Swede plants detroyed by little blighters!

[Dr Pips]

Hi All,

Just got back from holiday, and whilst most of the garden and veg patch is doing well, my swede plants have been destroyed by caterpillars. The leaves (which were huge!) look life leafy skeletons. The swede themselves seemed to be developing quite well, but I know you're not supposed to harvest them until October / November time when they've had a couple of frosts.

My question to you all is, is it worth leaving them in, or shall I give up, pull them all and plant some lettuce which I should get something out of still?

Thanks,

Dom

[Thelma Sanders]

As long as you get rid of 'pillars they should recover - have you got any fine netting to stop any more getting on them?

[bretty666]

hi, i have read somewhere on the internet that you can create a trick frost for garlic by putting it in the freezer just before plantin, maybe you could do something similar with swedes , i am a total novice! so do your own research before freezing all your swedes??

[Florence Fennel]

As Thelma says, try covering them with fine netting. If it looks like they're not improving, harvest and cook as baby veg. Sorry bretty, but freezing them is definitely not going to work in this instance.