Vegetable · Brassicaceae (mustard family)
Phool Gobhi · फूलगोभी · Brassica oleracea var. botrytis
Match the variety to the month, and a white curd follows.
Cauliflower is the busiest winter vegetable of the North Indian plains. The white 'flower' we eat is a curd — thousands of tightly packed flower buds that never opened. Varieties are grouped by the temperature they need to form that curd, so the sowing month and the variety group must always match.
Harvest · roots shown through the soil
At a glance
Mid-late groups form curds at about 16–20 °C; Snowball types need the cold of December–February (10–16 °C). Plant a group in the wrong month and you get tiny 'buttons' or loose, leafy curds.
Nursery sowing
1 Sep – 31 Oct
Transplanting
1 Oct – 5 Dec
Harvest
1 Dec – 31 Mar
110–160 days from sowing
Temperature
10–25 °C to grow
20–30 °C at sowing
Soil
Well-drained loam or sandy loam, rich in organic matter
pH 6–7
Seed rate
0.1–0.2 kg/acre
0.25–0.5 kg/ha
Spacing
60 × 45 cm
1–1.5 cm deep
Irrigations
8–12
4 critical stages
Yield
81–121 q/acre
200–300 q/ha
Season
Cauliflower is a heavy feeder and hates waterlogging. In acidic soils molybdenum gets locked up and leaves turn into thin 'whiptails'.
Seed to harvest
Scroll through the season. The plant in the glass tank grows to each stage — roots and all — and every card says what the crop is doing and what you should do in the field that week.
Stage 1 of 7
Nursery sowing
Day 0–5
Seed is sown 1 cm deep in raised nursery beds.
Your job · Cover with fine manure and straw, and water lightly with a rose can.
Two heart-shaped seed leaves push through in 4–6 days.
Your job · Remove the mulch, water lightly and watch for damping-off.
True leaves form; at 4–6 weeks seedlings with 4–5 leaves are lifted and transplanted.
Your job · Harden the seedlings, transplant in the evening onto ridges and irrigate at once.
The plant builds a big frame of leaves — the bigger the frame, the bigger the curd.
Your job · Top-dress nitrogen, hoe, earth up and irrigate regularly.
A small white curd appears in the centre of the plant.
Your job · Keep moisture even and check for aphids and diamondback moth.
The curd swells fast. Direct sun turns it yellow.
Your job · Blanch: fold or tie the inner leaves over the curd to keep it white.
Curds reach full size while still compact and white.
Your job · Cut curds every few days as they mature — don't wait until they loosen.
The seed
Use certified seed of a variety bred for your region, at the right rate, and treat it before sowing.
One seed
≈ 2 mm
Seed rate
0.1–0.2 kg/acre
0.25–0.5 kg/ha
1000-seed weight
3.5 g
Field & sowing
Raise seedlings in a nursery, then transplant onto ridges
Layout
Ridges & furrows
Row to row
60 cm
Plant to plant
45 cm
Depth
1–1.5 cm
Feeding the crop
These are the standard doses for a medium-fertility field. Your Soil Health Card can raise or lower them — test first, then feed.
Nutrient dose
Plus 25 t/ha (10 t/acre) of well-rotted farmyard manure or compost.
For 1 acre of Cauliflower
What to buy
Urea
2
bags · 85 kg
DAP
1
bag · 53 kg
MOP
1
bag · 40 kg
Nutrients in it: N 49 kg · P₂O₅ 24 kg · K₂O 24 kg
Also add farmyard manure or compost: 10 t
Not yet checked against a package of practices. Confirm the dose with your KVK before you buy.
Urea has 46 % N; DAP 18 % N and 46 % P₂O₅; MOP 60 % K₂O. Urea comes in 45 kg bags, DAP and MOP in 50 kg.
Water
A crop forgives a late irrigation at some stages and punishes it at others. These are the days that decide yield.
Protection
Walk the field every week. Most problems are cheap to stop early and expensive to fix late. For any spray, follow the label dose and check with your KVK.
Signs · Small, pale-green caterpillars feed under the leaves, leaving papery 'windows' and holes; they wriggle and drop on a thread when touched.
Manage · Grow 2 rows of mustard after every 25 rows as a trap crop and put up pheromone traps. Spray Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) or 5% neem seed kernel extract early. If damage is heavy, use spinosad or chlorantraniliprole — as per label / your KVK.
Signs · Colonies of tiny grey-green insects on leaves and inside the curd from December; leaves curl and turn sticky.
Manage · Use yellow sticky traps and spray neem oil at the first colonies. If they spread, spray imidacloprid or thiamethoxam — as per label / your KVK — and respect the waiting period before harvest.
Signs · V-shaped yellow patches starting at leaf edges, with blackened veins; plants stay stunted.
Manage · Hot-water treat the seed, keep a 2–3 year gap between cabbage-family crops and remove infected leaves. Copper oxychloride with streptocycline can slow its spread — as per label / your KVK.
Signs · Round brown spots with rings like a target on leaves; dark spots on the curd in humid weather.
Manage · Use clean seed and rotate crops. At the first spots spray mancozeb at 2.5 g per litre, repeating after 10–15 days — as per label / your KVK.
Signs · Plants stay small and form a tiny, early curd the size of a button.
Manage · Plant the right group in the right month, transplant seedlings no older than 6 weeks, and do not let the crop go short of nitrogen or water.
Signs · Brown, water-soaked patches on the curd, a hollow stem and bitter taste.
Manage · Mix borax into the soil before transplanting where it has happened before; on light soils your KVK may advise a borax spray.
Signs · The curd surface turns velvety and grainy as the flower buds start to grow.
Manage · Caused by warm spells at curd formation, too much nitrogen or late harvest. Choose the right variety for the month and cut curds on time.
Common · Bathua (Chenopodium), krishneel (Anagallis), senji (Melilotus), motha (Cyperus)
Harvest
A good crop gives
81–121q/acre
200–300 quintal per hectare
Snowball types on good soil give the upper end.