The best cauliflowers grow in temperate conditions, very slowly during winter and build up very large leaves that have the ‘power’ to produce a large white head in the early spring. They grow best in high fertility soils, rich in compost- and under those conditions will develop very large leaves that may be up to 50 cm long. Gardeners who don’t understand cauliflower sometimes see just leaves and throw the plants away. What a waste. What is needed is a little patience and the large cauliflower head will appear.
Now on Wetar things are quite different. Hot temperatures and often low fertility mean that plants struggle to grow well and ‘rush’ to flower and seed so that the head produced is only nice and white for a few brief days before breaking into flowers and seed. The key is to feed the cauliflower – and broccoli – with lots of rich compost as possible. A matchbox of a mix of 50% Urea and 50% of TSP applied around each seedling at planting will help also. breaking leaves over the developing head will help to keep it white, but remember in hot conditions in the tropics there will only be a ‘window of opportunity’ of 2-3 days between the head being ready and having started to break open into separate branches, ready for flowering.
They can also be overwhelmed by aphids – that may or may not look black. Sometimes if there are really large infestations of aphid it is hard to make out the individual aphids. A magnifying glass will help – you will see the black mass moving around as they feed.
The plants above are grown at spacing that is too wide apart. It means that precious sunshine is being wasted – heating up (cooking) the soil and harming micro-organisms in the soil. Plant closer together to gain more profit from the garden bed.