Tiny broccoli/cauliflour heads?

This is something my mum asked me to ask - I've only ever grown early sprouting/tenderstem broccoli, so I couldn't help her with it.

The question is basically this - she's tried to grow both broccoli and cauliflour for the last couple of years, but both times the heads turn up absolutely tiny (like the largest one was a couple of inches across tiny) if they turn up at all. The first year she didn't use anything, just tried them in multipurpose compost and let them grow, and the second year she borrowed some of my 'Growmore' general fertilizer, with the same outcome.

Any tips for a newbie to growing these brassicas?

 

Hiya BastLoki.

From what I know, these are notoriously difficult to grow successfully, well, the Cauli's anyway. I think that as with most brassicas, they like the soil to be rich, ie, plenty of organic matter. Also, they must NEVER be set back in any way, so watering is something that needs to be treated as a must. Hopefully, others will add more info, but I hope this helps.

Cheers...Freddy.

 

Hope I can help you here BastLoki, but first a couple of questions.
What's your mum growing her caulis and broccoli in? Is she growing them in containers/grow bags or in open ground?
Second question, what time of year is she growing them?

 

In containers the second year, just in the ground the first. As to the time of year - around june-july? I remember the rose being in bloom, so it would have been summertime...

Thankyou for the advice so far!

 

BastLoki, although I've never tried it myself, I suspect Cauliflowers would not be happy growing in containers. They like to have room to spread their roots, so the restriction of growing in containers probably wouldn't suit them.

Growing in open ground is the best way in my opinion. As Freddy says, they like a good rich soil to produce their best, so make sure the ground they're planted in has plenty of compost dug in.

The next thing to consider is timing. I gave up trying to grow summer cauliflowers years ago for two reasons; our soil is sandy and dries out quickly in summer, which meant I was always struggling to give them enough water to produce decent heads. The other reason was that my summer grown cauliflowers were always riddled with slugs and caterpillars when it came to harvesting and preparing them for cooking.

I'd go for winter/early spring maturing cauliflowers. These are sown about May or June and planted out in their final position about 2 or 3 weeks later.

Unless your soil is already quite chalky, rake in some garden lime before planting out. After planting out, keep the plants well watered for the first three or four weeks, after this they seem to manage quite happily for the rest of the summer, they won't be trying to form the heads or 'curds' yet, so it doesn't matter if they're a little dry.

I grow two varieties, Belot and Medallion and they produce lovely large, dense heads every year without fail, usually between February and April.

They're quite hardy and will take everything a British winter can throw at them, plus the fact that they are growing through the winter means slugs and caterpillars are not a problem either, although some protection may be needed from hungry pigeons!

 

Cool, thankyou for all that advice! Quite a bit to take in, lol.

Will definitely try growing winter cauliflowers this year into next year - sounds as though it simplifies things quite a bit! Do you recommend any particular compost, or is just general multipurpose stuff fine?

 

Bast,

I have grown collies on our alottment. Dig in plenty OLD rotted manure in winter sometime before planting, water well all through the growing season.

As soon as you spot the first sign of a head cover it against the light. We used paper bags.