Temperate Vegetables

CAULIFLOWER

Varieties have been divided into four different maturity groups (I-IV) for northern Indian plains:

Maturity group	Nursery sowing time	Transplanting time	Opt. temp. range for curding	Varieties
Extra Early: May maturity (May-June)	End of February	March	24oC-30oC	Pusa Meghna, DC 23, Pusa Kartik Sankar
Early I (A) Sept. maturity (mid Sept.-mid Nov.)	Mid May	July beginning	20-25oC	Early Kunwari, Pusa Early Synthetic, Pant Gobhi-3, Pusa Meghna, Pusa Kartik Sankar
I (B) Oct. maturity (Mid Oct.-mid Nov.)	May end to Mid June	Mid July	20-25oC	Pusa Katki, Pusa Deepali, Pant Gobhi-2
Mid Early (II) Nov. maturity (Mid Nov.-mid Dec.)	July end	Sept. beginning	16-20oC	Improved Japanese, 12-C, Pusa hybrid-2, Pusa Sharad, Pant Gobhi-4
Mid late (III) Dec. maturity (mid Dec.-mid Jan.)	Aug. end	Sept. end	12-16oC	Pusa Synthetic, Pusa Subhra, Palam Uphar, KT-25, Pant Subhra, Pusa Him Jyoti, Pb. Giant 35, Pusa Paushja, Pusa Shukti
Late (IV) Snowball (Jan.-March)	Sept. end to mid Oct.	Oct. end-mid Nov.	10-16oC	Snowball 16, Pusa Snowball-I, Pusa Snowball K-1, Dania, Ooty-1

Cauliflower cultivars grown in India can be classified in two broad groups:

1. Indian Cauliflower/tropical/hot weather/heat tolerant.
2. European types/early temperate type also known as Snowball or late cauliflower

Indian Type	European Type
Tolerant to heat	Not tolerant to heat
Curd formation at and above 20oC	Curd formation at 5-20oC
Yellow to creamish curds, loose with strong flavour	Snow white curds with very mild or no flavour (better quality curds)
Plants are short having long stalk and loosely arranged leaves	Steady plants and long leaves giving protective jacket to curd
Early in maturity	Late in maturity
More variable (heterozygous)	Less variable (homozygous)
More self-incompatible	Less self incompatible
Small juvenile phase	Long juvenile phase
No need of vernalization but needs cold treatment at 10-13oC	Needs vernalization at 7oC for 8-10 weeks

The varieties can be grouped as early, mid early, mid late and late season varieties on the basis of maturity groups.
Early Varieties:

• Early kunwari
• Pusa Early Synthetic
• Pant Gobhi 3
• Pusa Deepali
• Pant Gobhi 2.

Mid Early Varieties:

• Improved Japanese
• Pusa Hybrid- 2
• Pusa Sharad
• Pant Gobhi- 4

Mid Late Varieties:

• Pusa Synthetic
• Pant Shubhra
• Pusa Shubhra
• Pusa Himjyoti
• Punjab Giant 35

Late Varieties:

• Pusa snowball-1
• Pusa snowball K-1
• Ooty-1

Description
Early Kunwari:

• It is an early variety suitable for growing in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi.
• It is released by Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana.
• The leaves are bluish green.
• Curds are semi-spherical with even surface and ready for harvesting from mid September to mid October.

Pant Gobhi-2:

• It is a composite variety released by GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar.
• Curds become ready for harvesting from October onwards.

Pusa Himjyoti:

• Curd is quitely white, solid and round.
• It is early in maturity, having curds of 500-600g in weight.
• Yield of this variety is 160-180q/ha.
• The only variety which can be grown from April - July in the hills.

Pusa Hybrid-2:

• Plants are erect and medium tall with bluish green upright leaves.
• Curd is creamy-white and highly compact.
• The yield potential of this variety is 230-250q/ha.
• It is resistant to downy mildew.

Pusa Snowball:

• It is a late variety and suitable for cool season.
• Curds are very compact, medium in size and snow white in colour.

Pusa Snowball K-1:

• This is also developed at IARI, Regional Station, Katrain (Kullu Valley) and is tolerant to black rot.
• Amongst the snowball types, it has the best quality of snow white curds.