Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Is this one ready.

Not as big as store bought. But up until now it has looked really healthy. Last few days iv started to notice a pink haze/marks over it. Not sure if its from a disease/pest or due to aging process.

Yep.... I'd eat it now....

But if you want to leave it a bit longer to get bigger.... fold the big leaves over it to stop the (purple) sun burn...

It certainly looks ready to me. If you bought one of the varities that say they are good for small or compact gardens, the heads never get as big as those you see in stores.

I have been told two things will cause the heads to turn purple:

The first is the head being exposed to direct sunlight, especially a few days of direct sunlight after an extended overcast period.

The second is frost... which probably marries up with the sunny days anyway.

This is why some commercial growers tie the leaves up over the heads when they are close to maturity.

Beat me again Rupe!...

P.S. Looking at the top photo, I think you might need some Iron in your system Dr Luke... or maybe Potassium, with all those fruiting/flowering plants.

Hmmm, cauliflower cheese......

the pink haze is from the sun bearing down onto the flower, growers slash the leaves and cover to protect the flower from the sun.....

i have worked in cauliflower feilds before. First the slashing and covering of the flower, then about a week later to 10 days, the first pick, then the final pick !!!

All your beautiful leaves should of been folded over the flower to protect the you might of got a bigger head of flower if the leaves where folded/ slashed over

Excellent. Thanks guys.

Probably should have looked his info up myself, but was feeling lazy.

We've been getting a bit of both frost and the on off heat/rain. So I just went out in the dark and banded some of the leaves over the top just in case. Found a huge slug up there too, so turfed him.

Thanks Mr D. Already onto it. Put some banana peels in the gb a few days ago. Shouldn't have iron problems, been dosing week to fortnightly for some time. Some of those older leaves are still yellow from an iron deficiency I had few months back.

Another double post! Damn tappatalk

Triple post! Bah!

I think this is referred to as "Purple Haze" and after eating you may feel a need to "kiss this guy" !

Clever

So it turns out that this cauliflower was exactly ready for picking when I asked this question. A few days later the "curds"/florets started to separate, which apparently indicates that it has gone too far. Hopefully I got it out in time.

Will post pics when bloody tapatalk update for iOS comes out. The Tools released an update without testing it properly, and now most peoples apps hang when they try to reply to anything. Bad thing is that apple dont want anyone to submit app updates too regularly, so make them go through an authorization phase so they can slow them down. tapatalk are getting flamed on their own support forum for being so careless given apples rules and a resulting inability to fix the problem, LOL!

Flavors really seem to deepen right in the sweet spot between the two pix.
No luck with mine this year, that's what happens when you forget to plant them?!
D'oh!