Cauliflower seed contains on an average about 7,000 seeds to the ounce, of which about one-half usually germinate, a much smaller per cent. than in cabbage. Long Island growers estimate two ounces of seed to the acre as a safe amount for the small varieties and an ounce and a half for the late varieties.
It was formerly a common belief, especially in England, that old seed would be most likely to produce good heads. There is little evidence to support this belief, and just as little ground for the more recent belief held by some that old seed is particularly liable to produce loose worthless heads. Like all other seed cauliflower seed ought to be as fresh as possible; fresh seed always germinates best and gives the most vigorous plants. Seed two or three years old, however, is generally satisfactory, and it will often grow successfully at double that age.
"CAULIFLOWER SEED GROWING ON PUGET SOUND."
By H. A. March, Fidalgo Island, Puget Sound, Washington, in Rural New Yorker, 1888.
"I am told by very good authority that cauliflower seeds had never been grown in the United States as a field crop to any extent until we made a success of it here on Puget Sound. In the first place a very cool, moist climate is necessary to cure [secure] seeds at all. That climate we have here on our low flat islands lying in the mouth of the Gulf of Georgia. We often have heavy fogs in the night, and always dews equal to a light shower every night all summer long. The first expense attending the raising of cauliflower seed is quite heavy. The soil must be a rich, warm loam facing the south, and it will be all the better for having a clay subsoil. We must have the land underdrained once in twenty feet, the drains being three feet deep, to give us a chance to work early in the spring, and also to take off the surplus water when we come to flood the land in July.
"To prepare the land for the crop we start in September. After the fall rains have softened the soil, plow, harrow, roll, harrow again, then replow and work it again, until the soil is as fine as an onion bed. Now we throw it into ridges, six feet apart, and it is ready for work in early spring. For manure we sow 2,000 pounds of superphosphate and ground Sitka herring, equal parts of each, to the acre. With two horses and a Planet, Jr., cultivator we work the ridges until they are nearly level. By using two horses we straddle the ridge, and save tramping it where our plants are to go.
"To get the plants, we sow the seeds about September 1, in rather poor soil, giving them plenty of room; the rows being a foot apart and the seeds sown thinly in the rows. This gives us stocky and hardy plants, which, we think, are less liable to damp off when transplanted. About November 1 we transplant the plants into cold frames, six inches apart each way, as we wish to keep them growing a little all winter. The glasses are kept on at night and through heavy rains. In case of a cold snap, we cover the glasses with mats; but that is not often necessary, for we seldom have a temperature colder than 16° above zero. Everything depends on good plants and an early start in the spring, for we raise two crops the same season, and an early frost on our unripe seed is sure to ruin the crop. Now, to set the plants out and make them grow from the start, a line is stretched along one of these flat ridges, a boy goes along, and with a three-foot marker marks the spots for the plants; a man follows with a hoe and makes a hole, about the size of a quart dish, to receive each plant. During the winter we have gathered up 200 or 300 tomato and oyster cans, melted off the tops and bottoms, leaving tubes about five inches long by three or four across. Now, armed with a light wheelbarrow with a wooden tray, containing from 50 to 75 of these cans, we go to the cold-frame (having well soaked it with water the night before); take a can, set it right down over the plant; press the can into the soil about two inches, and, with a light shove to one side, lift the plant without disturbing the roots; fill our tray and start for the field; run the barrow between two rows and set a can and plant in each of the holes just made. A boy follows with a watering pot containing warm water, and pours a gill into each tube, which softens the soil so that the tubes can be lifted right out, leaving the plant standing in the hole. We brush a little dirt around the plant, and firm it with the blade of the hoe.
"Now we have our plants set, and not one ever wilts in the hottest spring day. In two or three days the cultivator is started and kept a going once a week until the heads begin to form. We hand-hoe three or four times, besides fighting insects. The cabbage maggot is our worst enemy.
"When the flowers commence to bloom out or form heads, is the most particular time. A man who thoroughly understands what a perfect cauliflower is, must now go through the field every two or three days and examine every head, and if there is any sign of its growing in quarters, or if a leaf is growing through the head, or if there is any looseness in its growth, the heads are staked and cut for market. For, as like produces like, it will never do to get seed from an inferior head, especially in the case of cauliflowers; for the seeds from these are more apt to run wild than any seed I ever grew. We usually set a Fottler cabbage in the place from which the poor plant has been cut, and it makes a fine head by fall.
"By the middle of June we have the field clear of all inferior heads, and their places filled with late cabbages. About this time all the heads saved for seed are 'sponging out' preparing to throw their seed-stalks. Now is our time to help them. On the upper side of the field, we have wooden water tanks, each holding about 20,000 gallons of warm water. The water is run into the tanks in the middle of the day through flat open troughs, which heat it up to about 70° Fah. It is taken through canvas hose over the field, and the soil is soaked to the subsoil. Now our underdrains come into play, for all of the surplus water is drained off in about three days, and we can start the cultivator. We cultivate close up to the plants. If we break the leaves off it doesn't matter, for they fall off anyway as soon as the seed stalks start. This watering gives the plants new life and they start off for a second crop, or become biennials the first year. The watering and cultivation are kept up once in 10 days until the seed-stalks are so large that they cannot be run through without breaking the plants. The seed ripens from the middle of September to the last of October, according to how good a start was made in the spring.