Kitchen Garden Forum

Mentioned to the wife that there were cabbage white butterflies flying around the brassicas this morning. This reminded her that she'd been talking to a National Trust gardener who said that watering brassicas with salty water deterred the butterflies because they did not like the salt. Has anyone heard of this? Does it work, and how much salt should be used? Brassicas are seashore plants originally, so they can take some salt, but I wouldn't want to use too much and risk poisoning the ground for other things.

I'd use mesh instead - butterfly-proof!

I tried the mesh for the first time this year, & mostly it worked great, but then for a couple of weeks some sneaky ones got inside ... I couldn't work out how they were getting in, got them out & refixed it down - turned around & saw her slip wings back & slide right through the tiny mesh - She got squished after that!!

I'd love to know about the salt though, as I have a few winter brassicas not under netting.
There must be some people out there who have tried it. Bit conserned to experiment as my father-in-law recomended salted water to kill weeds ....

Never tried the salt either but would think it is hard to get the water/salt to stay on the leaves, brassica leaves are generally water repellant, water beads on the leaves and then runs off the surface on the whole.

Just a thought...

Jerry

Hi Ken,
The Brassicas of today are very far removed from those that grew on the seashore and feel that it would not be a very smart move to use salt on anything but weeds on the lawn.

Good enough, everybody - thanks for your advice. So far as I can tell, the butterflies haven't laid any eggs on my brassicas so far, and what damage there is is down to slugs. Putting a bit of salt on brassicaleaves, with maybe a bit of pepper and butter when the time is right is, of course, a different story.

I have been told that a spray with rotted lettuce leaves will deter the butterflies, but I have never tried it! Apparently it fools the butterflies into thinking the cabbages are lettuce and they go off looking for cabbages!