Kitchen
Cauliflower (Phool Gobhi)
Pet-safeBrassica oleracea var. botrytis
- Category
- Kitchen
- Light
- Full sun
- Watering
- Every 2-3 days
- Difficulty
- Challenging
- Mature size
- Rosette 40-50 cm across, curd 12-18 cm diameter at harvest
- Pet safety
- Non-toxic to cats and dogs.
Growing note
Fussier than cabbage about steady cool temperatures while the curd is forming; a warm spell partway through tends to leave the curd small, loose, or off-white instead of tight and pale. Start in a seedling tray and transplant once it has 4-5 true leaves into at least a 12-14 inch container, and keep feeding it through the vegetative stage so it has the reserves to form a good curd once cooler weather triggers it.
Growing Cauliflower (Phool Gobhi) in Indian apartments
Once the curd reaches roughly golf-ball size, loosely tying or folding the outer leaves over the top to shade it, a step called blanching, keeps it from yellowing or picking up a sunburnt look, and matters more in India's stronger sunlight than it does in the cooler climates most general growing advice was written for; some newer self-blanching varieties curl their own leaves inward and skip the need for this. Small, premature "button" curds that form well before the plant has reached full size are almost always a sign of a check in growth somewhere earlier on, a late transplant, root disturbance, or a stretch of stress from heat or drying out, rather than a feeding problem at the curd stage itself. Cauliflower needs steadier, more uninterrupted growing conditions from the seedling stage onward than cabbage does to avoid this, which is part of why it's rated more challenging even though the two crops are grown almost identically otherwise.