Cauliflower — Vegetables

Brassica oleracea (Botrytis)

Full sun, regular watering — hardy anywhere in the UK.

Photograph of Cauliflower — iNaturalist / GBIF

Sow: Mar
Plant out: May
Harvest: Aug

Sun: Full sun
Water: High
Difficulty: Demanding
Hardiness: H7
Season: summer
Height: 10–50 cm
Spacing: 50 cm
Pets: Safe around pets

Grows well with

Birdsfoot Trefoil — A low carpet of trefoil around your cauliflowers hides the plants from cabbage root fly, which hunts by sight.Coriander — Coriander left to flower beside cauliflowers draws in predatory insects and parasitic wasps that take out pests.Dill — Let dill flower next to your cauliflowers. The open flower heads feed the predators and parasitic wasps that work through the pests.Wild Fennel — Flowering fennel near cauliflowers brings in predators and parasitic wasps. Give it room, as it grows tall and seeds about.Nasturtium — Cabbage white butterflies like nasturtium too, so a patch sown next to your cauliflowers can take the egg-laying instead. It does not work every year.Chinese Cabbage — A few Chinese cabbages near your cauliflowers act as a decoy, pulling cabbage white butterflies away from the main crop.White Clover — Undersow your cauliflowers with small-leaved white clover. The green carpet makes the plants harder for cabbage root fly to pick out.Brassicas — Do not follow cauliflowers with another member of the cabbage family on the same ground. Club root spores can sit in the soil for twenty years, so move the group on each season.

Growing notes

Grows to 0.1-0.5 metres. Space about 10-50cm apart. At its best in summer.