Uploaded January 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Cauliflowers are difficult to grow well, and highly rewarding when it comes off. You need to keep an eye out as harvest approaches, not to let them grow too mature.
There is a choice of colours, more than what I show here, including green and yellow. Cauliflower is a vegetable that you can grow right through the year. It can help to match the variety you’re sowing to the time of year, some do better in spring and some do better in autumn, although I’ve found over the years that there’s not a huge difference actually.
First sowing is mid February in temperate climates, and I recommend a second sowing in early May, followed by a third and final one around solstice time. That's for autumn harvest. You can also experiment with sowing early September to set out small plants for cropping in Spring. I'm trying that this year but there is no guarantee of success!
In this video, cauliflower growing is followed from sowing through to harvest, using no dig methods. With the one I’m sowing, called White Excel, I’ve had fantastic crops in the autumn from sowing in summer. I’m sowing into module trays, sometimes more than one seed per cell, and then thinning to the strongest.
Cold nights are what slows germination or even stops it, so the trays are brought into the house for germination and then moved back to the greenhouse once they have emerged.
I show cauliflower seedlings four weeks on, with strong germination, helped by being a hybrid.
Where there are doubles, they can be separated, but cauliflowers do better grown on their own.
Seedlings that are noticeably weaker are best discarded.
The cauliflowers are planted into a no dig bed with compost already on the surface and without adding fertiliser. Spacing is about avoiding cramming plants in too close, or spacing them so wide that space is wasted.
As harvest approaches, cauliflowers need watching carefully because it’s a one-off harvest.
Just because a cauliflower looks small doesn’t mean it isn’t ready. If left too long, it will open out into looser florets and the stems become tougher. You can peel back the leaves to see what’s happening inside. The cauliflower is cut, and the outer leaves are edible as well.
🎥 Filmed February to June 2025. by Carly Dutton-Edwards
🎵 Music: Rory Dunwoodie, @rorydinwoodiemusic IG: rorydinwoodiemusic
You can join this channel by paying a monthly fee, to support our work with helping gardeners grow better, and to receive monthly videos made only for members:
youtube.com/channel/UCB1J6siDdmhwah7q0O2WJBg/join
#cauliflower #nodig #nodiggardening #charlesdowding #vegetablegardening #growyourownfood
00:00 Introduction - varieties depending on time of year
00:35 Sowing seeds in module tray
03:36 Warmth for germination
05:03 Seedlings, four weeks later
05:59 Separating and pricking out two plants
08:17 Discarding weaker plant
09:07 April outside - potted on plants, some slug damage
10:26 Succession planting and the spinach which preceded these cauliflower
10:59 Spacing
11:51 Transplanting method and technique
13:14 Module trays, no need to wash!
13:35 Watering and covering
14:38 Two days after transplanting - replacing fleece with mesh
15:16 Plants in June, mesh recently removed
16:38 Harvesting - timing
19:31 Harvesting - method, edible leaves
Cauliflowers are difficult to grow well, and highly rewarding when it comes off. You need to keep an eye out as harvest approaches, not to let them grow too mature.
There is a choice of colours, more than what I show here, including green and yellow. Cauliflower is a vegetable that you can grow right through the year. It can help to match the variety you’re sowing to the time of year, some do better in spring and some do better in autumn, although I’ve found over the years that there’s not a huge difference actually.
First sowing is mid February in temperate climates, and I recommend a second sowing in early May, followed by a third and final one around solstice time. That's for autumn harvest. You can also experiment with sowing early September to set out small plants for cropping in Spring. I'm trying that this year but there is no guarantee of success!
In this video, cauliflower growing is followed from sowing through to harvest, using no dig methods. With the one I’m sowing, called White Excel, I’ve had fantastic crops in the autumn from sowing in summer. I’m sowing into module trays, sometimes more than one seed per cell, and then thinning to the strongest.
Cold nights are what slows germination or even stops it, so the trays are brought into the house for germination and then moved back to the greenhouse once they have emerged.
I show cauliflower seedlings four weeks on, with strong germination, helped by being a hybrid.
Where there are doubles, they can be separated, but cauliflowers do better grown on their own.
Seedlings that are noticeably weaker are best discarded.
The cauliflowers are planted into a no dig bed with compost already on the surface and without adding fertiliser. Spacing is about avoiding cramming plants in too close, or spacing them so wide that space is wasted.
As harvest approaches, cauliflowers need watching carefully because it’s a one-off harvest.
Just because a cauliflower looks small doesn’t mean it isn’t ready. If left too long, it will open out into looser florets and the stems become tougher. You can peel back the leaves to see what’s happening inside. The cauliflower is cut, and the outer leaves are edible as well.
🎥 Filmed February to June 2025. by Carly Dutton-Edwards
🎵 Music: Rory Dunwoodie, @rorydinwoodiemusic IG: rorydinwoodiemusic
You can join this channel by paying a monthly fee, to support our work with helping gardeners grow better, and to receive monthly videos made only for members:
youtube.com/channel/UCB1J6siDdmhwah7q0O2WJBg/join
#cauliflower #nodig #nodiggardening #charlesdowding #vegetablegardening #growyourownfood
00:00 Introduction - varieties depending on time of year
00:35 Sowing seeds in module tray
03:36 Warmth for germination
05:03 Seedlings, four weeks later
05:59 Separating and pricking out two plants
08:17 Discarding weaker plant
09:07 April outside - potted on plants, some slug damage
10:26 Succession planting and the spinach which preceded these cauliflower
10:59 Spacing
11:51 Transplanting method and technique
13:14 Module trays, no need to wash!
13:35 Watering and covering
14:38 Two days after transplanting - replacing fleece with mesh
15:16 Plants in June, mesh recently removed
16:38 Harvesting - timing
19:31 Harvesting - method, edible leaves
