Kitchen Garden Forum

Hello,
this is probably a daft question but here goes !
Is it feasible to grow cauliflowers to maturity in containers in a greenhouse ?

Rhubarb Stick

Evening Rhubarb Stick, i have neve tried it and i think it would be up-hill battle.
But so saying that, sometimes it's worth trying things once.
If you grew them in large pots, firm the plants in very well, kept them moist at all times, keep them well fed and offer them some shade on very sunny days, who knows.

Yes it is. But you're going to need big containers. Cauliflowers require lots of water and lots of feeding, even when grown in the open ground, so you're going to have your work cut out satisfying their needs. A drip system should ensure they never go short of water.

Brassicas attract lots of pests at the best of times, and growing in a greenhouse you're going to have to be doubly mindful of the possibilities of an infestation. Choosing a variety of cauliflower may be tricky. Greenhouse temperatures can wildly fluctuate in the winter, and the usual winter cauli varieties may react badly to this.

Good luck.

Rhubarb Stick wrote:Is it feasible to grow cauliflowers to maturity in containers in a greenhouse?

Out of interest, can you tell us why you want to try this?

Give it a try but heed the warnings of the other posters. Frankly I think it would be a waste of compost and greenhouse space; a greenhouse does not offer the conditions cauliflowers prefer, nor would even a large container offer firm enough soil. See the replies to the same question in this thread from last month.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6846

Thanks for your replies. I going to have to have a rethink. In answer to your question Colin M. My caulis have been decimated, presumably by pidgeons. As this is my first try at veg growing, I'm a bit miffed to say the least. The other problem for me at least is that me and netting were definitely NOT made for each other. Talk about frustrating. I peg it down at one point and it comes up somewhere else. Then the supporting canes get together and decide to collapse in a pre-arranged sequence. Not a marriage made in heaven. Surely there must be an easier method of protecting my little darlings from the ravages all the beasties out there all hell bent on making me give up before I've properly got started.
HELP !

Rhubarb Stick

The other problem for me at least is that me and netting were definitely NOT made for each other.

Netting is your friend. You just need to talk to it nicely. I put short canes (3') at regular intervals to form a grid, about 4' between each, pushed firmly into the ground and each topped off with an inverted plant pot. Pull your netting out into a long skein and find one edge. Weigh this down with a row of stones, then diligently tease out the netting and place it over the pot / cane arrangement, then weigh the other end down when it is fully stretched out. You need to weigh down the sides, too. You don't need many stones to weigh it down: the wind blows straight through it. Enlisting the help of a friend and / or neighbour will ease the pain, but it can be done alone if you listen to some soothing music beforehand.

I'll say this very quietly, but bear in mind that you do need to take the netting off occasionally, and then put it back again, for maintenance purposes (hoeing and such). But it can come off altogether once the plants are a good size, I find.

Dear FelixLeiter, i do like the thought of, all us gardeners listening to soothing music before using netting.

I'm not convinced you need overall netting if pigeons are the problem. We get pigeons and doves in the garden put they don't attack the brassicas. They are surrounded with wind break netting and I think the lack of an easy take off puts the birds off.

Rhubarb stick, I would try the netting again. We have bird problems though it's usually partridges, pheasants and jackdaws rather than pigeons, and we build a sort of fruit cage over the whole of the brassica bed and the whole of the pea and broad bean bed. We bought a huge anti-bird net from LBS (lbsgardenwarehouse.co.uk), according to our specifications, which we drape over bamboo canes topped with empty plastic bottles. That has worked for us for more than 10 years and certainly keeps out the birds!

To your original question: a friend once tried to grow caulis in a polytunnel and found it too dry and hot, not a success.

Hi Geoff,
I agree with your comments but only to a degree. Certainly if you follow the flight pattern of a Pigeon they generally like to have plenty of room to escape but having said that they are very capable of an almost vertical take off so a simply net barrier will not always suffice. It really depends what other obstacles that are in the vicinity.
Being that a plant can only be destroyed once it really is best to actually net up completely and then there can be no mishaps.
JB.

Hi Rhubarbstick. We use wire netting to protect our young plants and find it extremely effective. We use wire netting in widths of 3 feet, cut to the length of the row needing protection. Fold it in half all down the length and place it tent fashion /\ over the row of plants. Peg it down with bamboo canes or whatever. Also block the ends of the "tent" with net or whatever you have to hand. It can stay on until the plants are big enough to withstand the pigeon assault and you can easily remove it for weeding etc. and replace it without feeling the need to scream your head off! Cheers.

Back to the original question, apologies for the delay, busy weekend so didn't take the photo.
Last year I made the 3' wide border at the end of my cold greenhouse into a hot bed with a poly cloche cover as per Joyce Russell. Unfortunately I didn't have enough fresh manure so I used a mixture of old and new so it didn't heat up. It did grow crops OK though. This year I just refreshed it with a bag of garden centre rotted manure, some pelleted chicken manure and the remains of a bale of mpc left over from last year. Planted it up with quite a variety of stuff, carrots, rocket, cress, radish, lettuce, pak choi and 3 Primo cabbage and 3 Snowball cauliflowers 1' apart one way and 18" the other. Plants were propagator raised sown 30th January, grown on in heated greenhouse from 12th February and planted in this bed under the cloche on 19th March and the picture shows them today. So you can grow cauliflowers under glass in fairly loose though very fertile soil.

Hi Geoff,
Certainly health abides in your greenhouse! The reason that you can grow Cauliflowers in unfirmed soil is because your plants are not subjected to the vagaries of the outside weather. Cauliflowers very much resent being blown about and this is why firming is the usual method on the plot.
Blowing about gives too much root disturbance which would interfere with the feeding pattern.
Bon Appetit!
JB.

Trouble with this experiment is I've now got 3 good cabbages and 3 good cauliflowers in a bed that is supposed to be having sweet corn and butternuts in it! The rest of the batch of cauliflowers went outside, initially under a cloche now just with a windbreak, and are showing first signs of flowering. That's two years of success with early Snowball. I read your comments JB about GD toms changing, I used to grow Dok Elgon as an early cauli but I reckon that seed line went off. Perhaps there's a time for everything as the man sang.