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Cauliflower
Botanical Name -Brassica oleraceae var. botrytis
Family -Brasicaceae

Information

• It work as anti-cancer agent.
• It promotes heart health, lower cholesterol levels.
• The major cauliflower producing states are Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Assam, Haryana and Maharashtra.

Varieties

1) Pusa Snowball 1: 

• Crop get ready to harvest in 100 days after transplanting.
• Outer leaves are upright and curd is compact, of medium size.
• Color of curd is snow white. It produces yield of 90 qtl per acre.  

2)Pusa Snowball K-1: 

• Crop get mature late compared to Pusa snowball 1
• Outer leaves are upright and curd is compact.
• Curd is of snow white color. It gives yield of 90 qtl/acre.
  Other state varieties:

1)Snowball 16:

• Late maturing variety.
• Curds are compact having attractive white color.
• Gives average yield of 100-125 qtl/acre.
  
  2)|Pant Shubhra: 
• Early maturing variety, suitable for cultivation in Northern India.
• Curds are of creamy white color.
• Gives average yield of 80 qtl/acre.

3)Early Kunwari: 

• Early maturing variety, suitable for cultivation in Haryana, Punjab and Delhi.
• Gives average yield of 32 qtl/acre.

4)Pusa Deepali: 

• Developed by IARI, early maturing variety, suitable for cultivation in Northern India.
• Medium size curd having white color.
• Gives average yield of 48 qtl/acre.

Soil

• It requires cool moist climate.
• Deep loamy soils are good with high organic matter
  and good drainage.
• It can be grown in a pH range of 5.5 to 6.6.

Season and Sowing

Time of sowing

• For early season variety June-July is best transplanting time
• For main season variety August to mid-September and October to first week of November is best transplanting for late varieties.

Nursery

• 100 sq.m nursery area/ha.
• Apply FYM at 300 kg and 10 kg of No.5 mixture (9:9:9) along with 50 g of sodium molybdate and 100 g of borax.
• Sow the seeds at 10 cm between rows in raised seed beds after drenching with Copper oxychloride (2.5 g/l).
• Transplant 30 to 40 days old seedlings at a spacing of 45 cm. Avoid land infected with ‗club root disease‘.

Seed Rate

Seeds Rate

• For early season variety seed rate of 500 gm is required whereas for late and main season variety seed rate of 250 gm per acre is required.

Seed Treatment

• Before sowing dip seeds in hot water (50°C for 30 min) or [email protected] gm/Ltr for two hours.
• After treatment dry them in shade and then sow on bed. Blackrot mostly observed in Rabi.
• As a preventive measure seed treatment with mercury chloride is essential.
• For that dip seeds in Mercury chloride@1 gm/Ltr solution for 30 min after that dry them in shed.
• Crop grown in sandy soils are more prone to stem rot.
• To prevent it do seed treatment with Carbendazim 50%WP@3 gm/kg of seeds.

Protected Nursery

• Raise the seedlings in shade net house.
• A nursery area of 5 cents with slanting slope of 2% is required for the production of seedlings for 1 ha.
• Cover the nursery area with 50 per cent shade net and the sides with 40/50 mesh insect proof nylon net.
• Form the raised beds of 1m width and convenient length inside the nursery and above the beds, place the protrays.

Protray

• The Protrays of 98 cells are ideal for cauliflower seedling production.
• Around 600 protrays are required for of 29,400 seedlings required for one hectare at a spacing of 60 x 45 x 45 cm in three row planting

Growing Medium

• The sterilized cocopeat @ 720kg / ha is mixed with 10kg of neem cake and
  Azospirillum and Phosphobacteria each @ 1kg.
• About 1.25 kg of the cocopeat medium is required for each tray.

Preparation of Field

• Bring soil to fine tilth by ploughing land thoroughly.
• Add well decomposed cow dung and mixed well in soil at time of last ploughing.

Spacing

Spacing

• Use spacing of 45×45 cm for main season crop whereas for early and late maturing crop use spacing of 45×30 cm.
• Sowing Depth
  Sow seeds at depth of 1-2 cm.
  
  Method of sowing
• For Sowing dibbling method and transplanting methods can be used.
  Sow seeds in nursery and apply irrigation, fertilizer dose as per requirement.
• Seedlings are ready to transplant within 25-30 days after sowing.
• For transplantation use three to four weeks old seedlings.

Irrigation

• Immediately after transplanting, give first irrigation.
• Depending upon soil, climatic condition, apply irrigation at interval of 7-8 days in summer season and 10-15 days during winter season.

Drip Irrigation

• Install drip system with main and sub-main and the inline laterals placed at the interval of 1.5 m.
• Place the drippers at the interval of 60 cm for 4 LPH or 50 cm for 3.5 LPH,
  in the lateral system.
• Form the raised beds at 120 cm width at an interval of 30cm and place
  the laterals at the centre of each bed.

Application of Fertilizers

Fertilizer Requirement (kg/acre)

Nutrient Requirement (kg/acre)

• Apply well decomposed cow dung@40 tonnes per acre in soil along with Nitrogen@50 kg, Phophorus@25 kg and Potash@25 kg in form of Urea@110 kg, Single Superphosphate@155 kg and Muriate of Potash@40 kg.
• Apply whole quantity of cowdung, SSP and MOP and half quantity of Urea before transplanting.
• Apply remaining quantity of Urea four week after transplanting as top dressing.
• To get better flower (Curd) set and to obtain good yield, spray Water Soluble Fertilizer (19:19:19)@5-7 gm/Ltr water during the early plant growth.
• 40 days after transplanting take spray of 12:61:00@4-5 gram + [email protected] to 3 gram + Boron@1 gm per Ltr water.
• To improve curd quality, apply Water Soluble Fertilizer 13:00:45@8-10 gm/Ltr of water at the time of curd development.
• Do soil testing and if Magnesium deficiency is observed to overcome Mg deficiency apply Magnesium sulphate@5 gm/Ltr, 30-35 days after transplantation and for Calcium deficiency apply Calcium Nitrate@5 gm/Ltr, 30-35 days after transplanting.
• If Hollow and sometimes discolored stems are observed, Also curds become brown and leaves may get roll and curl it is due to Boron deficiency, apply Borax@250 gm-400 gm/acre.

Micronutrients

•  Soil application of 50kg ZnSo4 ha-1 or 37.5 kg ZnSo4 enriched with FYM (1:10 ratio)
• 3.75 kg CuSo4 as soil application
• 10 kg borax ha-1
• 0.25 kg Sodium molybdate

Spacing

60 x 45 x 45 cm in paired row system

After Cultivation

• Gap filling after 20 days of planting to maintain the population and uniform growth.
• Hoeing and weeding on 30th and 45th day.
• Avoid deep intercultivation as it is a shallow rooted crop.

Plant Protection

Management:

• Remove and destroy all debris and stubbles after harvest of crop
• Grow mustard as trap crop at 2:1 ratio (cabbage: mustard) to attract DBM for oviposition at least 10 days ahead of   planting of main crop
• Spray mustard crop with dichlorvos 76 WSC 0.076% to avoid dispersal of the larvae.

2.Cabbage borer:Hellula undalis

Management:

• Collect and destroy mechanically caterpillars in the early stages of attack
• Bacillus thuringiensis @ 2g/lit at primordial stage
• Cartap hydrochloride @ 500g/ha or malathion 50 EC @500ml/ha

3.Leaf webber: Crocidolomia binotalis

Management:

• Remove and destroy the webbed leaves with caterpillars within
• Set up light traps@1/ha
• Encourage the activity of parasitoid: Cotesia crocidolomiae
• Spray malathion 50 EC @ 0.1% or carbaryl 0.2%.

4.Cabbage green semilooper : Trichoplusia ni

Management:

• Hand pick and destroy the caterpillars
• Set up light trap @1/ha
• Spray insecticides like malathion 50EC @ 0.1% ha

Management:

• Collect and destroy caterpillars in the early stage of attack
• Conserve parasitoids like Cotesia glomeratus
• Spray insecticides like quinalphos 25 EC @1000 ml

6.Tobacco caterpillar: Spodoptera litura

Management:

• Plough the soil to expose and kill the pupae
• Grow castor along border and irrigation channel as trap crop
• Flood the field to drive out the hibernating larvae
• Set up light trap @1/ha

7.Cabbage aphid:Brevicoryne brassicae

Management:

• Install yellow sticky trap @12 no/ha to monitor “macropterous” adults (winged adult).
• Spray neem oil 3 % with 0.5 ml Teepol/lit
• Spray any one of the following insecticide

8.Mustard aphid: Lipaphis erysimi

Management:

• Set up yellow stick trap to monitor aphid population.
• Conserve the natural enemies viz., Cocciniella septempunctata, Menochilus sexmaculata,
• Spray dimethoate@ 2 ml /lit

Nutritional Deficiency

Diseases

1)Wilt:

Symptoms-

• Dropping of entire leaves along with yellowing of crops.
• Wilting or drying of entire plant is seen.
• It may be due to root rot.

Management-

• To control wilt cause due to root rot, drench Trichoderma bio fungus@2.5 kg/500 Ltr water, near to roots of plants.
• Keeping checking crop losses due to fungal diseases.
• Drench root zone with Ridomil [email protected] gm/Ltr water.
• Give need based irrigation.
• Avoid flood irrigation.

2) Downy Mildew.

Symptoms-

• Appearance of purplish-brown spots observed on lower side of leaves along with greyish white mold on leaf underside.

Management-

• Sanitation and crop rotation help in reducing infection.
• If infestation of downy is observed, it can be controlled by combined spraying of (Metalaxyl + Mancozeb)@2gm per litre.
• Take three sprays with 10 days interval.

3.Wire stem: Rhizoctonia solani

Symptoms

• Wirestem can be a seed problem where cauliflower or other cruciferous transplants are grown crowded together in unsterilized soil or seedling beds.
• This disease makes the seedlings unsuitable for transplanting since many of the affected plants will die or grow poorly.

Management

• Sterilized soil and seedbed drenches with Copper oxychloride 0.25% will give good disease control

 
Harvesting

• After developing proper head harvesting can be done.
• Carry out harvesting in morning or evening time.
• After harvesting keep product in cool place.

Post Harvesting

After harvesting, do sorting and grading depending upon curd size.

Yield

Hills : 20 – 30 t/ha
Plains : 15 – 20 t/ha

Market Information

Crop Growing districts                                       Dindigul, Theni, Coimbatore, Tiruppur
Major markets in Tamil Nadu                          Mettupalayam, Coimbatore, Ottanchathiram, Koyambedu
Grade Specification                                          Size and colour