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If you ask children about the beneficial properties of cauliflower, they will not name them. Most likely, they will say that this is the most tasteless vegetable. However, it is rich in vitamins and minerals. That is why many gardeners grow this vegetable on their plots.
Cauliflower has a ripening time. If you want to grow a vegetable of a normal size and appropriate taste, which would be stored for a long time, then the ripening factor should be taken into account. This largely depends on the variety planted. This article will show you when to cut cauliflower and how to do it right. Also, at the end of the article, a video will be posted from which you will learn about the features of growing this vegetable useful for the human body.
Freezing. Can they damage the crop
Cabbage is a thermophilic crop. Therefore, the question of whether she is afraid of frost is quite relevant. When the temperature drops below + 8 ℃, spare shoots begin to form at the base of the vegetable, which look like small heads. At this point, the growth of the main inflorescence stops.
If you encounter such a difficulty, then you can save the heads by collecting them and leaving them to ripen indoors. However, if you have a greenhouse in which you can maintain a stable temperature, namely + 10 ℃, then your crop will not freeze and ripen in the beds.
How to determine when to pick cabbage
If you took proper care of your cauliflower during the warm season, you will eventually receive a well-deserved reward in the form of dense snow-white, emerald, purple or orange blossoms. Cauliflower harvesting depends on the variety planted:
- Early varieties form inflorescences 2 - 3 months after the appearance of the first shoots. Harvesting takes place at the end of June - beginning of July.
- Mid-season varieties have a longer growing season, ranging from 100 to 130 days. Harvesting takes place at the end of July - beginning of August.
- Late cabbage bears the harvest in late August or September. Such varieties have a long growing season - 5 months or more. But they are the ones that are stored the longest.
Influence of weather conditions on maturation
It's no secret that the ripening period of the inflorescences is influenced by weather conditions. It is important to take into account the factors that influence the growing season:
- Optimal temperature, contributing to the ripening of cauliflower - from +15 to + 20 ℃. At temperatures below + 15 ℃, the growth of the culture slows down, and at temperatures above + 20 ℃, defective inflorescences form, they will be loose and small.
- Lighting level is also important for the full growth and development of inflorescences. When there is a lot of sunlight, inflorescences form too quickly and become prone to overgrowth. With a long daylight hours, only the formed heads should be shaded.
- Lack of moisture also influences the growth period and maturation of cauliflower. The heads will be small and not firm enough.
- Soil fertility, perhaps, has a key role in the intensity of growth and fruiting of the crop. On unfertilized soil, the culture grows slowly, and the resulting inflorescences are prone to rotting.
Therefore, it is important to focus not only on the approximate dates when you can harvest cabbage, but also look at the state of the inflorescences.
What weather to harvest
Cauliflower should be harvested in dry and cloudless weather.You can start cutting heads at lunchtime, but no longer than seven in the evening. You cannot remove them after rain. The harvested crop will not have the taste and aroma inherent in cabbage, and it will not be stored either. This is due to the fact that the plant needs moisture and heat only in the phase of active growth.
How to cut cauliflower properly
Cabbage should be harvested not only at the appointed time, but also competently. Only if all the rules are followed can you expect good preservation of the heads. So, there are several rules for harvesting cauliflower:
- An inflorescence is considered ripe if it reaches 10 - 12 cm in radius. Larger heads are often unsuitable for cooking as they lose their color and texture.
- The ripe head should be removed from the plant immediately. This implies that the crop should be harvested gradually, checking the maturity of the heads every 2-3 days. If you cannot harvest gradually, then cover the ripe heads with something to protect them from sunlight.
- Cut off the cabbage inflorescences with a sharp, pre-sharpened knife. In this case, the inflorescences should be cut with a few lower leaves. To keep the heads longer, they can be removed from the ground completely, with the root system.
- The crop should be transferred to storage, which should be cool and dark. If you leave the cut cauliflower in the sun, it will quickly lose its nutritional value and wither.
So, if you follow the rules for cutting inflorescences, you can save them, gradually preparing tasty and healthy dishes for your household from this vegetable rich in vitamins of trace elements, which has a beneficial effect on the digestive tract.
Storage features
If you have planted a lot of flowering vegetables and reaped a rich harvest, then the next equally important task is to preserve the harvest until summer. And here, too, you need to adhere to some rules so that the cut inflorescences do not fade and, even worse, do not rot:
- Overripe cabbage is poorly stored. In view of this, it is important not to allow the vegetable to over-ripen.
- There should be four leaves on the inflorescence after cutting.
- Do not leave cut heads in the open sun.
There are several ways to store cauliflower inflorescences:
- Unripe inflorescences are grown. How? Before digging up with the root and the ground, they need to be watered abundantly for 2 days. Then the plants are packed tightly to each other and covered with earth to the leaves. However, it is important that the room does not have access to daylight at all. The air temperature should vary between + 4 + 10 ℃. So, the heads can last up to 4 months, and in this way not only the inflorescences are grown, but also the mature heads are simply stored. It is also important here that the room has good ventilation and high humidity in the range of 90–95%.
- At zero temperature and high humidity, cauliflower can be stored for up to 7 weeks. It is placed in boxes or boxes and covered with foil on top. From time to time, you need to check the inflorescences, as some may begin to rot. The spoiled heads should be immediately removed from the healthy ones, otherwise they will all become infected and become unusable.
- Under the same climatic conditions, cabbage can be stored for up to 21 days by hanging it by the stumps. But this is acceptable only if you have few inflorescences and during this time, you use them.
- To keep the cauliflower in the fridge, pack each flower in a separate bag or newspaper. The contact of the inflorescences will accelerate the process of their decay, so they need to be packed separately.
- If you are going to store cauliflower in the freezer, then you must first rinse it and disassemble the heads into inflorescences, which are then divided into portions, packed in bags and sent to the freezer. This way you can store cauliflower for up to 12 months. However, repeated freezing a vegetable and temperature changes in the freezer will lead to damage to the vegetable, so you need to pack it strictly for one portion that you can use. In this case, the same temperature must be maintained in the freezer.
So, if you have a lot of heads, then some of them can be sent to the basement, where they will last up to 4 months, and some can be placed in the freezer, which will allow you to keep the flowery vegetable until the next harvest. When frozen, all nutrients will be preserved in the vegetable. In addition, the taste characteristics of the product will not be affected, and its natural aroma will be preserved.
Today, thanks to the painstaking work of breeders, you can grow a variety of varieties and hybrids of a flowering vegetable in your garden. For example, the Cheddar F1 hybrid has orange heads, and the Lilac ball variety has purple inflorescences. The Amphora variety has an unusual inflorescence shape that looks like a starfish. The original external features of the vegetable and the variety of colors allow you to decorate the table with delicious dishes prepared from different colors of this flowery vegetable.
So, from this article, you learned not only how to harvest cauliflower, but also what affects the ripening period of the heads, and in what weather it is better to harvest. In addition, we bring to your attention a video that will help you understand how to properly care for cauliflower in order to end up with a good and high-quality harvest of a flowering vegetable:
