Cauliflower Heads

[Ian Foster]

Hi,

What's causing my Cauliflower Heads to split as per photo and how do I prevent it happening ?

Thanks

Ian

[Geoff]

They keep a lot of sheep round here and the farmers will tell you sheep have a lot more ways of dying than living, cauliflowers are somewhat the same. You seem to get some like that whatever you do but if they are all doing it there are a few things to look at. The hybrid varieties are expensive seeds but generally out perform the ordinary varieties (unless you do like me, I wanted to try Igloo and the suppliers I was using didn't sell it so I bought a packet on eBay, very poor germination gave me one plant from the first batch that hearted up into a tasty cabbage, the four I got from another sowing look like they are going to go the same way). They all need high fertility and unchecked growing so letting them get pot bound before planting out or them ever being short of food or water will create problems. Many of them also get clubroot easily so after you harvest them check the root system. The good thing is even the not so pretty ones taste better than bought ones. I grow Orkney and Clapton hybrids but also the older variety Snowball that does well.