How to Grow Cauliflower in Raised Beds: A Complete Guide
Are you looking for something a little different to fill your raised beds this spring or fall? Cauliflower is a uniquely delicious, beautiful, cool-weather vegetable that you can grow in your garden and even in a raised bed. In this article, gardening expert Liessa Bowen shares some insights on how to successfully grow cauliflower in a raised bed.
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Cauliflower is a tasty cool-season vegetable. Since it loves the cooler temperatures of early spring and late fall, it is one of the earliest vegetables you can plant at the start of the season or one of the last crops you harvest before winter. You can even grow it through the winter in mild climates.
Raised bed gardening is widely popular because it’s so versatile. It doesn’t matter what type of soil you have in your yard because you can create ideal conditions within the raised bed for any style of gardening. Vegetable gardening in raised beds is particularly rewarding. You have the ultimate control over what you plant, how much space you want to use for your garden, and the soil your plants will grow in.
Fortunately, you can grow just about anything in a raised bed, including cauliflower. If you’re a fan of this flavorful, nutrient-packed vegetable, even if you’ve never grown it before, it’s worth the time and effort it takes to grow. And once your plants are ready to harvest, there are so many tasty ways to use them that you wish you could grow this crop during every season!
Let’s dig right into some of the most important details you need to know to start growing cauliflower in your raised bed garden.
Choose the Right Variety
You could grow any variety of cauliflower in a raised bed. The main things to look for when choosing a variety that you want to grow are days to maturity and general appeal. Some varieties mature in less than 50 days, while others require over 90 days, so you’ll want to look for a variety that will mature within the time you have available. Otherwise, choose one that looks appealing to you, whether you want a simple white head or one of the interesting colorful varieties.
Snowball Y
Cauliflower typically needs a long, cool season to grow and mature well. ‘Snowball Y’ reaches maturity in less than two months and is a good choice for locations with a shorter growing season. These plants have an excellent flavor with beautifully rounded white heads.
Twister
‘Twister’ has nice, tightly curled leaves around its pure white heads. The leaves help protect these dense, mature heads from sun and rain, allowing them to mature on the plant until you’re ready to harvest. But you probably won’t want to wait because these cauliflowers are simply delicious!
Romanesco
And now for something a little different. This pale green broccoflower looks like a cross between a broccoli and a cauliflower. Its pale green heads are so pretty you won’t want to eat them, but once you have a taste, it might become your new favorite veggie that scores high in both flavor and artistic appeal!
EarliSnow
This fast-growing white variety matures extra fast. In ideal conditions, it can reach maturity in less than two months, so you won’t need to wait too long until your first harvest. The pure white heads are small to medium-sized and ideal for snacking or cooking.
Graffiti
When you’re trying to cook with all the colors of the rainbow, it can be a challenge to find something that’s naturally purple. ‘Graffiti’ heads are a beautiful shade of purple that’s 100% as ornamental as it is edible. Next time you want to make a statement with your veggie tray, add some of this fantastic variety for an eye-catching pop of color.
Choose the Right Location
One of the biggest benefits of gardening with raised beds is that you can put them anywhere. Not only can you create an ideal soil blend for your garden, but you can place your raised bed in full sun, full shade, or anything in between, as long as you have enough space for it.
Place your raised bed in full sun, with at least six to eight hours of direct sunlight each day. Establish your raised bed on level ground. Watch out for tree roots, rocky areas, flood-prone areas, and other obstacles that could cause problems for your raised beds. Setting up in a solid and sunny location will make it much easier to care for, manage, and water your plants.
Prepare the Raised Beds
Raised garden beds can be made of metal or wood and come in a variety of shapes and sizes. You can build your own raised beds or buy ready-made beds that are quick and simple to set up. There are no right or wrong raised beds. You can choose whichever style you like best.
