All Year Round Cauliflower variety ....

[Odsox]

... is no good for winter, so should be called "3/4 year round"

I have always grown AYR caulies as in the past they have always been very useful. No worries about when to sow, anytime is good and I have always had some ready to eat all through the winter months. Even better then, as the growth slows right down and they stay in good condition for a month or more without "blowing".
These are in the polytunnel of course, but this year we not only had a frost .... it actually froze in the tunnel and for about a week was continuously frosted. The cauliflowers didn't like that one little bit and the nice white curds promptly turned a lovely shade of brown and then rotted.
So, no caulies for us this winter.

[Green Aura]

I've never managed to grow a successful cauli - in or out of the polytunnel.

Because of all the faffing about shifting beds this year I cheated in the autumn and bought 20 mixed brassicas from the Guardian shop, five of which are caulis. Everything's been halted for weeks because of the weather but it all look to have survived so we'll see if I do any better with these.

[grahamhobbs]

Cauli's take so long to grow and take up so much space that I find it difficult to justify growing them, but seeing the heads so suddenly appear amoungst this mass of leaves is always such a thrill, you just have to give them a go, at least outside of the summer season. Growing them in the polytunnel over winter is the most justifiable because there is less competition for the space and they come at a time when there is little else to harvest. Calabrese in the polytunnel over winter is also good.

[Flo]

The rules for a good cauli I'm told are:

Grow in a seed tray in decent compost
Price out into pots with decent compost and keep them there till they have good roots
Pick a sunny but sheltered bed as they don't like being wind blown
Lime the soil before you plant them out in the soil and add fertiliser of choice
Firm up the soil by tramping down (good to be heavy sometimes) before you plant
Give enough space
Water in dry weather - they do need watering like all brassicas

Well I did as I was told by the local champion this year and we did well with caulis.

[oldjerry]

I'm crap at growing caulis,which is fortunate,as me and mine hate them.However,as they are apparently a 'superfood',I would just add that once I bought some seeds from Thompson and Morgan (took out a mortgage first of course) for some 'mini cau;lis,and they were really easy and grew well.......still tasted like s**t. don't know if you can still get them.