Episode 11: Cabbage Worms, Puny Cauliflower and Must-Know Tips for Fall Gardening

Eva in Michigan, Zone 6  

A: Eva, I know you can grow nice cauliflower because I've seen big old honking heads in farmers markets in your area. 

First, cauliflower loves rich humus soil, so if you can add compost or rotted manure to your planting site, your cauliflowers will love it. Next, it's a heavy feeder that gets big old leaves, and it needs a lot of energy to make that head. And it especially needs nitrogen. So if you can give it a little extra nitrogen that'll be much appreciated. 

Also, keep it consistently watered. Dry drought soil just will not grow good cauliflower. Consistent moisture and timing of when you plant is very critical.  

You don't want to plant too early in the spring. I like planting cauliflower right around just before the last frost, because if they experience too much cold early on, that could trigger it into blooming or bolting. So and then you can put your transplants out in July also in your area for a fall crop. 

Natasha, Zone 7 

A: It’s getting a little late in the season, so you want to focus on crops that mature within 30 and 60 days. These would be things like spinach, lettuce, radish, arugula, mustard, Asian greens, turnips. Also, you might even be able to still get away with planting carrots and beets. 

If you have kale transplants and other cole crops, you could you could try getting those in. Also, you can, you know, start planning for your garlic. You can start planting that in October. And to extend your growing season, make sure you get some row covers or frost protection blankets to put over your crops. That adds several degrees of protection and extends your season. 

And don't forget to check out the Gurney's Fall Planting Guides. It's a great resource for this time of year. 

Tamyra in Tennessee, Zone 7 

This is a persistent problem for everybody that raises, you know, cauliflowers, cabbages and that whole group of plants. The first advice I'm going to give you is pertinent to all gardening. If you can have a strip of your garden that is rich with flowers that have a lot of nectar and pollen, that will attract the natural predators. 

Also, you want to live in harmony with wasps. Yes, those wasps that form the paper nest up in the eaves. If they're not bothering you, they're not in a critical area where your children or whomever is always getting stung, leave ‘em be.  

Caterpillars are heavy feeders on cabbage; they will chew them up and take these green cabbage meatballs back to the nest to feed the young. 

The best way is exclusion. In the spring, you can use our lightweight fabric barrier as a barrier, and in the summer there's meshes that you can use to cover cabbage plants up. That way you won't have to worry about any of it. And if you need to spray, there are two environmentally friendly sprays that work really well on cabbage worms, something with the active ingredients Spinosad or Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). And if you only have a few plants, you can just handpick the cabbage worms off.