Kitchen Garden Forum

I need help. Brassicas generally do well on my plot, but I can't grow cauli or swede. My cauli form small, loose heads (if at all) and swedes don't swell - they look like purple carrots sticking out of the ground. What am I doing wrong?

Dear bigrog106th, it sounds like a lack of nourishment and moisture to me, both really do like a bit of quality soil.

Addition to OH's good advice: cauliflowers, more than any other brassicas, need to be grown in very solid ground. Loose soil will make them produce lots of leaf and small curds.

alan refail wrote:Addition to OH's good advice: cauliflowers, more than any other brassicas, need to be grown in very solid ground. Loose soil will make them produce lots of leaf and small curds.

I wonder if you can help me, Alan?
I leave my veg bed fairly loose as most of the plants I grow don't want very firm soil. If I wanted to grow cauliflowers in pots, how big a pot would a single cauli require?

Westhamron

Have a look at this recent thread on the subject of caulis in containers.
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6846
I don't think you could get container compost as solid as needed.

Thanks,Alan. Perhaps not such a good idea !

Thanks for the help, guys. I'll make sure that I feed them well and trample the ground before planting out. Will this also prevent Swedes looking like carrots?

Afternoon, Swedes like the same conditions, a good growing season with no interuptions, meaning not going dry over long periods and not going hungry.

It's often said that cauliflowers need firm ground to curd well, but I'm not altogether convinced. I've grown some enormous caulis in soil that I would never have anticipated being any good: quite loose and sandy. oldherbaceous hits the nail on the head by advising stable growing conditions. That is, constant moisture and steady temperatures. There's nothing we can do about the weather, but there's a lot that the gardener can do to ameliorate growing conditions. Cauliflowers can be very capricious, all told. I've had excellent crops in some years, and while they've been shockingly poor at other times.

What I have found, though, with swedes in particular, is that they are a "field" crop and that they never seem to do particularly well in the garden. They seem to relish an exposed position, out in the full blast of the elements, to give of their best.

Be mindful of the nutrient levels in your soil. Too much nitrogen can produce a lot of foliage at the expense of roots and flowers.

Cauliflowers do need a lot of watering, too. I sink an upturned, bottomless plastic bottle next to each cauli and water into that because, on our very sloping ground, any normal watering runs down the hill before it soaks into the ground.