HI there, it is nice to find a group of people who share two of my favourite passions, bikes and gardens. Anyway down to the topic, I am having trouble with catepilars eating my cauliflower (at the moment I have left them in as bait to keep the rest of my garden safe, sadly for the cauliflower it is working) can anyone provide some organic tips??? today I found some info on the web that suggested applying a thin layer of flour (yes cooking flour) after watering or rain, as it creates a paste... apparently the bugs ingest the flour and the paste makes them fall off??? the other is to apply sour milk as they are supposed to be hate this??? (if this works I will let you know as I have tried it with two of the five I planted a couple of months ago) Other than that I seem to have mastered silverbeet (I love this vege) lettuce, strawberries, patio tomatoe plants, celery, parsley, basil and chives with great success. I am about to build a new raised bed for more silverbeet and then planting winter veges. I will take some photos of my garden tomorrow to share with the group. I look forward to us helping each other out, as I love nothing more than enjoying the "fruits" of our labour! happy growing and Safe riding, Cheers Stuart.
Hi Stuart, to be honest I'm in the same boat. I have not found another method that works yet either and is the only reason why I still use Target to this day, as it is the only thing that really works. Once the plant has been in the ground for 6 weeks, it gets one spray and that's it till it hits the pot for cooking. I have heard but cannot confirm, a solution of dish washing liquid & water (1 teaspoon per litre of water) is meant to work, but I have never tryed this.
Thanks, I have seen my X's () family try this, however if you get it wrong it kills the plant alltogether , I would rather let the bugs eat the cauliflower to keep the rest alive hahaha other than this I just pick the little blighters off each morning (yes I love my garden that much haha its not much but its mine ) I will keep experimenting and post my results (fingers crossed) Cheers for the responce. Stuart
Ps that is a absolutly gorgeous bike, I hope it was not the stallion you were riding when the Drunk $%#^ you mentioned decided to introduce him/herself. I hope I havent put my foot in it there!? not my intention
If you are going the dishwash method you need to combine it with some cooking oil. I will see if I can fine a recipie for it. Not sure it will stop the caterpillars as it is the white butterfly that lays the eggs in the first place that you need to stop. I used to manually pick off any eggs laid on my brocolli/cauli plants. Pain in the bum, but quite effective.
I don't know about caterpillars but coffee grounds are excellent for slugs and snails!
Thanks for the tip with the coffee grinds I have also been using this technique and they dont seem to be able to handle the caffeine rush haha (always find them "sleeping" in the am...) good news on the flour trial too, no catepilars on the two trial cauliflower this am, they were all "sleeping" underneath the plant "GREAT SUCCESS!" but found some on the un trialed plants so a sprinkling of a table spoon of flour each they will recieive tonight after watering time!!! and I also picked the eggs and catepilars off as time consuming as it is but as you probably find the little blighters always try again the next night as I find too!!!
Last year and this year I avoided planting any of the cabbage family type plants untill quite late in the season. This was to deprive cabbage white caterpillars of much to eat. We have just put some broccoli in and although there are a few caterpillars, as it gets colder their numbers will reduce. Finger and thumb usually sorts them out if numbers not to great, or try covering was light shade cloth intill it cools down more.
Thanks BAD DAD I will keep this in mind for next year, I planted my caulies max 2mnths ago!? I will try later next year and see how that goes! (do you recommend a time/week/month of year?) Im just glad its only them suffering... I didnt want to plant any broc' this year as I had just moved in here and did not know of growing conditions. I love broc' too much so would have been rather annoyed if I had not been able to eat them due to little green crawly and white flying things... the loss of cauliflower was hard enough to take when it first happened I have a handle on summer here now so it is now time to experiment for winter ready to have bumper summer and winter crops next year! Thanks for your advise!!!
God you guys are good, who would have though add oil to the mix and now were at coffee grounds, cheers all. I've been looking for a good excuse to buy a coffee grider & an expresso machine for ages, justification is now sooo much easier
I just use the stuff from the plunger...works fine....but go ahead and get the coffee machine...we'll all come round for morning tea. Scones too, please.
