How to Transplant Cauliflower

Cauliflower grows and produces in spring or fall, when temperatures are cool but plenty of sunlight is available. Although the plants tolerate light frost, hard spring frosts can kill the tender new seedlings. Starting the plants indoors and transplanting them outside once most hard frost danger is past provides the time needed for the plants to reach maturity. Fall cauliflower also benefits from transplanting because it allows you start the seeds in the cool indoors while temperatures outside are still warm in late summer.

Compost
Fertilizer
Shovel

Instructions

- 1
  Set the cauliflower seedlings outside to harden-off in a protected area one week before transplanting. Begin the hardening-off process after the plants have four to six strong leaves, about three weeks before the last expected frost in spring and after soil temperatures have cooled to 65 degrees Fahrenheit in fall.
- 2
  Leave the plants outdoors during the daytime, bringing them in at night or when frost threatens. Gradually increase the time spent outdoors and the light exposure over the course of the week so the plants become accustomed to outdoor growing conditions.
- 3
  Amend a well-drained, full-sun bed with a 1- to 2-inch layer of compost prior to planting. Sprinkle 4 cups of 10-10-10 fertilizer over every 100 square feet of bed. Turn the compost and fertilizer into the soil with a shovel.
- 4
  Water the bed until the soil feels moist to at least a 6-inch depth. Transplanting cauliflower into dry soil can cause it to form a head too soon or produce small, useless heads.
- 5
  Transplant the cauliflower into holes dug to the same depth as the seedling pot, so the cauliflower is planted into the garden at the same depth it was growing at previously. Space plants approximately 12 inches apart in the row, setting the rows at least 24 inches apart.

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