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Cabbage white butter flys
JAMES CONLON
Posts: 26
Help the cabbage white destroyed all my cabbages and sprouts this year I had them all netted but they still got in some advice please THANKS JIM
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Posts
Nets with smaller holes and check for any gaps they can squeeze through
Close inspection and squidging twice a day.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
After suffering similar results, I fleeced the last unaffected cabbage. Now I am looking forward to a delicious fat cabbage in January! Fleecing does seem to work.
Try growing more than you need, fleece what you want to keep and leave the others open for the grubs to feed on. I've done it for the past 2 years and its worked for me.
Oooh, I like that idea - a sort of distraction crop. Will do that next year! Maybe I'll have more fat cabbages.
I don't grow big veg at cabbage white time, usually leeks & winter sprouting brocolli. Salad is in troughs on patio and I have fun with hose pipe if they come near my lettuces.
Years ago I grew caulis etc...I did net and pick things off but when it came to freezing surplus I soaked in salt, and then blanched, and the number of damn caterpillars that floated to the top of the pan put me off.
I know extra protein,
but I just couldn't face eating them.
Use netting with holes no larger than 7mm and double check that there are no tears or gaps otherwise the butterflies will squeeze through - I've seen them fly all around my nets 'inspecting' the quality of my workmanship!
this year my husband told me that cabbage whites were 'endangered' so I did not try to keep them off the brassicas. the result is that cabbage whites are no longer endangered in our area! sorry folks!
What use are cabbage whites none that I can see