THE EARLY CROP.
I cannot do better in treating of this crop than to first quote the
following, by the late Peter Henderson, of New York City, from his work
on "Gardening for Pleasure":
"There is quite an ambition among amateur gardeners to raise early
cauliflower, but as the conditions necessary to success with this are
not quite so easy to command as with most other vegetables, probably not
one in three who try it succeed. In England, and most places on the
Continent of Europe, it is the most valued of all vegetables, and is
grown there nearly as easily as early cabbages. But it must be
remembered that the temperature there is on the average ten degrees
lower at the time it matures (June) than with us; besides, their
atmosphere is much more humid, two conditions essential to its proper
development. I will briefly state how early cauliflowers can be most
successfully grown here. First, the soil must be well broken, and
pulverized by spading to at least a foot in depth, mixing through it a
layer of three or four inches of strong well-rotted stable manure. The
plants may be either those from seed sown last fall and wintered over
in cold frames, or else started from seeds sown in January or February
in a hot-bed or green-house, and planted in small pots or boxes, so as
to make plants strong enough to be set out as soon as the soil is fit to
work, which, in this latitude, is usually the first week in April. We
are often applied to for cauliflower plants as late as May, but the
chances of their forming heads when planted in May are slim indeed. The
surest way to secure the heading of cauliflowers is to use what are
called hand-glasses. These are usually made about two feet square, which
gives room enough for three or four plants of cauliflower until they are
so far forwarded that the glass can be taken off. When the hand-glass is
used the cauliflowers may be planted out in any warm border early in
March and covered by them. This covering protects them from frost at
night, and gives the necessary increase of temperature for growth during
the cold weeks of March and April; so that by the first week in May, if
the cauliflower has been properly hardened off by ventilating (by
tilting up the hand-glasses on one side) they may be taken off
altogether and then used to forward tomatoes, melons or cucumbers. If
the weather is dry the cauliflowers will be much benefitted by being
thoroughly soaked with water twice or thrice a week. * * * The two best
varieties of cauliflower we have found as yet [1875] are the Dwarf
Erfurt and Early Paris."
Notwithstanding the care required for the early crop, the same writer
states in his earlier work on "Gardening for Profit," (published in
1867, during a period of high prices,) that "for the past four or five
years cauliflowers [early] have been one of my most profitable crops. I
have, during that time, grown about one acre each year, which has
certainly averaged $1,500. On one occasion the crop proved almost an
entire failure, owing to unusual drought in May; while, on another
occasion, with an unusually favorable season, it sold at nearly $3,000
per acre. The average price for all planted is about $15 per 100, and as
from 10,000 to 12,000 are grown to the acre, it will result in nearly
the average before named--$1,500 per acre. Unlike cabbages, however,
only a limited number is yet sold, and I have found that an acre of them
has been quite as much as could be profitably grown in one garden."
The above, by the late well-known New York seedsman and market-gardener,
though written nearly forty years ago, is true to-day, so far as the
general profitableness of the cauliflower is concerned, and the extra
care required with the early crop.
The chief condition of success with early cauliflowers is that they
shall head before hot weather comes on. To this end the earliest
varieties are chosen, and they are set as early as possible in the
spring, and pushed rapidly forward, as stated, by using protection if
necessary, and by high manuring. It is an advantage to set the early
plants between ridges, as is done with early cabbage. The ridges hold
the sun and keep off the cold winds, and the furrows between carry off
the surface water. The plants are best set upon the south or east side
of the ridges, near the base. A good furrow with an ordinary plow forms
a sufficient ridge.
Formerly it was thought necessary to start the plants in the fall, but
since the newer early sorts have been produced, this is being abandoned.
Fall sowing has never been as successful in the Northern United States
as in England, and the failures to grow cauliflowers successfully in
this country have often resulted from adhering to the methods employed
in the Old World. Plants started in hot-beds in February, and properly
hardened off, receive but little check when set out, and make a better
growth than those which have been wintered over.
In the latitude of Virginia and Maryland, wintering over the young
plants may be resorted to, and for gardeners in that latitude the
methods adopted in England will be well worth studying, even if they
can not be literally followed. The time for sowing the seed should be so
gauged that the plants shall be neither too large nor too small during
the coldest months. If too small they will not be sufficiently hardy to
winter over; if too large they will be likely to button instead of
forming fully developed heads.
When the young plants are transplanted into their winter quarters they
should be set deeply, as the stem is the part most easily injured by
cold; the same rule of planting deeply should be followed in the first
plantings in the open ground in spring.
Wintering in the open air in a warm sheltered situation is preferable,
where it can be done, to wintering under frames, for plants so exposed
will be most healthy and will continue their growth with least
interruption in the spring.
Plants wintered under glass require considerable room, and as much air
as can be safely given. If pots are used, care must be taken not to have
them too small, or to allow them to become entirely filled with the
roots, for this will have a tendency to cause the plants to button.
BUTTONING.
I cannot perhaps do better than to mention here such other causes as
have this same tendency. Anything which checks the growth of the plants
when they are a few inches high is liable to produce this result--such
as leaving them too long in the seed-bed, withholding water, poor soil,
too much crowding. After the plants are set out, a cold rainy time or
badly drained land may have the same effect; also a very hot time, if
the soil is dry and the plants are not growing well. The check
occasioned by the transplanting may also cause the plants to button, if
they have become large, and the soil or weather is unfavorable. On this
account it is unsafe to let cauliflower plants get as large as cabbage
plants sometimes are when transplanted.
I will close this topic by quoting two paragraphs from _The Garden_, an
English journal from which I have already taken much valuable
information. The first is by a person who signs himself "D. T. F.," who
says:
"Cambrian [a previous writer] attributes this to over-manuring, and no
doubt this frequently causes buttoning, but over-frosting is quite as
injurious as over-manuring; and the hard frost which we had here on the
1st of April seems to be sending all the exposed plants into buttons,
whilst those protected only with glass lights seem safe and sound and
are spreading their leaves wide and looking extremely promising."
The next writer, Mr. Gilbert, adds:
"The whole of my Early London cauliflowers have buttoned, but not the
Walcheren, at least at present. I hear, too, this is the case in many
parts of the country. I have for years noted that after a cold severe
winter and a warm spring both cauliflowers and cabbages 'bolt,' but this
season having been quite the reverse I thought they might have escaped."
Another writer calls attention to the fact that plants which have been
nursed or protected too much during winter are more apt to button when
set out in the spring than those which have been more exposed.