Cauliflowers

[Alexandra]

Can anyone help with growing cauliflowers. This is the 3rd year that I have tried and yet again I seem to be growing what I call 'blind' cauliflowers - just a load of really healthy looking green leaves and no white cauliflower bit in the middle. It doesn't happen to all of them, but more than half are like this. Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong? I've tried different varieties, I've added lime to the soil as I know that we have acidic soil and still the same. Please help!

[MKG]

I gave up trying to grow caulies years ago for exactly this reason. The conclusion I came to at the time was that I simply could not firm my soil up enough (caulies like very very VERY firm soil around their roots) without creating a clay ball and killing the plant. Never tried since then, although I'm on sandy soil now.

[Odsox]

Can't help much I'm afraid as I don't seem to have any problem but I don't know why.
My soil is very acidic and although I do lime early spring I'm not very scientific about it. I do give my cauliflowers a dose of blood fish and bone when they have made sizeable plants and I think it's about time they started producing.

On a separate note, I have at last found out how to stop cauliflowers becoming a slug and earwig apartment block. This year I made some copper rings cut from an old water cylinder after reading an advert for commercial ones. I can report that they DO WORK ! I encircled the stems of some caulis and left some without. The ones without were exactly the same as other years ... smothered in slugs, but the encircled ones were totally clean ... not even a stray earwig.
Well worth the effort of cutting up a cylinder with tin snips and should last a lifetime.

[Peggy Sue]

Well this is the first year we have tried cauli, we treated them like cabbage and started them in a small pot with a plastic bag on it on the windeowsill, then pricked them out into pots and hardeded them off in the cold frame, put them down the allotment when they were strong on ground which we had tired not to dig over since the autumn. The ground is well drained there, but very weedy so we did have to hoe and dig weeds out before putting them in. I've no idea what the pH is, but marestail is rife so someone said that means its acidic, however I haven't limed! The result has been lovely cauli just ready so I hope that helps?

[Michelle]

I think lack of water can have something to do with it..what about spacing? Maybe the blind ones didn't have enough room?

[Alexandra]

Thanks everyone. I grew the cauliflowers on in plugs, hardened them off then planted them out. Thought they had enough room, but it is very windy, so maybe they're rocking??? Who knows!!