What on earth did this to my Russian kale??

[kathyd]

It was in a raised bed covered with hoops and debris netting. There are smaller and more succulent plants in there, just planted out the other day. There are slug pellets down, although mostly around the newer plants. The leaves on this one are all broken, and the inside is positively smushy! It did rain hard last night (just for a change), but nothing else seems to have suffered. Is it slugs??

[Paulottie]

Just one plant?....might have said cabbage fly (rainbow coloured leaves...cut open stem to look for maggots). could be a rodent?...but mushy?...don't know.... any other clues?

[Jeanied]

It looks like a creature did the damage and fungus/ infection of some sort took over.

[kathyd]

Thx for your ideas... it does look like something stomped on it, but the whole bed is covered with debris netting held down by thick wooden battons, so nothing large could get to it, and I checked all the beds yesterday and everything in there was OK, so this happened within 24 hours - not enough time for a fungus or infection I wouldn't have thought? But it' such a weird year anything could happen I suppose! Rodents? Well the mice have certainly been a pain, decimating young corn plants and stripping my peas as fast as the pods fill up, but kale? They've not touched any of the netted beds before, there are so many easier pickings to be honest both in the tunnel and outside. I'll have another look later for more 'clues'...

[lottie dolly]

anything disturbed on or around the netting,any soil disturbance,is the netting tight on,could an animal,or a person for instance have landed on it,then fled,leaving the net to resume it's position,

[kathyd]

Soil not really disturbed lottie dolly, and the netting was fine. A small animal eg mouse or maybe a rat could have got in, but nothing any bigger. There are some slug signs on other plants, although nothing like the same damage, so I'm having to assume it must have been them.. I dug the remains of the plant up and it appeared healthy, nothing in the roots, and the slimy middle section was only shallow. Just hope the rest of my plants are OK in that bed.. I've put down loads more slug pellets - costing me a fortune! Would be cheaper to buy veg in the supermarket! Lol .