[Njal]

Hi,

I went to the local garden centre to get some spring cabbage plants since I forgot to sow them!
Anyway, they had sold out but had trays of 9 small cauliflowers.
I bought some and when I got home looked in my vegetable books.
None of them mention planting cauliflowers at this time of year, and the "month by month" guide on this website doesn't either?

I hoped that since the garden centre was selling them they were okay to plant now but you never know - they probably just want to make money!

So, obviously I will put them in, but can I expect them to grow?
Do I need to do anything special to help them over winter?
WHen can I expect the harvest?

Thanks.

[Jonajo]

I planted a load of winter cauli (alpen) a few weeks ago - they seem to be doing well and the temperature has not quite changed much since then (down south!) so you might be ok.

I covered mine in netting to protect from the birds - picked up a dozen 3m netting tunnels off ebay last month for just under £3 per tunnel: easier than my usual make-shift attempts!!

[Christine]

They are bred to stand the winter weather so don't do anything special other than making sure that the ground is right for brassicas as you would normally do.  I put some in this late last year and they were more late March than February but they still helped the hungry gap. 

[Njal]

Okay thankyou!

I put them in today and got pretty wet doing it  :blink: