I've had the same experience! Leaves for Africa & no sign of a head . until yesterday. I always was watching the first ones in the row & bugger me . the one furtherest one was huge! That's now been turned into cauli 'pizza' base & in the freezer, I suspect that they had too much fertiliser as the leaves were humungous. but they didn't form 'hearts'. I've taken a lot of leaves off . so here's hoping.
nonumbers,
Nov 19, 5:08pm
They won't grow well if they are planted where brassicas have been grown in the last year or two.
harrislucinda,
Nov 19, 6:03pm
They dont look like cali as thread 2 boc choy
skin1235,
Nov 19, 6:49pm
optimum planting is in rows 600m apart and 400mm between plants, personally I use closer than that for the rows as they also shade out weeds beter - but yours are too close together, they will not heart up like that, too much competition for food
lythande1,
Nov 20, 6:01am
No room. No food?
gabbysnana,
Nov 20, 6:25am
gm seeds?
kiwicarm,
Nov 20, 7:57am
Alot of foliage growth can be caused by to much nitrogen as in you have used animal manure, blood and bone compost etc and nothing with potash to balance things out you will get lots of foliage and the plant is putting so much energy into that it wont fruit. Now if a brassica is in a warm spot it may just bolt to seed as they like cooler climates.
kiwicarm,
Nov 20, 8:01am
Another thing to consider when preparing your vege patch is if you have used Garden/Vege or compost mixes in prior years is to lime your garden before planting as these mixes have alot of bark in them and can make your ground quite sour in subsequent years. By liming your garden it sweetens up the soil and unlocks other nutrients to make it available to your plants.
bluefrog2,
Nov 21, 12:05pm
The cauliflower plant needs to grow to a certain size before it will produce a head. Yours look a bit overcrowded, and not really large enough. Individual plants should have bigger leaves, and they should be spaced out at least 20 cm apart (30 cm apart for larger varieties). Brassicas will keep growing slowly if they don't get enough fertiliser - yours look like they're a bit starved and are still in the growing stage. Most likely, you'll get small cauliflower heads that almost immediately bolts to a seed stalk. Try thinning out and feeding regularly with liquid fertiliser. Dilute liquid feed every 3 days.
EDIT: you can cook the thinned plants instead of throwing them away. Cook like kale or shredded cabbage - but best not to eat it raw, blanche or stir fry.
cloud0115,
Nov 23, 7:18pm
Please have a look at what I have done following advices to move some plants over. At the start, every plant was on the left vege garden (photo 2). I have moved most over to the right vege garden (photo 1). About 6 hours later, the leaves of the cabbages have all died? http://postimg.org/gallery/1x3usjuee/
flier3,
Nov 24, 7:27am
If I were thinning them and transplanting, I would pinch off the bottom three leaves so there is less stress to the plants. I guess it's not too late to do that. Just a thought.
sophie98,
Nov 24, 10:01am
Mine were like that then all of a sudden a cauliflower appeared wait a little bit longer before pulling.
annies3,
Nov 24, 10:47am
I wouldn't attempt to thin any veges at that late stage, but these really don't look like cauliflower, the plots are very small and appear to be shallow is that correct ? usually would need to be at least a spade depth of soil, with good compost added along with enough water and space between plants to get good heads.
cloud0115,
Jul 24, 6:19am
You are right annies3, the plots are very shallow, probably only finger depth. I have left them as is for now.
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