What would be the ideal pot size for a Cauliflower? I've never grown them before! The brocolli are in a raised garden bed and are getting pretty big, but the Cauliflower are still babies.
Do they get as big as brocolli???
Thanks! K.
I haven't grown cauliflower in a long while, but I remember them being much more substantial plants than broccoli. Big, strapping leaves. Very full and stout. I hazzard a guess that they'd be happiest in a container that measured several gallons, at least (not having ever grown either them or broccoli in a container).
Hmmmmm.... ok, looks like the extra 3 and 5 gallon pots I bought will come in handy, and a few will just go into the main garden bed. ;-)
Thanks! K.
I have serious space shortage, so I tend to compromise and crowd a bit.
With 10-litre (2.5 gal) buckets, I put two cauliflower or broccoli in each. I tried three to a bucket last season, but that very crowded and seemed to stunt their growth. With more space, I would be inclined to just put one plant per bucket.
Last season's cauliflower didn't get as big as some of the broccoli, but with good spacing, the cauliflower heads can spread out a lot horizontally, compared to the broccoli plants going mostly upward.
So I have a ton of 1 gallon buckets, and the space to put them in. D'you think that, if the soil level is high enough, a 1 gallon would work???
K.
Like I said, I only have limited experience. But in your situation, I would go ahead and try that.
The thing I noticed from last season was (especially with broccoli) after harvesting and emptying the buckets. Three to a 10-litre-bucket had very densely packed roots in the soil. So they were really competing with each other. But maybe they would be OK with your suggestion, if they are by themselves.
Cool. :-) Will report on the results.
Right now they were just transplanted from 1" pots into 4" pots and are looking good, so when they get a little size I'll move them again. I have 8 cauliflower plants.
The brocollis are in the large 6' by 3' deep planter and are getting quite tall! My Escargot snails are having a field day with the leaves I break off for them.
Thanks for answering.... :-) I appreciate it.
Have you ever tried container tomatoes? I bought three of them and put them into 3 gallon pots with a cage. They are in one of the portable greenhouses and this will be my first try at winter hothouse tomatoes.
K.
I am in the southern hemisphere, so I am in springtime now.
Last season I did tomatoes in 20-litre (5-gal) buckets, which seems like a good size. I used stakes in a tripod, tied at the top, with more string to keep the tomato vine held in and supported.
Results were low because of some unusually severe late summer storms.
Now I have some more (only space for four), and have a central stake for support, and will put a tripod of stakes around that soon. I just bought some 1.8 metre bamboo stakes which seem a good length.
Three gallon pots might work. My understanding of winter issues is that you need to add lots of artificial light and some heat. That means $$$.
This past winter, I just did leafy stuff outside - lettuce, spinach, cabbage.
Cool... :-) I have 1 meter "cages" which are kinda like a tripod of heavy wire with rings spaced at roughly 100cm intervals so there are 3 rings to tie them to.
During spring and summer, they are just in the ground against a 2 meter wire fence that they get tied to for supports as needed.
Light won't be much of an issue as they are in a greenhouse in full sun. I will have to run a light at night for heat when it freezes so that will extend their daylight hours for blooming. Might be interesting. :-)
I guess if the daylight intervals are not long enough, they may not bloom? Fluorescent fixtures would lower the energy cost considerably but I would have to spend the money on timers.
I think I won't worry about that this time, (there are only 3 plants and this is an experiment) and see what happens with the longer nights. I've noted that, as a general rule, tomatoes are not that picky about daylight length?
Same here. My winter outdoor garden is the brocolli, lettuce, swiss chard, mustard, kale and cabbage. It's still a raised garden bed and I'm considering ordering a cold frame for it, just to protect stuff when there is a freeze warning.
I am in Texas so we don't get a LOT of hard freezes in the winter this far south so it's not much of an issue.
However, with the whole messed up weather pattern thing, we are getting very cold weather early! It's not normally quite this cold this early, (it's been in the 40's F.) but there have been no frosts yet... I'm wondering if we will have a colder winter than normal this year. That's fine with me! It'll freeze the damned mosquitos!
K.
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