are cauliflowers easy to grow?

[lottie-newbie]

Its crazy that I have an alotment but dont actually like that many veg!! I do like the occasional cauliflower cheese though but sure I read somewhere that they were not easy to grow? as its my first proper year of growing I dont want to be growing stuff that fails or i will get all negative about it!

[jacob marley]

cauliflower's are as easy to grow as cabbage's if you have grown cabbage you can grow cauliflower's but do no grow to many because they all tend to burst into head's together....jacob

[Two_Sheds]

My other half claims he doesn't like vegetables, but since he met me and my lotty, he is eating a lot more. Smothered in vinegar, maybe, but he eats them.

Brassicas are not the easiest crop to grow. Cauliflower has the same troubles as other brassicas: caterpillars, aphids, whitefly, pigeons, clubroot, blah blah.

Why don't you try a couple, and grow them really well, and extend your range a bit with something easier ... salads, sweetcorn, beans?

[SlugLobber]

Try them and see. I once tried to grow them, but I failed miserably. However, at that time I was hopelessly naive about the work involved in GYO veg. I'm still holding out to grow these when I have more space, though. Good luck!

[womble]

When I first started growing I didn't realise cauliflowers were hard to grow, so just did it and they turned out fine, since then I've read too much and am too scared to try them again

How about growing lots of different fruit then if you don't like veg that much?

Twosheds.... vegetables with vinegar??

[Fluorescent green]

There some veg that I do not like, last year I tried to grow too many different things.
This year I will try to grow more of the easier veg, onions and potatoes etc.

I was over the moon when I saw my first cauli growing last year, a head the size of a golf ball, but I waited for it to get bigger and it just spread out and opened up.

Going for a qick dig now!

FG

[janeyo]

I had no success with caulis or calabrese last year. They got aphids and died.

The PSB I am still waiting for, I was very vigilant with the caterpillars and picked them off twice a day as they were in the flower beds and not netted.
I also tried cabbage and kale. The cabbage got eaten by pigeons and the kale I have one left! Noy had any off it yet so I imagine it's gone bitter lol.

So no, in my limited experience caulis are not easy to grow!

The man next door has given up on brassicas totally.

I am giving them another go, with netetd beds and the like so will see what heppens. I love cauliflower!

Good luck with yours

[HeyWayne]

Had you of asked at the end of last year I'd of said they're a cinch to grow. This year - my own fault, I put them in late and they didn't really come to much. The same with most things really - if you follow the rules, you should be fine.

Give a few a go - you'll soon find out.

Good luck.

[lynda66]

i grew some last year, and even though i bent the leaves over they still went pink and brown and grotty, mostly cos there wasn't enough leaves i think

this year i'm trying some self blanching caulis and i'm gonna feed them instead of just leaving them to it

they weren't hard to grow at all, getting something eatable was a bit harder

[PAULW]

Never give up before you have tried, the first year I had my lottie I sowed the seed straight in the ground and had a wonderful crop I had a winter cauli weighing three and a half pound trimmed, this year they were rubbish but then again as all allotment gardener say " thing may be better next year"

[lottie-newbie]

I may try and grow just a few. I wont do what I did with beetroot last yesr and grow hundreds of the darn things. there is only so much beetroot a person can take.

I am going along the fruit line as well as I do like fruit but will try some veg as well of the kind i like to at least have some

[PAULW]

I was like you didnt like veg until I grew my own, no more tastless carrots from the supermarket, no more tasteless cabbages that have been in cold store for months, veg from plot to plate the same day is the only way to eat veg.

[Oleander]

When I first started growing I didn't realise cauliflowers were hard to grow, so just did it and they turned out fine, since then I've read too much and am too scared to try them again

That's exactly what's happened for me too. Last year (my first full year growing) I had real beginners luck with my cauli's and I still don't know what I did right! I was amazed that those tiny little seeds can turn into something so impressively big!

[jacob marley]

It would seem after reading through the post that some people have difficulty growing Caulli's and it seem that i was a bit flippant in my answer i did not mean to be but i have been growing Caulli's for 50 odd years and they have not been a problem to grow .
When i left school in the 50's i went to work on a rather large market garden between Lichfield and Birmingham and they used to grow about 8 acre's of caulli's for the wholesale market in Brum when there was lot's of factory canteen's in and around Brum sadly all gone now but i digress cauli's were treated no different than the Cabbage's and they allway's grew so just try to grow them and do not let them dry out and keep them well hoe'd and you should grow them ok....jacob

[mogs]

I grew about six last year in a raised bed I had in my garden before I got my allotment. I cossetted them and one (yes just the one) formed a lovely head about the size of a grapefruit. I was sooo excited, as I too had read they're bu**ars to grow! I duly bent the leaves over to protect the curd and went to check them 3 days later and a smarmy little slug had eaten the head in a criss cross fashion. The air was blue and I mourned that cauliflower head for two days!! Better luck this year hopefully!