My first garden, when do you pick your snowball cauliflower? please help.?

Question

Thank you for all your help. I want to try to have a bigger garden next year. Like I said I'm a beginer so any tips or info is awesome. E-mail me at [e-mail]

Answer 1

Are you just now getting cauliflower??  Wow......either you get a late summer or an early fall!!  

Usually, cauliflower and broccoli and the like are "cold crop" plants because they are more cold tolerant, and because they bolt so quickly once the heat kicks in.  Like I said....wow!

Anyway....

Pick them when they are solid, and definately before they break open or start sending out side shoots and seed rods.  

Only harvest the main "flower" because the side shoots, although smaller, can also be harvested until the seed rods develop.  (and are quite tasty...)

If your cauliflower is out in the sun all day, you will want to ponytail the leaves over the flower.  Bring the leaves up around it to the top and rubber band or clip it into place to put the flower into shade.  Otherwise it turns colors.  Just be careful when watering to water from the bottom as this can cause the flower to mildew in the humidity.

I've found that (being in VA), growing the cold crops in the spring is too unpredicatable because sometimes we get major heat waves (causing rapid development) followed by cold (making it go temporarily dormant) and then one morning, it's 34 degrees when you get up and eighty seven degrees when you get home from work and the darn things have all bolted!!  I do mine in the fall.  One; more predictable weather and two: it's after the life cycle of the cabbage moth!!

Yummy, fresh cauliflower with Christmas dinner!!

Answer 2

Pick when the heads are full, but before the sections start to loosen or separate. Good luck!