Since these plants grow rather large, you’ll want to be sure to have enough space for them. You could plant up to four cauliflower plants in a four-foot square bed, so the larger the bed size, the more you can grow. And since cauliflower plants have fairly shallow roots, you don’t need a deep raised bed. As long as you have at least a six-inch soil depth in a shallow raised bed, your plants should have enough space to grow well.
Add Soil
Soil is the foundation for the success of your garden. High-quality soil is a must for growing healthy plants. The quickest and easiest way to add soil to a raised bed is to buy pre-mixed soil formulated for raised beds. This is usually a blend that is both nutrient-rich and well-drained.
If you prefer, you can mix your own soil. An ideal formula for raised bed soil will include a blend of regular garden soil, nutrient-rich organic compost, and an additive like vermiculite or perlite to help loosen the soil and improve drainage. It will take a lot of soil to fill a raised bed but the quality of the soil will greatly improve your gardening success. Fill your raised bed close to the top but don’t over-fill it so the soil splashes out when it rains.
Start Your Plants
For a spring crop, start cauliflower seeds indoors in early spring. Sow the seeds indoors about four to six weeks before your last spring frost date. Transplant seedlings outdoors when they have four true leaves and are at least four inches tall. Wait until around two weeks before the last spring frost date.
For a fall crop, sow your seeds indoors 12 weeks before the average first frost date. Transplant the seedlings into your raised bed when they have at least four true leaves. Allow them a few days to harden off in a somewhat protected outdoor location before exposing them to full sun conditions.
To get a jump start on growing and save yourself some time, you can also buy young plants from a garden center. Choose plants that look strong and healthy and show no signs of insect infestations or disease.
Transplant these young plants into your raised bed about two weeks before the last spring frost date or between six and eight weeks before the first fall frost for a fall or winter harvest. The plants should be spaced at least 18 to 24 inches apart so that they each have plenty of space.
Water Well
Cauliflower plants need consistent soil moisture. Lack of watering, or inconsistent watering, causes stress and a general lack of vigor. If you don’t receive consistent rainfall, do some supplemental watering by soaking the soil around your plants at least once per week. Raised beds tend to dry faster than in-ground gardens, so take the time to make sure your plants receive enough moisture.
Use a soaker hose or gently directed watering to ensure that the water permeates the soil around the roots rather than spraying water unnecessarily on the leaves. Consistent watering not only helps your plants look great and grow well, but it also improves the taste and texture of the heads.
Mulch
Mulching around your plants, even in a raised bed, helps prevent weeds from sprouting up. Mulch also helps protect the roots from temperature extremes and helps retain soil moisture. Use a thin layer of natural, biodegradable mulch around your cauliflower plants.
You can use wheat straw, pine straw, shredded wood chips, or aged leaf mulch. You can also use organic compost as mulch, and as the compost decays, it quickly boosts the soil nutrient levels.
Fertilize
Cauliflower is a somewhat heavy feeder, so you’ll need to plan for fertilizer. Fertilize the first time about three to four weeks after transplanting your young plants outside. Fertilize again just as the heads are starting to form.
Use a nitrogen-based fertilizer and carefully follow the directions on the product you use. Be careful not to over-fertilize, as this can cause your plants to grow excessive leaves without producing flower heads.
Weed Control
Cauliflower has shallow roots and large leaves. This can create a bit of a challenge when weeding around your plants but weeding is still a very important task. Keep pulling weeds from around your plants all season.
Weeding will reduce competition for water and sunlight and also eliminate areas where pests can hide. Don’t spray the weeds around your garden, because it’s too easy to damage your adjacent garden plants with chemical sprays.
Companion Plantings
Planting cauliflower companions in your garden is a great idea. Companion plants are those plants that offer benefits, such as attracting pollinators and other beneficial insects, repelling pests, or enriching the soil. If you have enough space in your raised bed, consider adding some companion plants alongside your edibles.
Beans are a great choice for cauliflower, but they are a warm-season crop, so you can inter-seed them after planting your cauliflower in the spring or before transplanting in the summer.
