If cauliflower blooms, what to do with it and can it be eaten?

Gardeners who are accustomed to white cabbage, which is unpretentious to grow, often do not notice that the cauliflower harvest is fading. Some, knowing that this is critical for most crops, dig up an unsuccessful bed and send the shoots to feed livestock. However, you don’t have to go as far as throwing out the inflorescences, and the heads remaining after removing the flowering stems can be eaten.

If cauliflower has bloomed, can it be eaten?

There is cauliflower that has bloomed, you can safely. Rumors about poison in a degenerated form and the accumulation of toxins are not confirmed. Problems with cultivation only affect the aesthetic appearance of the crop. The weak form of flowering has practically no effect on the taste and nutritional value. It’s just that the flowered ovaries become tough and may taste slightly bitter.

Cauliflower, in which all the ovaries have turned into bouquets, is not suitable for food, but is not dangerous either. It can be given to feed livestock and poultry.

Having received a blooming harvest, you just need to choose the right recipes. You won’t be able to cook vegetables in batter from such sprouts, but cabbage is suitable for other dishes:

• soups and purees, baking fillings;
• stews and vegetable hodgepodges, combined vegetable side dishes;
• salads and canned food, which require fine shredding.

Flowering produces bitterness. If you soak such stems in cold water for 2-3 hours, the taste will go away.

Why does cauliflower fade?

Cauliflower, brought to Russia by Catherine the Great, never really took root. Capriciousness in cultivation and good performance of its closest local competitor, white cabbage, stop the spread of cauliflower.

It is generally accepted that curly cabbage fails to bloom due to the inability to grow it, due to an oversight by the gardener.

In fact, cauliflower goes into color for reasons beyond the gardener’s control:

1. The hybrid, purchased in the form of seeds, turned out to be unsuccessful. Cauliflower breeding has not been carried out for a long time. The varieties and hybrids that reach the shelves have not been fully studied, and batches may be defective. Reviews from gardeners whose packages from the same manufacturer go into color on opposite ends of the country prove this.
2. Hereditary problems of the species. The peculiarity of cauliflower breeding is that seeds are actively produced by plants with small and loose heads, while dense, wide heads have agricultural value. Collecting seeds from a failed unit will lead to problems in the next harvest. To avoid them, agricultural technicians recommend not to get carried away with your own breeding of varieties and hybrids, not to buy planting material from dubious distributors, but to order material marked F1 directly from breeding centers - that is, direct collection of a high-quality maternal line.
3. Incorrect hybrid selected, for example, in the middle zone one is planted that is designed for a long southern summer with short daylight hours. To form ovaries, cabbage needs shade and warmth at the same time. It does not tolerate both a lack of sun during the germination period and its abundance during the formation of lateral heads. The critical level is considered to be +18°C.Long daylight hours with scorching evening sun, characteristic of the Volga region and the middle part of the country, do not provide the necessary conditions. Climate change, which has led to droughts in mid-latitudes, is exacerbating the situation. Having not received a signal about the optimal climate for the ovaries, the cabbage goes into flower.
4. The seed material included natural “hybrids” obtained by crossing incompatible varieties. Agricultural technicians recommend keeping only one area for the seed fund, carefully protecting it from other varieties entering the plantings.
5. The opposite situation with the same outcome occurs if the bush did not receive enough heat. Cold summers or short but significant frosts during the formation of heads weaken the plant. Realizing that there are no conditions for the full formation of heads of cabbage, it begins to throw out arrows.
6. Lack of moisture during head formation (lack of natural watering, insufficient artificial watering) also shows the plant that the time for abundant growth in thickness has not yet come. Refusing to bush, cauliflower waits for the right indicators. Optimal humidity is 80%. Having reached the cold weather, the plant will begin to grow.
7. It is difficult to grow cauliflower in poor soils lacking microelements. Even on black soil, the area for cauliflower is abundantly fertilized with complex artificial compounds and humus. Organic matter is the best fertilizer for preventing vegetable flowering.
8. Crop rotation errors impoverish soils. To create optimal conditions for cauliflower, it is necessary to take into account the characteristics of the crop that was located in this area last season. You cannot plant cauliflower after radishes, radishes, and turnips.You can select an area where tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cucumbers and cereals grew. Another mistake is planting cauliflower in the same place for several years in a row. Changing species (from white to colored) does not solve the problem.

