INFLUENCE OF TRANSPLANT CHARACTERISTICS AND GROWING CONDITIONS ON CURD SIZE (BUTTONING) OF CAULIFLOWER

Sometimes a special problem of early cauliflower production is the occurence of small unmarketable curds (buttoning). A growth chamber experiment has shown that buttoning is mainly the result of retardation of leaf growth undepending on curd initiation.

Experiments with transplants raised under different growing conditions and of different age have shown, that single correlations between transplant criteria like transplant size, diameter of stem or apex and curd weight are not close enough to give a good prediction of the risk for buttoning.
The prediction is somewhat better by using several criteria especially if transplants raised in different unknown temperatures, pot sizes or fertilization.

After transplanting the curd size is influenced beside frost by soil density and planting technique as experiments have shown.

Symposium on Timing of Field Production of Vegetables

H.-J. Wiebe

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1981.122.11