Tag Archives: kale

12 Strategies for Battling Cabbage Moths

Premium Late Flat Dutch Cabbage

For many gardeners planting brassicas in anything but the very early spring or fall is asking to be devastated. Cabbage moths can quickly colonize a patch of brassicas leaving tons of eggs which seem to grow into caterpillars and strip entire plants in the blink of an eye.

Don’t give up on summertime brassicas just yet though! There’s many ways you can fight off the cabbage moths to reap bountiful harvests.

Pick the worms off by hand.

It’s certainly not fun but it can be effective particularly if you only have a few plants. Drop worms into a bucket of soapy water to kill them. Be sure to check the undersides of leaves. If you see a cabbage worm with little white cocoons on its back leave it be. The cocoons will hatch into parasitic wasps, killing that worm and eventually others.

Note: Know your worms! Species that also have a green caterpillar stage include Luna Moths, Black Swallowtail Butterflies, and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails.

Swat the moths.

Some gardeners swear by the tennis racket method. When the cabbage moths show up in the spring they head out with tennis rackets to swat them out of the air. If you go this route be sure avoid killing other non-harmful moths and butterflies.

Use your poultry.

If you have a backyard flock it may be worth letting a few birds into your cabbage patch once the plants have gotten big enough. Both ducks and chickens have been known to enjoy cabbage worms.

On the subject of birds, try to attract songbirds to your garden.

Many songbirds will eat cabbage moths but they need to be visiting your garden regularly to take notice. Make your garden more bird friendly by planting varying heights of plants for them to perch on or adding feeders, houses, and/or bird baths.

Try companion planting.

Red Acre Cabbage & Wormwood

There are several crops that can be planted in your cabbage or broccoli patch to deter pests. Wormwood, thyme, marigolds, tomatoes, tansy and peppermint are all believed to help keep the cabbage worms away. You can also use companion plants like buckwheat and yarrow to attract beneficial insects to fight the cabbage worms for you.

You may also consider interplanting single brassicas throughout a garden. Unlike a monoculture bed having a plant here or there is much harder for cabbage moths to find.

Be sure to read our other post, The 7 Benefits of Companion Planting.

Try moth decoys.

While we haven’t tested it there’s a belief that cabbage moths are territorial and will leave your plants be if you hang decoy moths on and around your brassicas. Check out this article from The Good Seed Blog for more information and printouts.

Make your own plant spray.

Some people have found that tansy tea or oil deters cabbage worms when sprayed on the plants because of the volatile oils it contains. Others have had success with sprays made from dish soap, crushed garlic, or blended hot peppers.

Plant a trap crop.

Have you ever noticed that cabbage worms or another garden pest really love a specific variety? While you might initially think you should avoid planting that crop the opposite is really true. Plant the offending variety and then the pests will be less likely to go after other varieties you planted. Some people also choose to burn the trap crop with a flame weeder once it’s covered in pests to eliminate many of them. If you choose the burn method make sure your fire doesn’t get out of hand and you follow local regulations.

You may want to try organic pesticides.

Before you think we’re advocating the use of harsh chemicals know that there are organic and natural substances that are considered pesticides. Probably the most well known example is diatomaceous earth which is a powder made from crushed, fossilized, prehistoric crustaceans. This powder will cut insects (but not people or animals) as they crawl through it but it does need to be re-applied every time it rains. If you want to be sure whatever you buy is organic look for an OMRI (Organic Materials Review Institute) certification label.

It’s also important to note that pesticides affect all insects, good or bad. Consider what beneficial insects may also be harmed by your pesticide choice before you choose this strategy.

Practice crop rotation and cover cropping.

Both crop rotation and cover cropping are important to a healthy garden for a couple of reasons. First they help lessen disease and pest problems by ensuring the same crop isn’t planted in the same area helping to break pest and disease life cycles by moving their food source. Second they help ensure plants receive necessary nutrients and stay healthy which makes them less susceptible to pest and disease issues to start with.

Remove and compost any leftover plant material at the end of each season.

Cabbage worms overwinter in dead plant material so it’s important to remove and compost it. Alternatively you can till it under.

Use row cover.

If you can’t find another solution that works for you, row cover will do the trick. Cover the plants right after you get them in the ground and cabbage moths will never get to your plants to lay eggs.

Gardening is never easy but it’s especially difficult when you have to deal without a lot of pests. Hopefully among these tips you’ll find a strategy that works for you and your garden.

How do you deal with cabbage moths? Did we miss anything?

Fresh Greens to Harvest from Fall through Winter

Spinach with Leaf Mulch
Spinach with Leaf Mulch

By Ira Wallace

Fall and winter offer a second chance to grow all the delicious greens and wonderful roots we savor in spring. They’re even easier to grow, thanks to decreasing weed pressure and reduced need to water. Many winter greens, like kale, collards, and spinach, even taste sweeter in fall as they concentrate sugars to withstand colder temperatures.

