Out of my six broccoli plants, they only eat one.

[AmyRey]

Something (haven't found any critters yet) is eating one of the broccoli plants in my raised bed. The others have what appear to be "nibbles" on the lower leaves, but not nearly to the extent that they like the one. It's been eaten down to the stalk for weeks now. It's still hanging on, so I keep fertilizing it, thinking it'll rebound whenever my mystery pest has had its fill.

Yesterday, I did find some little bright green worms on the other broccoli lettuces planted in that bed. I picked off all I saw (the chickens enjoyed them immensely) and would have sprayed, but lots rain was headed our way, so I figured it'd have been fruitless.

Is this some sort on worm doing this damage? I don't think it's the chickens as there aren't any scratch marks and I'm pretty sure the girls would clean them all rather than repeatedly going after just one.

*** shrug ***

 

[digitS']

You know, AmyRey, my first thought as I was reading your description of the damage was that you may have birds doing this. Then we have your assurance that the chickens don't have guilt written all over them . . .

The cabbage worms are probably the larva of the cabbage moth. They aren't so tough to find and pull off of broccoli (the folded leaves of cabbage are another story ).

There's a spray that's specifically made for cabbage moths. It's organic and you can ask about it at the garden center by referring to the name "Bt".

If you only grow those tall, upright broccoli plants, you may just want to continue to search the plants every few days and carry the worms to your guiltless chickens.

In the future, and in a small garden, companion planting may be the answer. Really, this mostly amounts to mixing plants so that pests don't find what they are looking for so easily.

There has been lots of "something loves something" thinking going on for quite awhile. The "good and bad science" of companion planting is rather thoroughly covered in this article by Cornell horticulturalists. They have some very appropriate suggestions for companion planting - to my way of thinking.

Steve

 

[AmyRey]

I did find most of the worms on my iceberg lettuce, although they hadn't eaten a noticeable amount (yet). They seem to prefer it over the other options. But as much damage as has been done to that one broccoli plant, I would have thought that I'd have seen *something* on it by now.

I read a good bit about companion planting over the summer when my tomato plants were being admired by horn worms. The marigolds did seem to help some, although I still got occassional visitors.

Going now to research broccoli pests.

Thanks!

 

[digitS']

If'n you don't mind drifting a little off topic, AmyRey . . .

I have had sunflowers in my veggie garden for quite a few years. Previously, there were times when the hornworms would show up. Darn! those things can do almost as much damage as deer . . .

One year, I had a few tomato plants growing near a few sunflowers and the hornworms showed up. Funny how well these monsters can hide in the foliage . . . I decided that I'd just spray those plants.

The next time I arrived at the veggie garden - I'd forgotten the sprayer. The time after . . . no sprayer again. Then, I realized that the plants were healing and there was no further damage.

As I'm standing there scratching my head, I see that the chickadees are visiting the sunflowers about every 2 minutes. They even do this before the flowers have ripe seed!

Went home and did some reading about chickadees: They are some of the most serious "harvesters" of caterpillars in nature. I knew that they have huge mouths and appetites or they couldn't make such good use of sunflower seed but if you look at images on the internet, you will find picture after of picture of chickadees with caterpillars. Cameras set up near their nests show a continuous progression of mommas and poppas with caterpillars to feed the babies.

One companion plant combo that a person might not even think of if we were just looking at plants that benefit each other because of roots intermingling or whatever . . .

Steve

 

[AmyRey]

Interesting.

One usually thinks of predatory insects instead of predatory birds, but I guess ... whatever works works, right?

I was overjoyed this year to find some wasp eggs on a couple of my hornworms.

If only I could teach the chickens to just eat the worms and leave the plants alone.

 

[4grandbabies]

Digits has some great advice there! I had a lot of mint plants one year, so I pulled a few and set between the cabbages and tomatoes, and had a lot less problems with the worms that year. Does anyone else use neem as a spray? From what I can read of it, its safe for the enviorment, and seens human harmless.

 

[AmyRey]

From what I remember about mint, it gets unruly pretty quickly.

Really don't know that I want to put that in anything other than a container.

 

[4grandbabies]

True, it spreads, I always keep it down between the rows, did not object to those between plants..

 

[AmyRey]

I have some DE on hand. Would that work on the worms?

I know it is harmful to bees, but my plants aren't anywhere close to blooming so I'm sure the DE would be washed off before any pollinators visited.

 

[Ridgerunner]

If it were a few days instead of weeks, I'd suspect a cutworm. But by now I think a cutworm would have grown big and moved on to other plants. It may be a beetle? Or something else entirely. I'd think if it were worms of some sort, you would have seen them or droppings. With it only attacking one of them, I'd think it was something not very mobile, which again leads to "worms". Maybe slugs? I'm not convinced the small green worms are the culprit in not allowing this one to grow at all. You'd see them.

I'd think the DE would be a good idea, on the plant itself and the ground underneath right around the stem.

This article is interesting from a different perspective. I have found them hanging around my cabbage and broccoli this fall among other signs that led me to use Sevin on my cabbages. You know, those little holes in the leaves in the middle of the plant where the head will eventually form. The broccoli is strangely untouched.

http://crawford.tardigrade.net/bugs/BugofMonth01.html