Brassicas & Cabbage Moth

Jun 2, 2020

The cooler months are the better time to grow brassicas, although they do grow all year round, for a few reasons. Hang on, what are brassicas? Think cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, kale, collards, rocket, mustard greens (tatsoi, mizuna, others), bok choy & similar, turnip, kohl rabi, swede. Not an exhaustive list but you get the idea!

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Why would you preference growing these during the cooler months? Well they grow well during this time, which is a good enough reason because not everything likes the cold. They also can tend to bolt to seed a bit quick in summer. But the big reason is our little white fluttering friend the cabbage moth. You may have noticed this visitor to your garden, laying tiny creamy yellow eggs on the undersides of your brassicas (squish them!!)? These hatch into little green caterpillars that decimate your plants. If you think they’re bad now, they are much much worse over the warm months.

You can net your vege patch. You can plant way more than you need and hide your brassicas in amongst a tonne of other plants like nasturtiums (my favourite strategy). You can make little fake cabbage moths and place them around your brassicas, on sticks. The moths are territorial and this sends them searching elsewhere for egg laying. Google ‘cabbage moth decoy’.