Terms and rules for harvesting cauliflower

Harvesting time for cauliflower

Everyone wants to get a harvest with excellent taste, which will also be stored for a long time. First of all, it is necessary to focus on the characteristics of the varieties, since cabbage, like many other crops, has its own ripening dates that cannot be violated. There are a number of varieties intended for cultivation in different climatic zones.

Cabbage varieties:

Early ripening. From the time the first shoots appear to maturity, at least 75 days pass (depending on weather conditions, another 3 weeks can be added here). It is approximately cut off in mid-June.
Mid-season. Ripening period is 95–125 days from the beginning of germination. The harvest is harvested in summer.
Late. You need to remove such heads from the garden after about 4-5 months - in the last weeks of August and until mid-September. Although they have the longest growing season, they are the ones that last the longest.

The inflorescences can be cut when their diameter reaches 11–13 cm and their weight reaches 400–1100 g. The heads should be elastic, fresh, and dense. There is no need to wait until they become large, otherwise it is very easy to miss the moment when the heads become overripe. Overexposure leads to a deterioration not only in presentation, but also in taste characteristics.

Cabbage that is not harvested on time turns yellow and takes on a purple hue. As a rule, normally the heads should have a milky white or light cream color, be prominent, with a dense structure. There should be no sprouted leaves inside. The defining sign that a head of cabbage can be cut is the presence of three adjacent leaves on the head.

Weather

In what weather should you harvest cauliflower? It is better to start harvesting ripe cauliflower in dry and cloudless weather . Morning and evening times of day are not suitable for these purposes - condensation from humid air accumulates on foliage and seedlings. It is better to start getting ready from lunch until 19:00.

Under no circumstances should you attempt to cut cabbage during heavy rainfall or immediately after precipitation. Such cabbage cannot be stored for a long time, it will quickly lose its characteristic aroma and lose the richness of its taste.

During germination, cabbage loves humid, warm weather, but even with the onset of frost, unripe vegetables can be collected and left to ripen without any harm to the crop.

Specially equipped greenhouses or greenhouses, as well as terraces and even basements, are ideal for these purposes. Unripe cabbage is not cut off, but carefully dug up along with roots and clods of earth so that they do not lose their moisture and nutrients.

At what temperature is it recommended to clean? The best temperature conditions are considered to be 15-20° C above zero . The weather should be moderate, not too cold and not too hot. A critical situation will be the forced harvest of cabbage if severe frosts strike when the temperature is below +8° C.

You can learn how and when to remove cauliflower from the garden from the video:

Influence of external factors

It is important to learn how to determine ripeness not only by the information on the packaging and belonging to a particular variety, but also by external indicators. The fact is that temperature, air humidity, the presence or absence of precipitation, the number of sunny days - all this directly affects the timing of harvesting.

There are such nuances here:

The optimal temperature for the formation of dense and tasty inflorescences varies from 16 to 24 degrees. If the summer is cold, the development of the heads is greatly inhibited. Heat also has a bad effect on the quality of cabbage; it quickly fades into color, forming small and falling apart defective inflorescences that are unsuitable for food.
This vegetable crop loves moisture very much. Poor watering and drought are the main reasons for the formation of small heads with inflorescences loosely adjacent to each other.
Experienced summer residents advise shading the ovaries from direct sunlight. But there are bred hybrid varieties that are self-covering. This means that their foliage closes over the inflorescence on its own, without any human effort.
Artificial reduction of daylight hours is practiced everywhere. This makes it easy to grow strong cabbage.
Like all other crops, on depleted soils the plant bears fruit poorly, forming heads late. The quality, volume and structure of the ovaries in such cases are also far from perfect.

During cultivation, you should not get carried away with nitrogen fertilizing, which will spoil the crop much faster.

Cabbage ripening period and factors that influence it

So, if the soil is not enough moisture, then this can have a sad result when loose heads of too small sizes begin to form. Cauliflower is also very sensitive to light. If there is too much sunlight, the inflorescences begin to form too quickly. To prevent this from happening, you need to shade the heads that are just beginning to form. This is done in case of long daylight hours.

As for the temperature regime, the optimal temperatures are in the range from +15 to +20 degrees Celsius. If the temperatures are too low, cabbage growth will slow down, and if the temperatures are too high, the inflorescences will form defective, prone to shredding and looseness.

Also, the intensity of plant growth is affected by soil fertility, namely the content of useful elements in it. If the soil is poor, the cabbage will develop too slowly, and the inflorescences will form late and begin to rot.

