Growing Cauliflower In Florida

Cauliflower is a great vegetable to grow in the Florida garden.

But is cauliflower easy to grow in Florida? Yes, Cauliflower is easy to grow in Florida, plant from September through January in all parts of the state. Florida friendly varieties of cauliflower are Brocoverde, Snowball, Snow Crown.

Cauliflower can look very differently than the one you get in the store. There are purple kind, Green kind (Not broccoli), and even a yellow cone shaped kind. Cauliflower is a fun vegetable to grow in the Florida garden, read on to get more info that will hopefully help you in your cauliflower growing journey.

Florida Friendly Cauliflower Varieties

Cauliflower doesnt just look like the typical white cauliflower that you see in the grocery store. Although we can grow varieties like that in Florida (Snowball & Snow Crown) we can also grow other exotic varieties.

Brocoverde
Cheddar

Graffiti
Snowball
Snow Crown

Verdi

The Brocoverde variety is actually a broccoli and cauliflower mix. The head is more conical and a highlighter like green. The Cheddar variety looks like normal cauliflower that has been covered in golden yellow butter.

The Graffiti variety has a rich purple head and the Verdi variety is similar in looks and color to the bright green Brocoverde variety.

When To Plant Cauliflower In Florida

It’s best to plant cauliflower seeds in all parts of Florida around September.Cauliflower can take some light frosts but will die if a freeze rolls in.

Those in north Florida will have to be mindful of this.

Cauliflower can be directly panted into the garden or it can be started as transplants and then moved to the garden if you wanted to get a head start.

I always find it a pain to start homegrown transplants for some reason and I usually get better results directly planting seed into the garden.

Keep in mind that these dates are just general guidelines and based off of the average date of first and last frost. Some years you may be able to plant earlier and other years you may have to plant later.

Growing Cauliflower

Cauliflower isn’t that picky. If you provide full sun, plenty of water, organic rich soil and fertilize it regularly you shouldn’t have a problem.

Cauliflower needs about 18 inches all the way around it in order to be productive. There are some varieties that will require you to “blanch” the heads as they grow. This just means securing the leaves around the head before it’s mature in order to keep the sunlight off of it.

Varieties like, Snowball have been bread to make the leaves curl over the head so you don’t have to worry about doing that anymore.

Fertilizing Cauliflower

Fertilizing cauliflower is an important step in the growing process. For some reason when I started gardening I was afraid of fertilizing and never did it for some weird reason.

I was sabotaging myself.

Cauliflower and it’s relatives will produce a larger harvest with a fertilizer that is high in nitrogen. A high nitrogen fertilizer that I like to use is Alaska Fish and Kelp Fertilizer ,It’s a liquid fertilizer that you can simply add to a watering can and water your plants with it every two weeks.

I bought mine from Home Depot but Amazon also sells many comparable varieties which you can check the price of here.

Best Soil For Cauliflower

Cauliflower isn’t that picky but if you are planning on planting directly into the dirt it’s never a bad idea to amend your soil with compost and a thick layer of mulch at the very least.

I garden in a cinder block raised bed and I’ve always had good luck with a mix of soil that looks something like this:

40% Peat moss

40% Compost
20% perlite
Worm castings

Mykos

You can get most of these items at your local hardware store like Lowes or home depot except the worm castings and the Mykos. While not 100% necessary I do find that they help. Worm castings add an extra nutrient boost and the mykos helps beneficial fungi form in the soil.

Harvesting Cauliflower

If you’ve ever grown broccoli than you probably know that it will send out small shoots of broccoli after picking the main head. Unfortunately, cauliflower will not do that.

After the Main head has been harvested you can pull the plant up. It will not produce any additional food.

Cauliflower usually takes about 75-90 days to grow to a harvestable size.

Growing Cauliflower In Florida

The best time to plant in Florida is around September

Plant Florida Friendly Varieties like Brocoverde, Cheddar, Graffiti, Snowball, Snow Crown, Verdi
Be sure to plant in organic-rich soil, full sun and give it plenty of water.
Give cauliflower 18 inches all the way around each plant.