratefully accepted! Have you done it? ...how?

[philagardener]

ferdzy , I also have had problems with cauliflower - no luck at all. If you subject seedlings to stresses like moisture or temperature swings (= typical Spring in PA, we often have an early heat wave into the 80s+), particularly if they are pot-bound or have experienced transplanting shock, they will pin and bolt early. Good luck with your project!

[ferdzy]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. Start them within the week, coddle them inside for a month or so, then out into Ontario early spring they go! Bwahaha! Poor little suckers.

Well, nothing to do but try.

[diane]

Last year I grew an Indian cauliflower, Pusa Meghna, from Baker Creek.

This is Baker Creek's description:
45-75 days to maturity. The answer to any Southern gardeners cauliflower woes! PUSA Meghna quickly produces perfect tight white heads in as short as 45 days in some climates. This is the ideal choice for those Southern gardeners looking to squeeze in a late winter/early Spring harvest before the brutal heat sets in. We direct seeded a crop in our garden May 21, 2016 and it produced heads in 45 days!

This is my experience, near the shore in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada:

I sowed the seeds in pots mid-May and before I got them into the garden, in late June, they had formed heads. I left them in the pots to see what would happen. They set seeds and by Sep 1 were producing new basal growths. I think they have the potential for being perennial.

Now, the heads were tiny, suited to a doll's house, but grown in good soil, I'm sure they'd do for an adult-sized meal.

[billw]

You might add White Wallaby, an Australian variety, and Italian cauliflower varieties to you breeding pool. They tend to behave as annuals with a sufficiently long growing season. I'm going in exactly the opposite direction unfortunately - better overwintering in cold/wet.

[ferdzy]

Thanks diane, that sounds like something that could be useful in the mix. Now to convince Edwin we need to order more seeds... ha ha ha hmm maybe.

billw, I doubt we will get any Aussie varieties around here! But I will keep an eye out for Italian varieties. Good luck with yoiur endeavors.

[diane]

I have Wallaby - bought it in South Africa, and several Italian ones, if you're interested. Might as well send you several kinds of seeds
to make the postage worthwhile.

Also, Bill, I have a few overwintering ones - Purple Cape, North Foreland, Winter Roscoff, Walcheren Winter 5, Medallion, Aalsmeer,
and Clovis F1.

[ferdzy]

Thanks, diane! I will send you a message.

[diane]

So, any cauliflower news?

[ferdzy]

Well diane, I expect to have a fair bit of seed from the Pusa Meghna - they formed quarter sized caulis then went straight to flowering with amazing speed. But since that wasn't our goal, I planted them again. Hopefully the next batch will be more in sync with the rest.

There are 3 plants of Goodman, which is forming very decent little heads. This is the first time we have grown Goodman and without having eaten any, I am inclined to think if this seed thing doesn't work out I would just grow Goodman again. In general, the cauliflowers look the best they have ever looked. We started them each in their own pot and somehow they really took off and have done well. No others forming heads yet though.

So, semi success, whatever happens next, I guess. But I won't have a final report until November, I don't think.

[diane]

I wonder how big Pusa Meghna gets in India? Maybe it grows in the monsoon and swells up with water.

I'm going to grow a few each month and also try crossing some. I've got some overwintered ones that are blooming now
so I'll save their pollen to cross on Pusa.

[mskrieger]

It's admirable of you to try to save your own cauli seed...but I suspect that selecting for varieties that bolt early is deeply undesirable. It's unlikely you'll get nice, big heads from those plants. And if you do, you'll have to harvest them quickly. They won't stand in the garden for any length of time, which for a home gardener is fairly inconvenient.

I could be wrong on this, though. And I feel you on the freeze/thaw cycle making them hard to overwinter. I have heard that when they produce brassica seed in Scandinavia, they leave the plants in place and heap soil and mulch over them, keep it in place until a safe springtime date.

[ferdzy]

Yeah, mskrieger, I'm thinking keeping Pusa Meghna in the mix is a bad idea. I was keen on it to start with because I wanted seed, any seed. But now that the Goodman are forming nicely I'm seeing a lot of other little cauliflowers forming on other varieties as well. If the weather holds mild into the fall, they should have enough time to bloom and form seeds. I might even be able to rogue out some of the earliest... We'll see.

This is the earliest we've ever had cauliflowers forming and it's a combination of much better growing techniques than we've used before, and very hot weather.

[diane]

The cauliflowers I have grown have always been overwintering ones. Sow in July, transplant in August, eat from February to May, depending on. the variety.
These were bred mostly in the Netherlands. They could be enormous - When I gardened on better soil about 40 years ago, it would require both my
arms to encircle the cauliflower.

Now these Indian ones set tiny heads in Canada in about six weeks. I bought the seeds from Baker Creek, which is in the southern U.S. I wonder if latitude
could make a difference in head size. I should write to ask how large the heads were in Missouri.

I read somewhere that cauliflower plants need to be fertilized and watered well to get the plant big enough to produce a big head. This would suggest that
the plant is programmed to produce at a certain time, regardless of plant size.

I will experiment with Pusa Meghna - fertilizer and water. I can't provide the heat it would get in India or Missouri, though.

[ilex]

Most varieties here are annual,you plant and harvest in 60-90 days. Old varieties usually have precise planting dates, which translate to precise harvesting dates. That's specially true for old varieties were they would have a continuous harvest from September until May. That's for sowings from June up to October.