Cauliflower

February 13, 2016

When is the best time to plant cauliflower, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts?  I have my garden tilled up and need to know when to plant these.

As soon as you can find vegetable transplants, you can plant. They usually don’t start hitting the garden centers and nurseries until the end of February. All of the vegetables you names, are usually grown from small transplants, versus seeds.  Right now you can plant seeds for carrots, English peas, snow peas, spinach, and greens.  Just pay attention to the weather just in case we do get any more winter.

May 2010

I have planted the seeds of broccoli, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts  this spring and have not had much luck with the plants maturing and growing. Once the temperatures have warmed up, they really did not grow much.  What can I do next year to have a better crop of these vegetables?.

All of the vegetables you mentioned are in the cole crop family and need to be planted from transplants not seeds. Most home gardeners have good success with broccoli, but cauliflower and Brussels sprouts are not the easiest vegetables to grow in the home garden, especially as a spring crop. You are correct that these plants don’t do well when the temperatures start to heat up. Fall planting can give you better results, but even then, we often don’t get a large number of fruits on Brussels sprouts. One thing that can help on your Brussels sprouts is to pinch or remove the growing point of the plant now. This may help in the development of some sprouts even this late. Huge fluctuations in temperature can cause an interruption in the growth of the cauliflower and Brussels sprouts which can abort the development of the edible portion. All of these plants are heavy feeders, so I hope you kept up with fertilization. Start interplanting with your summer squash now and give the cole crops until the first of June and see what happens.