Our garden is brimming with greens ready for harvest now, as well as younger plants that we won’t harvest until early spring when they will grow rapidly as the days begin to lengthen.

Elliot Coleman coined the term “Persephone Days” for the period when there is less than 10 hours a day of sunlight and plant growth slows to a halt. Typically November 21st through January  21st, or a little longer due of outside ground temperatures. So what you see in the garden now is what you get until early February for practical purposes, unless you are growing under cover in a greenhouse, cold frame or low tunnel.

With an extended drought and weeks of record breaking highs, 2016 was a really tough year for establishing our fall crops. In many cases we had to do a third succession planting to get the beds full of thriving plants. In the case of spinach and kale, our last and most successful sowing was in early October. For an idea of what and when we sow most years read our blog post on Summer Sowing: Continuous Harvest All Summer into Fall or look at our Southern Exposure Fall and Winter Growing Guide.

So let’s take a look at some of what we have green and growing in the garden on “Black Friday Weekend 2016”:

vates collards
vates collards

Kale, collards, and spinach are our largest plantings for winter greens because of their versatility in the kitchen and dependable winter hardiness. Because our earliest succession plantings had spotty germination we have a lot more plants from the later sowings. Luckily for us the unusually warm temperatures continued into November so we have nice full beds of Abundant Bloomsdale spinach and Lacinato Rainbow kale going into December. Fortunately half grown ”juvenile” plants often survive the winter and last longer into the spring. In addition to the heat and drought our collards were also attacked by grasshoppers in August so the remaining plants are smaller than usual at this time. Heirloom collards are survivors so I expect they will do well and start vigorous growth again in early spring.

tatsoi rosette
tatsoi rosette

We have already harvested many of our oriental greens for stir-frying and to make Kimchee, but our Tatsoi greens are still looking and tasting great. In winter we enjoy the shiny dark green leaves in salads, stir-frys and soups. One interesting thing with the spotty germination on some of our early sowings is how large the plants can get in fall and still be sweet and tender.

creasy greens
creasy greens

Another favorite green for us and many others in our region are Creasy Greens and their cousin from grower Frank Morton of Wild Garden Seeds in the Northwest, Belle Isle Cress. They are lightly spicy and crisp in winter. Take care as they will naturalize if left in the garden to produce seed.

Let’s not forget Arugula, another winter salad favorite.

lettuce in the hoophouse at Twin Oaks
lettuce in the hoophouse at Twin Oaks

We also grow a lot of winter lettuce. I especially like red varieties for the deep color they develop in winter. Outredgeous and the Wild Garden Lettuce mix are favorites that have been joined by the heirloom Crawford, a Texas winter salad Lettuce.

We still have some winter roots in the ground: carrots, beets, salsify, parsnip and winter radishes. We have potatoes and sweet potatoes in storage.

Maybe we can look at what we still have canned, dried, fermented and frozen sometime soon. Until then enjoy your garden.

Tips for Direct Sowing in Hot Weather

Lisa Dermer & Ira Wallace

Last week we finished harvesting our spring-planted cabbage and broccoli. Now it’s time to sow our first seedling bed for our fall brassicas: besides cabbage and broccoli, we’ll add cauliflower and Chinese cabbage. Later we’ll make sowings of fall carrots, beets, lettuce, rutabaga, turnips, and greens like spinach, chard, kale, and mustards.

Sowing outdoors during high heat can be tricky, but if you follow these tips you’ll find it’s worth the effort:

1. Sow in a closely-spaced nursery bed and transplant later. This lets you concentrate your efforts (keeping the soil moist and weed-free) on a small, more manageable area. (Don’t do this for crops that don’t transplant well, like carrots.)

2. Choose a location with afternoon shade. This will protect the sprouting seeds from drying out.

3. Sow under lightweight row cover or the newer temperature-neutral proteknet. Both protect from insect pests and help retain soil moisture.

4. Sow successions! Two weeks after your first sowing make another planting of the same varieties or other, earlier-maturing types.

5. Count backwards. Plan for cool-season crops to mature when cool weather hits, and use the days to maturity to plan when to sow.

6. Transplant and/or thin your plantings. Giving plants more space helps their roots access enough moisture. Young seedlings grow faster in hot weather, so plan for quick turn-arounds. Summer-sown brassicas may be ready to transplant in 4 weeks or less (they should have 3 true leaves).

Check out our Fall and Winter Quick Reference for more details about timing and what to plant for fall and winter harvest.

Order now if you haven’t already reserved your planting stock for garlic and perennial onions. Each order comes with a Garlic and Perennial Onion Growing Guide to get you started.