🥬 Cauliflower
The fussiest of the cabbage family — it needs steady cool weather or it never forms a proper curd.
🌱 This one is in the reference and the planting calendar, but you cannot sow it in the game yet.
Cauliflower at a glance
Is Cauliflower frost tolerant?
Yes, through light frosts. Damage starts at -4°C and it is killed below -8°C.
What temperature does Cauliflower grow best in?
It grows best between 8 and 23°C. Below 4°C it stops growing altogether, and above 26°C it slows down.
How many days does Cauliflower take to mature?
About 75–100 days. That is a typical figure: it needs roughly 950 °C·d of warmth above 4°C, so a warm season gets it there sooner and a cool one later. The city calendars below give the sow and harvest dates for each place.
Is Cauliflower a cool-season or warm-season crop?
A cool-season crop. It does best in the mild weather of spring and autumn, and slows down in summer heat above 26°C.
What the numbers mean
These are the actual parameters this game runs on. Growth is driven by growing degree days: each day contributes max(0, min(mean temp, 27) − 4), and Cauliflower is ready when that total reaches 950. That is why the same seed takes a very different number of days in Dublin and in Guangzhou.
| Base temperature | 4°CBelow this, the plant accumulates no growing degree days at all. |
|---|---|
| Degree days to maturity | 950 °C·dThe heat budget it must accumulate before it is ready to pick. |
| Comfortable range | 8–23°CWhere it grows without stress. |
| Frost damage below | -4°CLeaves start taking frost damage below this low. |
| Killed below | -8°CBelow this it does not come back. |
| Heat stress above | 26°CAbove this the plant slows down and stops setting fruit well. |
| Typical time to harvest | 75–100 days |
| Yield per bed | 2 heads |
Things worth knowing
- To keep the curd white, growers fold the outer leaves over it; sunlight turns it yellow. The trick is called blanching.
- A single cold snap or heatwave can make cauliflower bolt straight to a loose, ruined head.
Where and when to sow Cauliflower
Pick your city to see the months when Cauliflower scores well against that city's real climate records: