Brassica cover

[Gilberd]

Hi

I am a little confused over what I should do with my brassica. It's presently covered with netting and hoops but is now touching the top of the netting. I cannot raise the hoops up and do not really want to buy yet another set of hoops but wondered if I could remove the netting now or is it just too dangerous with cabbage white butterflies about?

[veggiechicken]

Can you raise the legs of the hoops by setting some pipe into the ground, and dropping the legs into them? Depends how much spare netting there is too

[Gilberd]

Thank you Veggiechicken. The hoops are quite wide so not sure but definitely will give it a try.

[veggiechicken]

Are the hoops flexible? Could you make the cage narrower but higher?

[Gilberd]

Yes I think they are flexible, so will have a go.

[Scarlet]

Definately keep the nets on. You won't have much left if you don't.

[lottie dolly]

I the past i have used short canes to lengthen the hoops,but they break in the wind,by far the best is metal rod,and it does not have to fit the inside diameter,length enough for the ground,plus the extra for straighter sides,this is from my experience,plus,if the net not quite enough to reach the ground,have you enough at the ends,that can enable you to get what you need,as netting is very flexible,you can always place extra on the ends,use wire ties.

[Potstubsdustbins]

What ever you do don't uncover them, the weathers turning and the flutterbye season is about to start in earnest.

[Scoot]

Last year I just put my cabbages out in the garden without any netting and I never had a problem with cabbage whites (small whites and large white butterflies). There were plenty of them flying about throughout the summer, yet they never bothered my cabbages.

This year I have my cabbage and Brussels growing (still small seedlings at the minute as the first lot I had growing were in very small modules and just never got any bigger than seedlings, then they bolted. Now I have them in bigger pots and they are doing well) and will be putting them in the garden to grow in about a month. I don't have any netting or protection for them. If the small white or the large white decide to lay their eggs on my brassica's and the caterpillars start to munch them, I'll move as many of them as I can onto my Nasturtiums and let them munch them instead. I'm a nature lover and would rather see all the caterpillars turn into butterflies than have cabbage for tea.

[Martin H]

There seem to be very few cabbage whites around at the moment. I spent over an hour weeding and tidying my bed of sprouts yesterday and not one butterfly came to look at what was under the net.

Apparently they don't like mild winters - the chrysalids tend to get infected by various fungal diseases. Or maybe they had such a good year in 2014 that the parasitic wasps got all the caterpillers? I'm just guessing, but there's definitely not many about this year.

[GreaterMarrow]

Just curious, are all brassicas affected by the cabbage whites? I wondered if I had to net everything?

I'm only growing cabbage, broccoli and brussels.

[Penellype]

Last year I noticed that the cabbage whites didn't really start laying eggs on my brassicas until the start of July, but once they started, any brassicas not covered got eaten.