About second-hand machines for Cauliflower

Growers of cauliflower make use of various machines, such as transplanters, crop care machines, covering machines, harvesters and floret cutting machines. Here is a brief explanation of machines specifically developed for cauliflower.

Cauliflower transplanters

The cauliflower, like all other cabbage varieties, has many leaves and needs a lot of space to grow in the open field. A row spacing of approximately 75 cm is generally used for cauliflower. The choice of a specific type of transplanting machine depends partly on whether the young plants were cultivated on soil blocks or trays. Various brands and models of planting machines can be used for cauliflower, such as Lauwers, Perdu, Ferrari, Checchi & Magli and Fedele.

In the Netherlands, the planting season for the early varieties starts in mid-February, provided it is sufficiently dry. The first young plants on soil blocks are often also covered against night frost.

Covering machine / binding machine 

When a cauliflower reaches the size of an orange, it should be covered to retain its nice white colour. Cauliflower leaves are still almost always bound manually, although in some cases a cauliflower binding machine can be used.

Cauliflower harvesters

Because cauliflowers must be stripped of their leaves during harvesting, they are still always harvested by hand. A harvesting conveyor, in combination with a harvest trailer, is often used for this. After harvesting, lots of leaves are left behind. The decay process of the leaves is accelerated by working them through the soil with a flail mower, cultivator or rotovator.

Cauliflower floret cutter

Cauliflower floret cutting machines cut or drill out the core of the cauliflower, causing it to fall apart into florets. The florets are usually no more than 60 mm wide and 1.5 cm long. The input conveyor of the floret machine consists of stainless steel trays into which the cauliflower is placed, with the stem facing upwards. These machines are available as standalone equipment or as part of a harvesting line with a harvesting conveyor. The cutters are often used for cauliflowers intended for the food processing industry (e.g. deep-frozen cauliflower).

Cauliflower packaging machines

Cauliflower is a vegetable that you often see in supermarkets without packaging, but it can certainly be sold in flowpack, shrink wrap or stretch foil packaging. There are two methods for packaging cauliflower in a flowpack machine. The entire head of cauliflower can be packaged, loose in the plastic, or individual cauliflower florets can be packaged in a tray and then wrapped in plastic. Cauliflower can also be packaged in the shrink film. These are individual heads of cauliflower that are packaged with a special type of plastic by a flowpacker, after which they are transported through a shrink wrap tunnel where the plastic is heated, causing it to be stretched vacuum around the product. Cauliflower can also be wrapped in stretch foil, which is done by means of a stretch-foil wrapping machines that puts the cauliflower on a tray and stretches the foil around the product and the tray. Well-known brands of cauliflower packaging machines include Ulma, Waldyssa, Record and Ilapack.

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about the used cauliflower machines above.