Growing Broccoli and Cauliflower

Both broccoli and cauliflower are closely related plants. The main difference seems to be that broccoli are somewhat smaller and their heads are less covered by wrapping leaves. In fact The names can be as confusing as the vegetables themselves. In Australia, white curd forming late season varieties are called cauliflowers, but people in other countries may call these broccoli. Specifically, the small green vegetable we know here just as broccoli, should be called sprouting broccoli, but then it gets confused with broccolini.

They are also very effective vegetables to grow, in that one well grown plant can provide a meal for a family of five. So there is little need to spend much time working out what length of row to plant or what to do with surpluses. You only need to be prepared to work you dinner menu around them each time one is ready. Of course, if you do get a bit of a surplus you can always pickle some to use later.

In both cases, seed is fairly easy to germinate so either direct sowing or transplanting are equally practical alternatives. Some people prefer direct sowing to protect against introducing the bacteria that causes Clubroot, but if you use the information in our soil improvement section growing broccoli and cauliflower without this disease will not be a problem.

Soil and fertilizer

In fact, like many soil-borne diseases, these pathogens flourish only in soils where they do not have to compete with other micro-organisms. In other words, fumigation actually favors the disease!!!

Do all you can to build soil structure and use only biologically active organic fertilizers like mushroom compost. Also, the use of seaweed extracts to stimulate root growth add to the protective effect of a biologically active soil.

Having said all this, broccoli and cauliflower are gross feeders, best grown in the first stage of your crop rotation.

Pests and diseases

As already mentioned, one of the main concerns in growing broccoli and cauliflower is with soil-borne diseases. However, they are also useful in preventing these kinds of disease. When the roots and leave of brassicas decompose in soil they release their own special bio-fumigant.

Unlike the synthetic chemical fumigants, this one does not harm beneficial soil organisms, so digging in the crop remains is a good strategy, although you may need a garden mulcher to chop up the big bits.

The main pests include slugs and earwigs, but beer traps and paper traps should help here (so long as you don't plant too closely).

The main cause of disease problems when growing broccoli and cauliflower is planting out of season. Warm conditions increase susceptibility to disease by stressing the plants and pests like Cabbage butterfly are more prevalent and difficult to control (I generally just watch the plants and remove the caterpillars when I see them).

Varieties to grow

There are no universally good varieties to grow, each area will have its own selection to choose from. For instance, I once went to an area in the Victorian Alps that was a traditional tobacco growing area. The growers were trying to find alternative crops and chose Broccoli (everyone looking for new crops chooses Broccoli - I don't know why). The varieties were those produced in more coastal areas. In the more extreme continental climate, they grew like little shrubs - cute, but quite useless for commercial production.

A good strategy is to start shopping around suppliers of heritage seeds as they will have varieties more suited to broader climatic ranges than more modern ones.

To help you in finding more information on growing broccoli and cauliflower, there is a list of useful links below that we will be adding to as we find more on the subject. You can also keep up with new information by subscribing to our Free email newsletter - The Food Gardener.

Further Reading and Useful Links

Organic food facts about cauliflower.
History, nutrition and other interesting facts.