The early departure of cabbage into shoots is a consequence of species problems, errors in collection and selection, and a reaction to an unsuitable climate. The last reason is the most common. The short Ural and Siberian summers are not enough for cauliflower to grow confidently, grow stronger, and form foliage and head ovaries. Cultivation in such conditions is carried out with additional stages, even if the main one is open ground.

To get a harvest, the gardener can repeat the following steps:

1. Sowing and growing seedlings indoors, ensuring temperature and humidity conditions (March - April).
2. Growing seedlings in greenhouses and hotbeds until the ovaries are strong and ready to be transferred to the ground. The soil into which it is planned to transfer the seedlings should warm up to +15°C by this time (May).
3. Planting in the ground for the main period during the active growth phase (end of May - June).
4. Digging up bushes and growing them in greenhouses during a period when growth in open ground is impossible due to autumn frosts (September).

If several attempts to grow cauliflower have failed, you can switch to growing broccoli. A related species is no less rich in vitamins and microelements, but is less demanding on growing conditions.

When growing, follow the recommendations:

• wrap seedlings for cold nights;
• regularly loosen and mulch the soil;
• cover the exposed stem with soil in a timely manner;
• maintain a distance of at least 490 cm when boarding;

You can wait out the early May sun by digging up the seedlings and planting them again in 2-3 weeks.

Read also:

Ornamental cabbage: cultural features

Sowing and features of growing Japanese cabbage

What to do if cauliflower blooms

Constant monitoring of the state of the plantings will tell you when the cabbage is ready to go away from tillering.

Flowering phases:

• the appearance of thin arrows that stand out from the size of the bush with small rudiments;
• degeneration of rudiments into full-fledged brushes and buds, strengthening of stems;
• opening of buds and abundant color.

Having managed to identify the first phase, the gardener can stop the process. The first sign: as soon as the head has entered the formation phase, it begins to separate, becomes loose, and lighter shoots appear on its surface - future arrows. Small leaves and stamens begin to appear in the inflorescences - the head ceases to be uniform.

Important! During the formation of inflorescences, cabbage is especially sensitive to moisture, and bright light is contraindicated for it. Abundant watering and shade are the best prevention of flowering.

It is possible to stop the growth of shoots at the stage when the first arrows have already begun to grow. Processing cabbage preparing to bloom:

1. Shoots that come into color are cut off at the root. Only stumps no larger than 3 cm should stick out of the ground.
2. The soil around the root is loosened. Nitrogen-phosphorus fertilizers are added to the soil, for example, ready-made compositions “Nitrofoska”, “Ammofoska”.
3. When new shoots appear on the remainder of the stem, remove the middle ovaries. The lateral ones are left, controlling their growth.

Another trick to growing dense heads of cabbage that are not prone to flowering is attracting shoots.At the stage of mass gain, small heads of cabbage are wrapped and tied with long grass or a soft elastic band - they are pulled, trying to create dense inflorescences, but not damage them or block access to the sun. The reception is relevant only for the phase of active growth and in conditions of excessive sunshine.

Important! If flowering occurred in June, you can try to grow a second crop with growing in a greenhouse - sow a new batch and transfer the shoots to the greenhouse in September, keeping a distance between them.

What does overripe cauliflower look like?

A properly grown head of cauliflower is matte, almost white or light green with a uniform color. Its inflorescences are dense, not destroyed by pressure and chopping.

Overgrown or improperly formed cauliflower reveals a problem by its appearance:

1. The head is loose, heterogeneous, easily broken in the hands.
2. On the surface of the plants there are stamens and small foliage.
3. The color of the head of cabbage has become yellowish or brownish, uneven.
4. Spots and inclusions of brown color appeared on the inflorescences.
5. The stem of this cabbage is long and dry.

Is it possible to eat overripe and yellowed cauliflower?

The unpleasant yellowish color with a splash of cabbage is not an obstacle to eating. If fading and sunburn are revealed only by color, the vegetable can be refreshed:

• for 3 liters of water add 1 tbsp. l. citric acid;
• soak the cabbage for 5-10 minutes (no longer necessary, otherwise it will absorb excess water);
• let the water drain onto a napkin.

When the head dries, it will return to a white matte appearance.

Read also:

Using cauliflower for weight loss

How to make the best cabbage preparations

What is Anguria and how to grow it

Conclusion

It is difficult to grow a capricious crop so that the fork turns out beautiful, uniform, and dense. The ovaries can also be eaten after flowering, if you choose the right recipe. There is no poison or toxins in such inflorescences. The crop itself can be saved by pruning and pulling back the heads.