Will Brassica recover from pidgeon damage

[keat63]

My first post on here.


We aquired an allotment in April, so I'm pretty new to all this.
We had to do a spot of land clearing, digging and rotivating etc before we could plant anything , so we started a few seeds in the garden greenhouse.

Our brassica patch has been in the ground now about 4-5 weeks, and was just starting to look strong and healthy, only now it seems that the local wood pidgeon population have discovered them, having a go at just about every one in the space of a few days.

Lesson learned, netting applied, and now setting a few more seeds in the greenhouse to replace any that don't recover.

Whats the likelyhood of them recovering, being such a young age.

[cheops]

I would imagine they should recover but a lot depends on how severe the damage is. Hopefully the main stem is intact. Leave them be at least till your new seedlings are ready to plant out. By then you will know your answer. Make sure your netting is secure and well above your plants. It is not unknown for pigeons to alight pressing down the netting so they can feast again.

[nickdub]

Whats the likelihood of them recovering, being such a young age ?

Welcome - whether a plant recovers depends on what the damage to the young growing center is - they can lose more or less all the outer leaves and still grow OK, but if the center of a plant has been pecked out it will be more or less a write-off.

[ESBkevin]

Hello and welcome,

the recovery is dependent on the centre tips being intact, unfortunately these are also the tender choice bits the pigeons love. Watch the plants and note in a couple of weeks if they have fresh growth in that area. A useful tip, places like my local homebase have small trays of established brassicas and when they get dryed out they sell them at a discount. So you might pick up some established replacements for a small fee (99p for 6-8 plants depending). Other sources are available too and replanting your own seed is even cheaper and possible but avoid the greenhouse at this time of year, they won't like the heat.

[Jimmy]

Mine all recovered after pigeon attacks.
Jimmy

[keat63]

Thats encouraging.

Thanks

[keat63]

Just an update.
2 weeks on and it's obvious that some have survived, but some are looking rather pityful and bedraggled.
We now have replacements hardening off.

[keat63]

Yet another update, but we've cropped at least 3 cabbages.
The ones which looked pityful and bedraggled are starting to recover, so might give us a late crop.

[nickdub]

Well done - sometimes plants pull through when you don't think they will, other times they die for no apparent reason.