Kitchen Garden Forum

It must be very frustrating Pa Snip, but you will have another session, that I am sure of.....try and keep positive dear thing, or i'll be round to visit and you wouldn't want that....

My 'to do' list was useless when I went down to lottie. I went on the plot & had that somethings wrong feeling. Did my walk around but couldn't work it out so hoed the leek bed and removed the netting. Then I decided as it was a bigger bit of netting I'd use it on the frilly sprouts & kale bed. Lifted the environment then I found it - Frilly sprouts & PSB all on a 45degree or more lean, stakes actually completely loose & just gone over with the plants!

Mr Mole had been under the lot of them, kale side of the bed not touched. I managed to right and re-stake them but literally had to stomp on nearly the lot & top up the soil to fill the hollows that were left. Hopefully the plants have not been stressed too much as the frilly sprouts are abundant but need to double in size. (Hopefully the mole has been stressed enough to leave)!

Pa, well I suppose at least it’s better being in your own bed then having to be in a hospital one for any treatment. Let,s hope it does the job.
The remainder of my leeks are pretty much a write off now. Does anybody know how far leek miner infection can spread?. My veg o,out is really too small to all9w much rotation. As this is the second year on the trot i’ve suffered this problem I,m assuming next year I really should give growing them a miss which will be a blow as I always make good use of them in winter.

What are other sufferers of this problem going to do? Is there any kind of deterrent one can put in the soil to kill them off? They seem pretty hardy in surviving frost.

The RHS advice is to grow them in a different place and
keep them covered with horticultural fleece so the flies can't get to the leeks to lay their eggs. This keeps both allium leaf miner flies and leek moth away. They over winter as brown pupae in the leeks so hopefully there won't be any if you move to a new bed.

PP
I wish that moving leek beds annually were the solution in practice. I have moved my leeks every year and for the last 3 years have still suffered miners.

In theory there should be no pupae where they are moved to and yet they appear.

Primrose, there simply is no solution at present.
what started in the south east has now spread across the UK

I struggling to see how netting solves the problem when the pupae can be laid into the ground, surely the leaf miner can therefore attack without having to pass through the fleece or environet.

I wonder if you grew them in a raised bed with fresh compost, covered with fleece that would work.

The trouble is with all these possible solutions is that by the time youVe gone through all that time, expense and effort it’s cheaper to go to the supermarket or market stall and buy them there !

How about blowtorchinging the soil before planting

does anyone know if the leaf miner has a little brown grub/pupa thingy same as the leek moth

PLUMPUDDING wrote:I wonder if you grew them in a raised bed with fresh compost, covered with fleece that would work.

Didn't for me in the 2016 season, Still got affected but not quite so prolifically.

If the pupa lives in the ground to overwinter would ground cover work, after harvesting leeks/onions/garlic, plastic sheeting will keep the soil warm to make them hatch quicker, a little garlic powder will not go amiss for the white rot.

All the best, Pa Snip, and I hope it really works!

No gardening here today (there is not much that needs doing on the allotment now), but we had some good family news: a third great-grandchild, a little girl, was born last night and all is well. To think that her parents and sibling were at our house for a meal just about 3 hours before the birth ..... quick work there.

Many congratulations Monika!

That was a quick delivery indeed! You didn't do a curry did you?

No, I didn't. Westi, but one of my other children also suggested it must have been our "explosive home grown vegetables"!

To many sprouts