This topic contains 21 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by Brenda 8 years, 10 months ago.
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It sounds like gall midge which also likes swedes. Your kale should regrow but with multiple stems. Yes, a cover is the remedy but it has happened now and I have found they are mainly active in June, less after that. I did not cover mine, wish I had, some years you don’t see any damage.
I have this one too…hadn’t ever seen it before but last year i noticed my red russian was growing strange but put it in the ‘unknown’ category, but all other brassicas were ok.
This year I just got back from holiday and see it has got into the PSB and Spring Caulis – will they recover – Kale is not so bad on multiple stems – but Caulis??
Do we need to use mesh to cover? Or fleece ok? WIll know now for next year.
thanks stew
Sadly there are so many things that try to eat my kale and such that I have to cover them all at least in to September. The flea beatles still manage to do some damage through the enviromesh as I just rest it on top but it reduces it to an acceptable level.
Mine too Stu and I have not seen it before on Purple Sprouting, only on swede and some kale, mostly Red Russian. So its to be several smaller stems, not sure how that will work, and for caulis, smaller curds on one plant all being well. I think enviromesh keeps them out, am reluctant to cover everything but Bluebell has it sussed.
Enviromesh is not beautiful and is a bit of a pain when it comes to cutting paths and weeding but definatley better than no crop and I simply dont have time to check all plants and squish bugs etc. Hoping I will be able to take enviromesh off in a few weeks – at least until the pigeons get hungry!
When I was growing commercially Enviromesh or maybe it was Wondermesh was the order of the day for pest exclusion – brassicas, carrots and we even briefly thew it on top of the onions to the stop the birds pulling them out when just planted….so I am well familiar with it. I decided to use butterfly netting this time as it seemed less of a barrier and afterall it’s only the catapillars to worry about (!)…..may need to reinvest next year….
I do wonder though – reading a bit about them online – they bury into the soil and over winter there – what’s to say they don’t turn up underneath the mesh when already in place?!!!
I guess that is why we rotate crops Devonstew. Hopefully there is somethign they dont eat and they will not last too long in the soil?
I do wonder sometimes if I shouldnt just build a huge cage over the whole plot.
Yes I think rotation is key to keeping things healthy. But in a plot of allotment scale does it really mean much?
It is a slippery slope from mesh to cages to insecticides and the like – so I guess part of the journey is to win some and lose some. The Swede midge is in ascendancy this year. I hope it enjoys the abundance! But not next year
Just an update for info on this really – I’ve just had a good crop of Caulis, they seemed to recover from the midge and only grew one stem which yielded a good cauli. As for the PSB it is cropping well now, having continued to grow multi stemmed after the midge, just the main stems are smaller so the nice head that you get from that is small, but still it could have been worse. Even the Red Russian Kale which looked totally knackered is recovering and putting out some new stem with small leaves!
And so…..
Currently pondering my planning dates for Brassicas and the swede midge is at forefront of my mind…. have ditched the Red Russian as it just got battered but want to keep PSB and some Caulis, .thinking one strategy is to just plant as late as possible – first generation peak apparently comes late May to early/mid June and so if no Brassicas that they like around hopefully they’ll go elsewhere…. so how late could the dates for Purple Sprouting be? Could I sow in June and plant out end of July and still get an ideally sized plant? Or maybe I should grow a little bigger in pots before planting out end of July?
Thanks Stew
Good news on the midge damage.
Sowing dates – you can go later, it means smaller plants but still good. In both the last two years I sowed Mendocino (F1) purple sprouting broccoli in early August, planted modules on 19th August and they are a fair size. That is the limit though and its a vigorous variety. Sowing in July will be ok for psb.Great, thanks for that Charles
Well –I planted out various brassica plants both on my allotment and in the veg patch at the back of my home a week ago. . I had bought small plants from a good nursery.–some cabbages, kohl rabi and calabrese. The ones at home are just fine, and so were the ones on the allotment when I watered on the weekend.. Something had eaten my brassica plants on the allotment last year, so this year, after planting them out, I put down slug pellets, and then covered them with environmesh..
I just went up to the allotment this evening to water them, and in spite of the mesh and pellets, all the plants are eaten to various degrees–the central growing points on most, some of the leaves and some completely. There is a hole in the bed under the mesh, Any ideas as to who might be nibbling? Thought I had shut out all the rabbits, but perhaps not? There are signs of mole activity in other places, but don’t think moles eat brassicas? Chard plants I planted out at the same time but in a different area of the allotment have not been touched. They were just needing water after this hot day.
Hi Eleanor, this sounds rabbit like but are there gaps in the edge of your mesh? Or a rabbit burrow in the bed! What size holes?
Yes moles are interested in worms not plants.
Lucky you have some good plants at home…
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