Quality seeds for kitchen, cottage and native gardeners
Vegetable Seeds Catalogue
Cauliflower
Sds/g:300-350 Feed Requirements: High + sidedress Usual Seed Life:4 years
Cultural Notes:
- Transplants can be started indoors in the cooler months and planted out 4-5 weeks later after being hardened off and the days are lengthening. If the seedlings are any older or become root bound you will get a poor crop.
- Sow seed with a mix of varieties to spread the harvest period over a longer period from one sowing.
- The early spring plantings are the trickiest of the brassicas to grow. January and February plantings will head in autumn and winter. Overwintered varieties planted in late February and March will head up by the mid September.
- Cover the white curds of the head with leaves when frosts are likely in order to protect them from 'burning' and getting brown patches.
Problems:
- Keep on top of slugs, especially for early sowings.
- Cabbage moth/grubs need to be controlled with regular sprayings of Dipel.
- Lack of molydenum in the soil causes weak leaves and poor curds.
Harvest:
- Harvest tight curds and eat raw or cooked. Curds that mature in hot weather are generally of poorer quality.
Sowing periods
A popular home garden variety producing a solid medium sized head of white curds. Use raw, steamed, cooked or freeze for later use. Sow at regular intervals from late winter (indoors) to late summer for successive harvests. Harvest summer heads promptly to avoid them opening up. 120 seed.
A striking heirloom addition to your vegetable patch. The 0.8 - 1 kg heads are an eye catching purple in the garden, once cooked they turn a bright green. ‘Purple Sicily’ has a tight head, is easy to grow, slow to run to seed and packed full of minerals and anti-oxidants that are associated with the purple colour. Italian heirloom. 250 seeds.
This is a superb cauliflower with large white heads and adaptable to a range of growing conditions. This variety keeps us in supply of tight heads that are splendid for cauliflower cheese and a variety of curries. 20 seeds.
This medium-sized cauliflower (15 cm wide) has tight, round, creamy-white flower heads with a good strong flavour. An heirloom variety that matures bit earlier than many OP varieties. Tastes great raw, steamed or baked as cauliflower cheese. To grow cauliflowers successfully you need fertile, soil, full sun and plenty of water over the warmer months. 150 seeds.