When's Best Time to Cover Your Cabbages With Fleece?

dogstarheaven

hiya

got some chinese veg growing (pak choi, chinese broccoli etc) which are part of the Cabbage family and you're meant to cover them with fleece as to avoid flea beetles and the cabbage whites from laying eggs. it's my first time growing these and they're about 6" spread in diameter and they're growing in my raised bed. i'm kinda putting off covering them coz it'll make the bed look awfully unslightly, but i do want a decent crop this yr. when do the flea beetle and cabbage whites come? are they delayed coz of the prolonged winter we've had, or will they be arriving anytime now???:(

RebekahR

General rule is don't leave them uncovered at all. Put some of mine out last night and covered straight away. Last year the cabbage whites settled on mine over night. So taking no chances here!

[Deleted User]

Instead of covering with fleece.., how about a brassical cage. Just use some scrap thin strips of wood to make a box frame and drape netting over it. That's what I shall do. U might be able to get the wood from a building site.., it doesn't need to be super strong as u won't need it for long.

SallyForth_2

Just make sure the netting is really fine. I used the standard stuff last year and the Butterflies still managed to get in and lay their eggs.

nuttyrockeress

At what point do you remove the cover?

Also can you grow cabbage and cauli in tubs?

dogstarheaven

nuttyrockeress wrote: »

At what point do you remove the cover?

Also can you grow cabbage and cauli in tubs?

it is possible but as they take a long time to grow, i don't think it'll be worth your while doing so. they need really big tubs otherwise and they dry out much more quickly than if they were in the ground, tho'.

i'll cover mine this w/e then. just hope they won't come too soon!:eek: i've bought the fleece already, but i'll find a way to hang them onto something w/o the need to drape them over the leaves...

i think you're meant to leave the cover on until they'll be ready to harvest, so that's a long time to see a big white patch on my bed:(

JenFeet

dogstarheaven wrote: »

i think you're meant to leave the cover on until they'll be ready to harvest, so that's a long time to see a big white patch on my bed:(

Hi there.

Last year I lost my first full brassica bed to cabbage root fly (no net or collars) and the 2nd bed (sown approx 2 months later and with collars!) was lost to cabbage white caterpillars - I only managed to save a tiny bit of brocolli from it all.

This year I have the ugliest covering of enviromesh covering 4 raised beds - it looks awful but I hope (fingers crossed) that it means we get to eat the veg this time!! I bloomin' love cauli, brocolli and cabbage!

Worth it in the end (I hope!)
Jen x

dogstarheaven

it's raining now (at last! i can give myself another day off from watering!) so i've got an excuse for not putting out the fleece yet. do you remember roughly when your veggies were attacked last yr, jen? as i've only a little plot, the raised bed is at the front part of my back garden. it's the only available space i have to grow my veggies i'm afraid, so the fleece-covering will be very obvious as soon as i step into the garden.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

When's the best time to cover the veggies in fleece?

In my experience, approximately three days before you actually get round to doing it.

When you tell everyone you are starting up a butterfly reserve in the interests of biodiversity and so your children can witness the wonders of metamorphosis.

That's my story, anyway.

JenFeet

dogstarheaven wrote: »

it's raining now (at last! i can give myself another day off from watering!) so i've got an excuse for not putting out the fleece yet. do you remember roughly when your veggies were attacked last yr, jen? as i've only a little plot, the raised bed is at the front part of my back garden. it's the only available space i have to grow my veggies i'm afraid, so the fleece-covering will be very obvious as soon as i step into the garden.

Hiya. I'm afraid I don't remember the actual dates but I think it was in April / early May when they went outside - grew lots and lots and then started turning yellow and looking unwell probably within a month or so. When I pulled one out of the soil there were these maggots all over the roots and had obviously eaten most of the roots. Gutted.

Then in a bed approx 6 metres away I sowed direct to see if anything would come (as was now quite late on in the season) and as soon as poken through they had thick corrugated collars put around them (gotta love Google!) They grew very quickly and it was probably about mid July? when the caterpillars attacked and they had EVERYTHING! I remember me and the kids would go on caterpillar patrol and throw them to the chickens and look for the eggs and squish them but from approx 30-ish mixed plants we got just a few tiny bits of broccoli. The sprout plants (bless 'em) were just stripped bare but still had these teeny tiny little sprouts on them come Christmas day. I couldn't even rescue these as they were about the size of my little finger nail if not smaller!

I would ignore the rain and go an net your plants now!! Honestly I would. We've got rain today and when I was out in it before I was lifting the mesh to see how my lovelies were getting on and STILL there was a big horsefly type fly almost in under the net - so I bet a butterfly could get in somehow!! And there's been lots of them flying around already here.. And now I have also discovered that the bunnies have managed to tunnel their way in from below and have savaged my carrot bed! Safe from carrot fly but scuppered by the bunnies... Gotta love grow your own!

Ooh - and remember to allow plenty of height for the mesh over your plants - canes and plastic bottles are your friend. Otherwise the cunning little b*ggars will still lay eggs through your mesh and you'll still lose your plants!!

Best of luck! It will look cool in your garden!
Jen x