Protecting brassicas

[vixylix]

Hello all,

My PSB is currently under a mesh tunnel to protect it from butterflies and caterpillars - however, they are starting to run out of room. I have a wide mesh netting that will stay over the whole bed, so the question is - when is it safe to remove the fine mesh tunnel? how long are butterflies around and laying eggs for?

Thanks

[Scarlet]

The minute you remove them the pigeons will dig in. During winter they love a few greens when there's not much else about.i'd take that one off and build another with a little more headroom.

How big is the wide mesh netting?

[vixylix]

Hi Scarlet, thanks for your reply.

We dont really suffer from any kind of birds round here, except the odd magpie.

However, the wider mesh netting which will stay over the whole bed will be more than sufficient to keep any birds out - its only caterpillars and butterflies I am worried about

[Jungle Jane]

The cabbage white butterflies are still around when it's colder,I keep finding the caterpillars on my rocket,which I didn't think to protect,I don't have much. Could you raise the tunnel somehow? Or you could remove the tunnel & just check the leaves every other day for eggs?

[Scarlet]

It's still warm at the moment here do I would say keep them covered for another month to be safe. I'd love not to worry about pigeons.

[kathyd]

We ended up building a taller frame from bits of wood - our brassicas were getting bent double under the normal hoops. Mind you, I then failed to stitch two widths of netting together to fit the new frame, I just laid them overlapping, so I've lost most of my plants this year anyway! Duh. It's worth spending the time building a large enough frame though, and making sure you have netting to fit, before the spring so you're ready for next year...

[Chippy Minton]

One thing maybe worth considering, we have raised beds 6' x 4' but only have netting round the sides. The pigeons don't cause us problems in those, seems that they either can't land or feel vulnerable about being able to take off. They decimate the brassicas with no side protection. Maybe worth a trial as it gets away from the height issue (although you occasionally get a perching pigeon when the PSB gets really big and strong but the plants seem to cope by that point)