To get a good harvest of cauliflower, it is very important to choose the right place for planting. Cauliflower prefers moist and fertile soil. If there is a lack of moisture or on poor soil, the seedlings will begin to form yellow and loose small heads of cabbage, which are not suitable for food. It is also very important what crops were the predecessors of cauliflower – cauliflower will not grow after kohlrabi, radish, horseradish and turnip. Cauliflower bears fruit well in beds after cucumbers, legumes and potatoes. Lighting is also very important for getting a good harvest – you need to choose a place with little shade, you can use free areas of a young garden. The soil should be well fertilized with organic fertilizers.
© Rasbak
When preparing a bed for cauliflower, in the fall the soil is dug up with a bayonet and manure or compost is added, as well as mineral fertilizers – superphosphate and potassium chloride.
Cauliflower is grown through seedlings, which are best sown in separate peat pots at the beginning of March. It is also better to grow cabbage seedlings in separate pots, which significantly increases its yield.
When planting cauliflower seedlings on a dug and leveled area, mark out beds with a row width of 60 cm and plant the seedlings in prepared holes at a distance of 35 cm between the holes. When planting seedlings, it is necessary to ensure that each plant is deepened into the soil to the first true leaf, and the roots are tightly compressed with soil. After planting the seedlings, each plant must be watered with at least a liter of water.
To save space on the plot, the cauliflower planting can be compacted with greens or lettuce, which will not interfere with the growth of the cabbage.
© Cacophony
Immediately after planting the seedlings, it is necessary to loosen the space between the rows and regularly loosen the soil as soon as weeds appear or the soil becomes crusty.
As soon as the cabbage seedlings take root and start growing, it is necessary to hill the seedlings a little. Before hilling, it is necessary to fertilize with complete mineral fertilizer. The first fertilizing can be done by scattering dry fertilizers between the plantings – urea, superphosphate, potassium chloride. In dry weather, cauliflower plantings are fertilized with a weak solution of liquid manure or an aqueous solution of mineral fertilizers.
© Dino
Cauliflower requires regular watering. During drought and during the formation of heads, watering should be increased.
To grow a good harvest of cauliflower in a sunny area, to get dense heads, it is necessary to break off 2 leaves above the heads of the plants to protect them from the sun. You cannot shade the heads of cabbage from the sun with cut leaves – they dry out and dirty the head.
You can start harvesting cauliflower as early as July. Heads of cabbage that reach 8 cm in diameter are considered ripe. If the head is falling off, it should also be cut off. The yield of cauliflower is 2 kg per meter.
