How to grow Cauliflower

Learn how to grow Cauliflower. This guide will teach you everything from spacing and planting, to harvesting and troubleshooting.

Cauliflower require rich, deep, firm soil with plenty of well rotted compost mixed in.

Plant Cauliflower in a full sun position. 

Yes, Cauliflower is frost tolerant. 

Plant Cauliflower around 50cm apart. 

Cauliflower is a cool season crop that is usually planted in autumn, in most climates. 

For a head start, seeds can be sown indoors in late summer and seedlings transplanted in autumn. Seeds can also be sown in autumn. 

If transplanting seedlings, plant out in the early morning or evening and/or on an overcast day. Avoid planting at peak sun times or on windy days, this will allow your plants to settle in comfortably and protect them from windburn and sunburn.   

Apply an organic fertiliser to your Cauliflower plants throughout the season.

Harvest when the plant has formed a central head that is firm and large. Plants will only produce 1 head. If left on the plant too long, the Cauliflower head will begin to separate and flower.  

Pests that affect Cauliflower include: Aphids, Slug, Snail, Cabbage Moth, Cabbage White Butterfly, Diamondback Moth, Flea Beetle, Cutworm, Cabbage Root Fly, Cabbage Looper, Cucumber Beetle, Cabbage Worm, Root Knot Neematode, 28 Spotted Ladybug. 

Diseases that affect Cauliflower include: Leaf Spot, Black Rot, Club Root, Downy Mildew, Bacterial Soft Rot, Black Leg, White Rust, Mosaic VIrus, Damping-off, Sclerotinia Stem Rot. 

Gently fold the leaves of the plant over the Cauliflower head to protect it from the sun white it's forming. This will keep the Cauliflower head white and protect it from discolouration. 

Protect young seedlings from pests at the time of planting.

Regularly check the undersides of leaves for eggs, or use fine mesh/exclusion netting to prevent white butterflies from laying eggs on the underside of leaves, caterpillars can be detrimental to this plant.