Onions are another good choice. They repel some of the brassica insect pests, and they’re compact and easy to incorporate into smaller spaces. Nasturtiums are another great choice as a companion plant. These showy flowers not only look beautiful, but they also attract beneficial insects that feast on cauliflower.
Protect from Bugs
Cauliflower is fun to grow, but watch out for insect pests. Unfortunately, there are plenty of insects that love to munch on cruciferous vegetables.
There are a few tricks you can use to deter pests. Companion plantings, as mentioned above, help attract beneficial insects and repel pests. Crop rotation is the practice of rotating two or more crops of different families to discourage the same pests from returning year after year. And finally, floating row covers are an excellent way to protect your leafy vegetables from flying insects that want to eat or lay eggs on your plants.
Cabbage worms are the caterpillar larvae of the cabbage white butterfly. The adult butterfly lays eggs on the leaves of cauliflower, broccoli, and cabbage plants. The eggs hatch into very hungry green caterpillars, known as cabbage worms, that devour the leaves and cause unsightly damage to the leaves and flower heads. Hand-pick any caterpillars that you see and use floating row covers to prevent the eggs from being laid in the first place.
Flea beetles are very annoying pests that chew holes in the leaves, especially in young plants. These small, shiny blackish beetles aren’t too obvious until you notice your leaves are full of little holes. Flea beetles jump when disturbed, making it difficult to catch them. Use floating row covers to deter them, or use an insecticidal spray to treat infestations. If you choose to spray, always carefully follow the directions on the product you use.
Cabbage maggots are the white, caterpillar-like larvae of the adult maggot fly. The adults look similar to house flies but lay their eggs at the base of plants in the onion and cabbage families. The larvae then burrow into the roots and stems, causing your plants to wilt, and be stunted, and in severe infestations, plants will die. The best way to prevent cabbage maggots is to protect your plants with a physical barrier like floating row covers.
Blanching
If you’re growing a white variety, watch for the head to start forming. Once you see the head, gather up some of the surrounding leaves and loosely tie them around the head to protect it from the sun. You can use string to tie the leaves, keeping them closed and protected around the developing heads.
Allowing the head to grow in a totally shaded environment like this keeps it white. Some varieties are “self-blanching” and will produce white heads, even without any added sun protection. If you are growing a self-blanching variety, you should see this noted on the seeds or plants you buy.
If you are growing a colorful variety, you don’t need to worry about blanching. The developing heads of the colorful varieties and the green Romanesco varieties need plenty of sunlight to develop their attractive colors.
Harvesting
This is the time you’ve been waiting for. You planted your cauliflower plants and waited patiently, and now it’s time to harvest. So how do you know exactly when to harvest a cauliflower?
Check the seed pack or plant tag for an estimated number of days until maturity or suggested harvest size. Ideally, you’ll be looking for a nice, firm, solid head of cauliflower. As the heads mature further, they start to separate, and gaps form between the chunks, so you want to harvest before this happens.
Use a sharp, clean knife to harvest your heads. Cut the stem under the head, removing a few of the leaves with it. You can wash and prepare your cauliflower right away and enjoy it as fresh as possible. If you don’t use it right away, wrap it in a plastic bag and store it for up to a week in your refrigerator.
Enjoy Your Veggies!
The best part of growing your own vegetables is, of course, eating them. This versatile veggie can be prepared and enjoyed in many ways. Cut the head into smaller chunks and eat them raw with your favorite dip, or add to a mixed salad.
Cook it by roasting, sautéing, steaming, or grilling. If you’re feeling adventurous, cut a raw cauliflower head into tiny bits, steam it for a few minutes, and serve it as a tasty and nutritious substitute for rice.
Key Takeaways
- Growing cauliflower is a great way to extend your garden harvest season.
- Cauliflower’s basic needs include abundant bright sunlight, good soil, and plenty of water. You’ll also need plenty of space.
- Be patient. It can take a while for your delicious cauliflowers to be ready for their first harvest but it’s worth the wait when you get your first taste of fresh and locally-grown veggies!
