Sprouts and caterpillar damage

[Maximillian]

I've grown sprouts for the 1st time this year. With all the rotten cabbage whites my sprouts have been chomped. The caterpillars seems to have now gone and there are small sprouts although all plants are very holey and frilly Will the plants survive or should I dump them?

[rustylady]

They should survive if the damage isn't too bad. The b*****s have totally decimated all my brassicas - f*********** caterpillars everywhere, they've even eated the horseradish leaves.

[matthew2riches]

Providing the growing tips haven't been touched - there shouldn't be a problem. The only thing is you may find some undesirables in cabbages when you start cutting them open! Sprouts should be fine as you don't eat the leaves.

[Maximillian]

Thanks guys. I'm just doing sprouts this year as main brassica. I'm a wimp with cabbages as I don't want to cut them open and find nasties! I'll leave them for now and see what happens.

[Maximillian]

Sorry about your brassicas rustylady. My horseradish survived but with lots of slug pellets and rhubarb leaf tea! If I get a good crop maybe I can send a cutting to you?

[BarleySugar]

I netted my cabbage a bit too late to keep the caterpillars off completely, but did manage to get slightly over tennis ball sized centres that were fine. I cut them all, and kept them in the fridge, at least we ate them, not the caterpillars. I lost all the caulis, but I've been squashing any caterpillars I see on the sprouts. The leaves are a bit lacy, but continuing to grow, so I'm hoping to get some sprouts this year. In past years I've not been so vigilent, and lost the whole plant.

[maytreefrannie]

I have lacy B sprouts and caulis too, I've been dosing them with water/washup liquid/chilli/ginger mix. I took off the netting when I found the cabbage whites had found their way in.

I'm just hoping they'll keep growing anyway - last year I had a few PSB which were eaten to bits and they did recover to some extent and I got a (small) harvest from them in Spring.