Gardening: What causes plants to bolt and what to do about it?
Take a look around your garden and you may notice some of the plants you sowed or planted last autumn or during winter are starting to change shape and grow tall and spindly. This is the first sign of what is known as 'bolting'.
Bolting is what happens when a plant receives a signal that it is time to flower and set seed. Typically a plant will change from producing a fleshy root or bulb (beetroot, carrot and Florence fennel), lush foliage (spinach and coriander) or edible flower heads (broccoli, cauliflower).
Plants begin to produce smaller leaves as one or more central shoots start to elongate and form flower heads. In most cases this renders the plant less edible due to a bittering of flavour and, in the case of roots, they become fibrous and tough.
Most often bolting is caused by a change in temperature or daylight hours - such as we are experiencing now - and the only thing to do is to harvest as soon as you see the first signs.
