cabbage white spray.

[muckman]

Talking to a chap today who told me to have a quick smell of some liquid in a bucket The smell made me gut turn. Any way he said put rhubarb leavs in a bucket of water and give it a month or two with a lid on and use it for spraying your brassicas Its supposed to keep the cabbage white butterfly off. Or kill the brassicas

[davefromthechipie]

Not sure id be putting rotting crap on my brassicas leafs.. etc ..Prob does stop them! it would stop me eating them too Think your be better off just companion planting

[Paul Wagland]

Rhubarb leaves are pretty toxic I think - not sure I'd risk it!

[hawthorns]

if you boil some nettle leaves up and dilute 50/50 with water thats supposed to keep butterflies off your cabbages so i guess it would work on brassicas aswell

[Paul Wagland]

And nettles, being edible, would be safe to use in this way. Good idea Hawthorns.

[SarzWix]

This technique (the rhubarb leaf one) has been used by Terry Walton (Jeremy Vine show), mentioned in his book & on the TV programme The Big Dig. I haven't tried it myself though, I just use Enviromesh tightly fastened down which has worked a treat.

[The Doctor]

Flicking through the latest GYO mag, I saw an advert for a new nematode that works on cabbage white caterpillars.

Just like all the others it ain't cheap though!

[Dobby]

This technique (the rhubarb leaf one) has been used by Terry Walton (Jeremy Vine show),

we used it last year was fine just the smell's is like Fart spray if anyof you rember it.
I was going to put some in a spray can and give it away but Mrs D siad no

So i just filled the watering can and used it you can also use it on your beoad beans so i have been toled so going to get some brewing this week

[Snadger]

An old gardeners trick with rhubarb leaves was to put some leaf at the bottom of each brassica to ward off clubroot or cabbage root fly! This actually worked for me, surprisingly, and I'm sure I read somewhere it was because of the Oxalic acid in the rhubarb leaves!
Maybe it's the Oxalic acid that is the active ingredient in the rhubarb spray that kills the caterpillars?

I did manage to find this on Wilkepedia:-

"Vaporized oxalic acid, or a 6% solution of oxalic acid in sugar syrup, is used by some beekeepers as an insecticide against the parasitic Varroa mite."

Having said all this, I know that making ones own concoctions is frowned upon by the EEC and I think that under the Pestcide Regulations it is actually illegal!

[Dobby]

oopp Guilty as charged and will keep doing it cos it worked for us last year why spend money when you dont need to its also organic
I thought it was also a feed

[Paulottie]

On which note Snadger, Is it true that the EU have withdrawn Derris too?...apparently incase anyone should ingest it....well the darwinist in me thinks that if your stupid enough to eat it?snort it at the lottie BBQ you'll be doing the planet's bloodline a favour.

Always amuses me that welsh Terry. The thing that made me wonder was as he was saying it this cabbage whit was flitting round his brassicas but also if they are lime loving doesn't the oxalic acid work against that?

[davefromthechipie]

oopp Guilty as charged and will keep doing it cos it worked for us last year why spend money when you dont need to its also organic
I thought it was also a feed

Would you put amanita phalloides or anyother toxic plants on your food ? no ! yes organic but deadly putting a rubarb leaves on the roots fine but on the parts your eat ? If your that desperate to use high levels of poison just buy the tested shop got sprays or just nets or flowers that put off CWB , The old ways arnt always the best

[SarzWix]

Would you put amanita phalloides or anyother toxic plants on your food ? no ! yes organic but deadly putting a rubarb leaves on the roots fine but on the parts your eat ? If your that desperate to use high levels of poison just buy the tested shop got sprays or just nets or flowers that put off CWB , The old ways arnt always the best

Haven't noticed Terry Walton dropping down dead recently DavefromtheChippie. I'm sure he wouldn't have been allowed to broadcast it on the BBC if it was going to kill/poison everybody either! He's a very well educated man (might have been something to do with chemistry, I'll have to go read his book to check) so not just blindly following old-wives tales.

Incidentally, it's not being used as a pesticide, but a repellant, so the pesticide rules shouldn't come into it.

[Paulottie]

Have you checked on his Anthea's health though???..Was the Big Dig ever shown on the Beeb?...or did he mention it on Radio 2 as well? anyhow a nice chap, didn't realise he'd written a book-what's it called?

[Dobby]

yea Sarzwix thats what i thought
I also heard that you can plat marrigolds near your brassicas to repel white fly we had them near the toms last year in the green house and worked a treat

now all I need is something for the ants yes there back seen them yesterday in the green house hate the little buggers