Cauliflower ( How To Grow )

               Good day to you all! this is Ken and Marilou back with you here today on Garden The Easy Way.

                Marilou and I would like to talk about another very good eating vegetable, we are going to talk about Cauliflower, it is very tasty and healthy for us all to eat.

                Cauliflowers are grown for their central white heads (curds) and can be grown all year round as long as the correct variety for the time of year is chosen. Cauliflowers take up quite a bit of space so don't grow them if your vegetable patch needs high yield per square foot.

                 Although a member of the cabbage family cauliflowers require more care and attention than cabbages to be grown successfully. Like we always say there are some things you need to know about planting and growing, and we will share with you today on how to plant and grow cauliflower.  

                                                  **Cauliflower  ( How To Grow )    

Things You Will Need:  

* Garden Rake
* Cauliflower Seeds
* Compost  
* Fertilizers: Aged cow or horse manure
* Garden Spades
* Garden Tiller
* Mulch            

Instructions:

1. Cauliflower need to be planted in full sun. Cauliflower is a cool season vegetable, it can't tolerate weather that's too hot or too cold, so you need to plant in the early spring, after all danger of frost has passed and all cold weather is gone, the soil must be warm.  

2. You should work up your soil 6-8 weeks before planting. Work the soil down to about 8-10 inches, after work up your soil, add 2-3 inches of compost and 2-3 inches of aged cow or horse manure, mix it up well again. Must be well drained soil.    

3. Start early varieties indoors about a month before the last expected frost. Move the plants to the garden when they're about 6 inches tall, all danger of frost has passed, and temperatures of both air and soil have warmed to about 50 degrees F. Set the plants in their holes, cover them just short of the bottom leaves, and build a little saucer of soil around each plant to help hold moisture.

4. Sow seeds directly in the ground for a fall  harvest. Place them in clusters of four seeds each, with the clusters 2 feet apart. When the first true leaves appear, remove all but the sturdiest seedling from each group.

5. Keep cauliflower plants evenly moist; especially when they're small, they need about 1 inch of water a week, whether from rain or the garden hose.  

6. Start the blanching process when the flower head (also called a curd or button) is about the size of an egg. Make sure neither it nor the foliage is wet; otherwise the plant may rot. Loop heavy twine around the leaves, gently lift them up and tie them together. The aim is to keep light and moisture out, but to let air in and also leave room for the flower to grow inside its shelter.    

7. Harvest cauliflower heads when they're full but before the sections begin to loosen. The timing depends on the variety, so start checking plants daily when the heads reach 3 to 4 inches across.

**Tips & Warnings**  

A. You might want to try planting Orange Bouquet, which is a pale orange variety that matures in 60 days, needs no blanching and packs a big load of vitamin A.  

B. Cauliflower can fall victim to clubroot, a fungus that can invade your garden on infected plants. You can avoid the disease by growing your own seedlings rather than buying them, by growing cauliflower and other Brassica crops in a different spot each year, and by choosing disease-resistant cultivars. ( They're marked as such in seed catalogs.)    

                 Well that's it for today, we hope to talk here again tomorrow on Garden The Easy Way. Until then, this is Ken & Marilou wishing you all Happy Gardening Always.