wildflowerpa Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 I have about two dozen cabbage plants that have small holes in the leaves. Can I put lime on the plants like I do the potatoes to keep the bugs away? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pappy Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 I have about two dozen cabbage plants that have small holes in the leaves. Can I put lime on the plants like I do the potatoes to keep the bugs away? Not sure but better take care of it soon. My Uncle was telling he lost his cabbage plants already. Leaves all ate and they started on the center. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marine4 Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 best cure is to shake copper dust on them, works well and saves the plant Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lavender Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 You have cabbage worms. See all those little white butterflies flying around? Those are the culprits that lay the eggs that hatch into green cabbage worms. They are bad this year. Lime is an old fashioned remedy that makes the leaves unpalatable to the caterpillars but I doubt it will do much good. They are there and have no where else to go so they are going to eat those leaves even if they don't taste that good. I use Seven in the powdered form and it keeps them under control. Cabbages and cauliflower are not doing well this year for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mollycan Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 I was told to put ashes from charcoal on the leaves???? Don't know but I'm going to give it a try! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petee Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 You could try this, http://blog.ecosmart.com/index.php/2009/05/02/cabbage-worms/ but mechanical methods of stopping cabbage worms are best. It's too late to try them now, you have to start them when the plants are small, like using floating row covers. If the moths can't get to the cabbage to lay their eggs on the leaves, they can't harm the plants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harvey Mungaknuts Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 my rubbard is all eaten too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petee Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 This weather is great for bugs. With warmer winters more insects will probably survive to give us all gardening headaches! We'll probably all have to learn more preventative measures in order to get good crops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lavender Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 I was told to put ashes from charcoal on the leaves???? Don't know but I'm going to give it a try! This works the same way as the lime making the leave gritty and no fun to eat. People use it to keep deer, groundhogs and rabbits away, as well. You will have to renew it every time it rains and hope your cabbage worms don't like bit of roughage with their diet. The copper is a new one on me. I know it is used as a fungicide but didn't know it kept bugs off. You live and learn! Where do you buy copper? I've tried floating row covers and found them impractical. The plants quickly outgrow the ones made for home use and you have to remove them or the plants get all scrunched up. Then the cabbage worms have a real picnic as the covers have kept the leaves nice and tender. I suppose you could look into commercial ones or have the hoops made special but it would probably be very expensive if you grew more than a couple or 3 cabbages. Ordinarily the cabbage worms don't do enough damage to keep the plants from producing. This must be an exceptional year. They don't really get into the cabbage heads and you can see them to pick them off the cauliflower stems. The broccoli is the real problem as they are hard to find among all the green. Soaking the broccoli in salt water will get most of them out. If you are cooking it the boiling water will float out the rest. I drop it in piece by piece and scoop out any worms that float to the surface so they don't get entangled again. I check each piece of broccoli and cauliflower before it goes to the table. I'm hardened to the possibility of eating worms but I find it doesn't go down to well with city folks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petee Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 You can use the cheap craft netting to make a protective shelter for any plants that get worms. Just use old tomato stakes and make sure the netting doesn't touch the plants when they get larger. I can't do worms! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wildflowerpa Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 We tried the ashes and they didn't work. We wet the plants first so the ashes would stick. and my rhubarb is really strange this year. I baked a strawberry / rhubarb pie or I thought I did. Really nice brown crust but when you sliced into it the rhubarb hadn't even cooked. It was hot but gooey. I had a blueberry pie do that once too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petee Posted July 4, 2012 Share Posted July 4, 2012 It sounds like the rhubarb was old. The younger it is, and the fresher, the better and more tender. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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