Does anyone NOT net their brassicas?

[Marmande]

I've got an absolutely titchy garden - a couple of long, thin raised beds, and lots of containers. To maximise productivity, I often find myself putting in plants wherever there's space, which means that I don't have everything neatly grouped together by families. This makes it much harder to protect things!

I've got some cavolo nero plants that have been in pots and are now going out here and there wherever there's space when other crops have finished. So I can't really build a proper netting cage for them! Would it be foolish to just leave them unprotected and let them take their chances with butterflies - am I really going to regret this later on? Or is there an easy way to protect a single plant that's in the middle of some quite high-density planting?

[Snoop Puss]

I don't net my brassicas, but I check them every day, sometimes twice or more a day, for eggs and caterpillars, which I squish or pick off and stamp on. But I do have to check religiously and accept some damage.

[roitelet]

I do as Snoop Puss does.

[elsie-scot]

We have grown cabbage and kale without netting. I don’t have them all grouped together and have flowers around them too. The kale was fine and the cabbage some ok but anothers were destroyed overnight and we did check them.

[Nicos]

Only if I feel it's really necessary.
Not a great fan of netting since I've found several birds (mostly blackbirds ) entangled. Some dead
Also hedgehogs caught up in it.

Squishing is the best way to go in my mind too.

[Issy]

Not this year - bought a child’s windmill that’s been doing overtime and I do check every day as big problem with pigeons but up to now they are doing really well!

[Snadger]

My netting is mainly to keep the pigeons from destroying brassicas. I have one lone spring cabbage which I have covered with an old mesh hanging basket supported on three canes. Its worked a treat at keeping pigeons off.. An ornamental version like an obelisk covered with mesh could be an alternative in a mixed planting area?

[nickdub]

I don't bother - more time consuming for me than it would be worth imo - OTH I don't grow much, so this year for example I have a few psb plants and about 6 cabbages - no sign of cabbage white butterflies round here currently - my guess is that as I'm fairly isolated caterpillar type pests are not going to be a problem as nobody much around me is growing anything they can develop on.

[bramble]

I cover mine with net curtain.
Pigeons are the problem for me as well.
I have a few red cabbages, uncovered and nothing has gone near them.

[Bren In Pots]

I gave my neighbour 4 spare Cavolo nero plants and he ended up netting them after the Pigeons decimated the first lot of leaves. Mine are under a net tunnel otherwise I'd never get a crop.

[greenishfing]

I net mine e when I first plant them out with a sort of chicken wire tunnel. When they start to take off and are pushing against the wire I remove it and let them fend for themselves.

[SarrissUK]

I've got fleece over my kales and cabbages, or the pigeons would eat them all. They did have a good meal on them all and then I laid fleece down. I will try and make frames for next year, because I don't like loose netting either.

[Bluenowhere]

Like others if not netted then the wood pigeons eat the lot.

So I guess the answer is if you have pigeons in your garden then you might have trouble without net as unlike caterpillars they aren’t so easy to pick off your plants before they cause damage.

[keat63]

We have a problem with Wood Pidgeons.
Last year we had to net them to keep the woodies out.
This year, my dad convinced me that they will be fine now theyv'e grown.

Woodies took them again, along with the tops from our swedes.

Lesson learnt, don't listen to Dad.

[ESBkevin]

I have a small 'test' hugelkultur (about 1m x 3.5m) which is randomly planted, usually with leftover specimins from the main bed planting. Any brassicas in the hugelkultur are completely left to thier own devices. the theory being that single brassicas are less of an attraction if in mixed beds than single bed plantings.
In practice they do get a little pigeon damage and some caterpiller damage, but not as much as you would expect. I wonder if it is related to the immediate environment? If Iand my plot neigbours didn't have large beds of brassicas to tempt the butterflys, would I have a different result?
As I said, the hugelkulter is purely experimental. The biggest downside for it at present is the constant re-appearance of bindweed, thats a tough call on a no dig bed!