What has happened to my cabbages?

Daisymaisy

I have a row of cabbages and all were looking fine until yesterday. Two of them looked very sad. I have my suspicions of what the culprits are but would appreciate the forum's advice on what the cause is and how to stop it, the rest of the row still look ok.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/49851826@N06/14343397264/in/photostream/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/49851826@N06/14344205965/in/photostream/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/49851826@N06/14342583202/in/photostream/

wellused

They look alright to me.

Daisymaisy

Most of them are (haven't been up there today yet) but the the leaves on two of them seem to have had the stems cut through. You can see from the picture of the row that the majority are healthy looking but the 2 at the end of the row on the right are not. Most of them have perfect leaves but the ones that have been attacked seem to have lots of little holes in the leaves (2nd picture).
My suspicion is that it is the work of cutworms but I'm hoping the more experienced veg growers on the forum will be able to confirm this and what I can do to save/protect my other cabbages.

DaftyDuck

I don't know about cutworm first hand... are you sure some mammal didn't get in? Catworm maybe? It's just the stem break looks more like a physical snap, and the damage to the leaves looks more claw-like... kitty-size, not full-blown Tom.

... or, could the end of the netting blown in in the wind, scratched around, etc?

Daisymaisy

I've had my allotment since last September and I haven't seen any cats on the allotment. We are somewhat removed from the nearest residential area. There is a large school and playing fields on two sides and a warehouse/removals company and main A road on the other two. We do have foxes but I haven't seen any of them for a while. The netting is firmly pegged down. The mystery continues... I'll try to get better close ups of the damage when I go up there this afternoon.

wellused

I know that this isn't your question but I always plant more than I expect to harvest because of loses also have you protected against cabbage root fly I use collars?

sobie

Most likely is slugs/ snails. try a beer trap near the plants and see what happens.

zygurat789

Daisymaisy wrote: »

Most of them are (haven't been up there today yet) but the the leaves on two of them seem to have had the stems cut through. You can see from the picture of the row that the majority are healthy looking but the 2 at the end of the row on the right are not. Most of them have perfect leaves but the ones that have been attacked seem to have lots of little holes in the leaves (2nd picture).
My suspicion is that it is the work of cutworms but I'm hoping the more experienced veg growers on the forum will be able to confirm this and what I can do to save/protect my other cabbages.

Are there none on your allotment site?

You could always try here
http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?board=1.0