Harvesting rules

To preserve all the beneficial properties of cabbage, when harvesting you need to follow these rules:

Collect heads only on a sunny day - from lunch to 7 pm. A rainy day is the worst time, as the harvested crop will not be stored and will lose its taste and aroma.
The cut should be 4–5 cm below the head. It is recommended to grab 5–6 leaves and cut them to the level of the inflorescence.
Afterwards, immediately transfer the crop under a canopy for 2 hours, then to a dark place. You cannot leave freshly cut heads of cabbage in the sun, as it will become unappetizing and tasteless.

It is better to harvest the crop little by little, inspecting the beds every few days, choosing only the heads that have reached ripeness.

Interestingly, cabbage of early ripening varieties can produce a second harvest. But the plant must be healthy and have powerful leaves. In place of the cut head, young shoots appear from the axillary buds near the root neck of the stalk. It is advisable to leave no more than 2 new shoots, the rest need to be broken off. Abundant watering and timely fertilizing will benefit such plants, and a second harvest can be harvested from them. True, the heads will be small - only 300-350 g.

How to cut correctly?

What gardening tools should I use? A standard kitchen knife will do just fine, as long as the blade is heavy and carefully sharpened. Secateurs are not suitable for these purposes - there is a risk of making a cut that is too uneven and torn.

The best choice is a small sharpened axe , but it will be problematic to cut off the required amount of stem. If necessary, use woven gardening gloves to avoid getting dirty or accidentally damaging vegetables with your fingernails.

Cut off the ripe cauliflower with a small section of the stem (a stalk about 2-3 cm long should remain), taking a few green leaves (2-3 pieces). If you plan to use sprouted shoots, which look like small underdeveloped cabbage heads, do not cut off the largest ones.

Immediately after the harvest has been harvested, it must be removed from the site and protected from sunlight. This way, you will protect your supplies from premature spoilage and keep them presentable.

The influence of frost and growing in the cellar

Since cauliflower is heat-loving, when it gets cold, the growth and development of the central ovary stops, and spare shoots that look like small lateral heads begin to appear. Therefore, if the weather forecast promises cold and frost, it is best to dig up the plants and take them to a basement or greenhouse adapted for storing vegetables until they ripen. This technique is widely practiced by gardeners in the Urals and Siberia, since due to the climatic characteristics of the regions, the heads in the garden simply do not ripen.

Here you need to follow these tips:

For growing, it is better to select specimens that have managed to form inflorescences. They can be small, about 5 cm in diameter, but well leafy (you need to count at least 20 leaves) and healthy. If there is obvious damage from pests, it is better not to take such plants.
A couple of days before transplanting, you need to water the beds more abundantly.
The cabbage must be dug up straight with the roots along with a lump of soil and planted deep in boxes with soil and sand. The main thing is that the substrate is moist. Sprinkle with soil almost up to the leaves.
Recommended temperature is from 1 to 10 degrees Celsius. Humidity should be high - 90-95%, otherwise the heads will dry out.
The basement needs to be regularly ventilated so that the cabbage “breathes” fresh air.
One of the main conditions is the complete absence of light. Therefore, plants need to be shaded with shields, paper or other materials.

If such conditions are provided, the heads will continue to grow due to the nutrients present in the green foliage. The higher the air temperature, the faster the cabbage will grow. For comparison, at 15 degrees Celsius the head will ripen in 3 weeks, at 5 degrees in 2 months. But the faster cabbage ripens, the looser its inflorescences become. In this simple way, you can adjust the ripening period according to your needs. But such cabbage, of course, will not reach the same weight and diameter as from the garden. But on New Year’s Day you can get a decent harvest in your basement or well-insulated greenhouse. In any case, the weight of the heads increases 3–4 times compared to the original.

This method also makes it possible to store cabbage longer. In boxes with substrate at a temperature of 0 to 5 degrees Celsius, it remains fresh for 12–15 weeks.

Are you afraid of frost?

Is cauliflower afraid of autumn frosts? Cauliflower is known among other vegetables for being extremely thermophilic .

If the ambient temperature drops below +8-10˚ C, then small heads begin to form at the base of the white inflorescence, which will subsequently become spare shoots. The development of the main inflorescence will most likely stop.

With the onset of cold weather, the growth of cauliflower slows down significantly, which requires immediately sending them for ripening at home. Severe frosts can damage cabbage heads , but it is still possible to save them with the help of greenhouses.

This is easy to implement only if a stable temperature of +10° C is maintained inside.

You can learn how to freeze cauliflower in the freezer for preparing dishes in the winter from our other article. Find out also how to dry cabbage at home in an oven or electric vegetable dryer.