I would advise you to set them out about April 10th to beat the summer heat. Actually they are at their best in the fall. I like Symphony best and Snow Crown for earlier ones.

Snowball, or any other open pollenated variety, has never done well for me. I've mostly grown Snow Crown (Hybrid) and Candied Charm (Hybrid). Both have performed well. There are many other excellent hybrid varieties. I'm guessing you'll get a few other suggestions to soon follow my post.

Concur. Snow ball can be finicky to grow. In Massachusetts, you should be able to grow most varieties as your summer temps will rarely exceed cauliflower limits. Here June temps often exceed 100 degrees which cauliflower can't handle so I must grow quick maturing varieties. Cauliflower needs good soil, preferably on the neutral side. Best practice is to start them 8-10 weeks before your last frost date and transplant about two weeks before your frost date. Use Bt or row covers to keep the cabbage worms off them. If you have cabbage root maggots, that is a whole nother problem.
Candid Charm has perform well here {{gwi:22564}} Montana, even better {{gwi:22565}} Rushmore has also been excellent {{gwi:22567}} also White Cloud {{gwi:22568}} and White Passion {{gwi:22569}} Snow Crown was mediocre under my conditions

Perfect post.

I grew Snowball X a couple years ago and got one out of eights heads off of those.

Purchased Snow Crown cauliflower this year from FedCo - and it looks like I got the right variety!

Based on starting them 8-10 weeks before the last frost date, that means I'll need to get mine started (along with broccoli, peppers, lettuce, and tomatoes) around next week already!

Here is a link that might be useful: BsnTech Gardening Blog

Thanks everyone, for all the great responses. I will be searching for seeds before the weekend and starting the seedlings asap!

My favorite are Cassius, Graffiti, Cheddar and Romanesco.

I couldn't find Cassius this year, Graffiti is back order (again), and I have Cheddar and Romanesco for this year.

{{gwi:22570}}

{{gwi:22572}}

{{gwi:22573}}

WOW. Which is the purple cauliflower? I would LOVE to grow that.

Julia

Graffiti is the Purple variety. It is suppose to do better in the fall.

Jay

This year is my first year growing cauliflower. Can someone describe how to wrap the leaves around the head to prevent scalding? I have no idea what I'm doing with these things...

Kim

I use 1 inch wide strips of cloth that are about 36 inches long. Elastic waist bands from old worn out mens underware works the best. Just place the cloth in a circle under all of the leaves. Then loosely gather all of the leaves upward while positioning and tying off the cloth to hold the leaves in place. Be careful to not tear the leaves. The cloth need not be tight. The intent is to simply shade the head from the sun. When finished save cloth strips to be reused each year.

Some varieties are called self wrapping and need only a small amount of covering.

I just use a rubber band and pull up the leaves so you can't see the head anymore. Just make sure you don't have any worms in there or you will have some Swiss Cauliflower.

Jay