Caterpillers

[geacher]

Last year I decided to grow puple sprouting in my Veg garden they were nearly at the stage when they were going to produce heads and they became completly infested with caterpillers, they then spread to my rocket and had a nice meal, there were thousands and it looked like my garden was moving, what would be the best way to stop this from happening in the future.

[Chantal]

I net all my brassicas and rocket where possible as the little blighters get everywhere.

I use enviromesh from www.gardening-naturally.com which works a treat.

[AnneThomas]

Hello Geacher

The only sure way of keeping caterpillars off the brassicas is to cover the lot with a fine netting to stop the butterflies from landing and laying their eggs. From experience you need to be sure this is well secured all round - especially at the base, and needs to stand proud of the potential full size of the plants so the butteflies can't land on the netting and lay their eggs through it onto your beloved brassica

[Chantal]

I make wooden modular frames which I cover with enviromesh and move around the allotment as needed. As Anne says, they'll lay though the nets if they're too close to the leaves.

[Primrose]

I've decided not to grow PS Broccoli this year. My veggie patch is too small for me to net it adequately without interfering with other vegetables nearby so I'm going to grow Cavalo Nero again instead. Amazingly the cabbage whites didn't touch it last year and I didn't get a single catterpillar on it wheras the Broccoli was badly damaged.

[mrs l]

We love broccoli, so twice I have tried too grow them. The first time they were thick with caterpillars so I had to feed them to the hens. Last year I grew them under netting, great, no caterpillars, just millions of greenfly. So they went to the hens as well. The man in the next allotment gave me one of his broccoli heads - it was as clean as a whistle! And he had not netted his. So I will try again this year - with enviromesh. I am determined to win.