When should I plant cauliflower?

 


I'm in central Pennsylvania,  think it's zone 5-6.  I want to plant some
five or six week old seedlings for a fall crop.  What date should I
plant my seedlings in the garden?  I'll be growing the purple variety of
cauliflower.

Thank You............ Rich

 

On 2010-06-06, EVP MAN wrote:

http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/resources/garden-calendar/zones-5-6-garden-calendar?showall=1
HTH
--
Bud

 

Bud wrote:

I don't have any experience in your zone but if you want to harvest in fall
you will be planting in summer, no?  Will you then get constant attack by
cabbage moth?


http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/resources/garden-calendar/zones-5-6-garden-calendar?showall=1

This is quite an interesting calendar.  Much of the timetable information
makes sense to me even though I don't have experience of Zone 5.  The deal
seems to be to grow nothing in winter, warm season veges in summer and cool
season stuff in between.  Seems fair.  Looking at the calendars for other
zones is also interesting, I would be in the zone9-10 region but the advice
only lines up very roughly with practice in these parts.

The scope is rather narrow, that is there are many veges not mentioned and
virtually no fruits.  That is a matter of how much work one is prepared to
put into something like this, if the author had to limit the time they gave
it fair enough I suppose.   There are a number of items to do with setting
out a garden and first preparing soil that really have no place in an annual
calendar.  In this regard the author seems to have got the scope well and
truly knotted up.

Some advise seems rather parochial, for example in one section you are
advised to mulch with a particular kind of material (I think it was wheat
straw).  Why?  What is the magical benefit of this?  What if you don't have
that kind of mulch?  In another place you are advised to apply lime, sulphur
and fertiliser according to soil analysis results.  It doesn't mention what
to do if you don't have soil analysis and there is no logical set of results
that would have you apply lime and sulphur together. These kinds of off-hand
misleading specificity (where no specification is required) can be very
confusing to the novice.

Also some stuff seems just wrong in almost any context.  You are advised to
plant 1/10th of an acre (480 sq yards or 400 sq metres) per head of the
family.  Unless your soil is very poor or you are a useless grower this is a
huge amount of veges even allowing for enough to freeze and can.  By my
figuring that is at least 10 times more than you need for low intensity
growing and if you put in the effort you could reduce it by another factor
of 2 or 3.  Aside from not having 4/10th of an acre available that is much
more than the average family with day jobs and school could effectively
manage.  Why on earth would you be setting people up to fail (or to refuse
to even try) by making it seem like it must be done on a huge scale?

David

 

On 2010-06-07, David Hare-Scott wrote:

[big snip]


If your are in zone 10-9 looks like you can grow any thing during
any time of the year. Just seems like it is ideal for a vinter.

Must be an ideal spot for weeds too! :)
--
Bud

 

Bud wrote:

Not anything at any time but it is more flexible than zone 5-6 where
apparently nothing much grows in winter at all.  We still have to grow the
warm season crops in the warmer months but the growing season is quite long.
For example I had green beans producing well for more than seven months.
But I do get frost so this limits what you can grow during winter.  Here you
grow brassicas (such as cauliflower) from autumn through winter into spring
because they tend to bolt in our hot summer and the cabbage moths tear them
apart in summer unless you cage them or spray every week.  Similarly growing
lettuce during summer is almost impossible but it's good any other time of
year.

There are vineyards in my street and in the next valley and they make a nice
drop too.

David