Cauliflower buttoning—the role of transplant size

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Abstract
Two experiments studied the effect of transplanting plants of different sizes of cauliflower cv All The Year Round—Lero on the time of curd initiation, the growth of plant parts and the extent of buttoning, defined here as the production of small unmarketable curds less than 9 cm in diameter. Larger plants, transplanted later, produced more buttons but did not initiate curds earlier. It was not necessary for a plant to have initiated a curd before transplanting in order to produce a button. Larger plants at transplanting had a lower weight of leaf than smaller plants after curd initiation and consequently produced smaller leaves, so that curds were smaller when exposed and were therefore classed as buttons. An increase in the amount of buttoning with later transplanting occurred irrespective of whether the relative growth rates of plant parts remained proportional. It is suggested that if transplanting has been delayed, holding plants in a cold store once they have reached a specific leaf number would prevent them from getting too large, reduce the check to leaf growth and so reduce the incidence of buttoning.

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