Topic: Bitter cauliflower that goes brown on cooking

[George the Pigman]

Anyone any explanation why when I harvested some cauliflower the other day it went brown on cooking and tasted bitter?

[Paulh]

Did you cook it in beer, not water?

(Sorry, not helpful, couldn't resist)

[Deb P]

Lack of moisture whilst growing, and/or boron deficiency I'd guess. Cauli's need more moisture than you think, I usually mulch mine after rain with mushroom compost and get good results on heavy clay. I'm not sure how you correct potential boron deficiency, I'm sure TeeGee will know!

[Tee Gee]

Thanks for the faith you have in me Deb 


Not having ever had the problem I had to do a google and came up with this:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boron_deficiency_(plant_disorder)#Symptoms

Now I know why I have never had the problem, it fits in with my motto

The secret is in the soil

I always try to get my soil right especially for brassicas so I ensure that my brassica beds are all mucked,compacted and limed, plus I only use F 1 hybrids.

In fact my brassica beds for next year are prepared now, all I will have to do next spring is add a bit of general fertiliser ( FB&B) plus lime.

This means the muck is now working and the necessary compaction is taking place.

I hope I have come up to your expectations ...Tg

[George the Pigman]

Thanks for your suggestions. The curds weren't brown before cooking only after steaming. We have had a drought over here in Brum so that could very well be the explanation.
We have solid clay soil on our allotment (it's basically an old river bed). So I get lazy with brassicas as they always seem to grow well on our soil and only water them when they are in the early stages. Now root veg are another matter. On our soil they can be a nightmare to grow.

[Vinlander]

Boron is available from pharmacies as Borax (Sodium Borate) or as Boracic acid.

There must be a joke there about impoverished soils and poor old caulis but I can't see it.

It is an antiseptic and a very very weak poison - used on babies' bottoms for centuries without ill effects.

It would be almost impossible to poison the plants or yourself via the soil but since it is a trace element a well-diluted packet would probably dose a full-size allotment full of caulis with some powder left over to kill ant nests (mix it 50:50 with icing sugar - it all ends up at the top of the local nest's food chain - ie. the queen).