what do you plant with cole crops to discourage the little hungry beast? Thanks!
cabbage worms or moths. . .
The best thing is some sort of row cover, although I think some people use rotenone.
DIPEL[bt] is the best organic solution
I've heard garlic and onions, although I haven't tried it.
Sprinkling the plants with fine corn meal supposedly kills them because they ingest it and then it swells up inside them.
There are some wasps that lay their eggs in the worms. I think you can buy the wasps, or else just put sugary waspy plants nearby.
(Here's a totally gross series of photos of similar control of a tomato horn worm, http://www.gardengrapevine.com/HornWormBraconidWasp.html )
The traditional non-chemical control is convincing small children to pick them off by hand, either under the general theory that wormy things are cool, or more specifically by offering money per cabbage worm.
My boys will pick bugs for money, though I have to entice them with more than a quarter sometimes when the hornworms are large - lol...
Cabbage loopers are easy to pick off and squish, not so much the hornworms.
My granddaughter will pick horn worms because it's fun to throw them to the chickens and see them gobble them up! Very satisfying fate for such irritating pests, too!
Aha - that's what I need - chickens - lol... We are actually planning to get us a few very soon.
Yes, Loca, but do not let the chickens run in the veggie plot, it's a big wonderful salad to them.
An old one: Bug juice kills bugs, or how to make poor old Mom buy a new blender. Yes, pick a half handful of the offender, whirl in the blender with a cup and 1/2 of water, strain thru a paper towel or paper coffee filter, and spray liberally. Bug-be-gone!
I've heard that bug juice tip but never tried it - lol. Kinda gross, but if it works I'll give it a whirl. Hornworm juice - yummy!
I decided to start doing companion planting and crop rotation last year, and did most of my research last fall. I checked my notes, and I have cosmos, dill, and zinnias listed as companions for crucifers. Don't remember why, but they must attract the appropriate beneficial insect. I also have okra and eggplant listed as sharing that bed, but that probably doesn't have anything to do with cabbage worms. Row covers and Bt are the two controls I see recommended the most often, but I am avoiding them for now. I think it is too hot and windy here for row covers (if I have serious bug problems I might try them) and I don't want to use Bt because I'm also trying to do Butterfly gardening.
Just like dill and zinnias are smelly in their own ways, the roots are, too. Some scientists studied just a few companions, and those that did not 'like' each other had definite inter reactions between the root systems. The 'dominant' plant would grow more roots, crowding out the other plant, and taking all the nutrients and water. More roots than if planted by itself.
I didn't read the article with the intention of learning and memorizing the info, but that's what I remember, that there is a lot going on with the roots when plants are near each other.
Pollengarden,
Using Bt on just the cole crops should not affect your butterfly garden - I'd use the spray concentrate version with a wetting agent, and a coarse spray to avoid spray drift, along with spraying on calm days. Bt does not affect the adult butterfiles (nectar drinkers) but only the caterpillars that munch on the leaves, and I dont think you're growing your cole crops for your butterfly garden if you were asking how to get rid of the cabbage worms.
I have also read that Dill may repel the dreaded squash bug! Scatter some good size dill leaves on plants that are suspect to squash bugs. I'm trying it this year although I didn't have too bad an issue with squash bugs in the past. Maybe they just haven't found my squash patch yet - lol...
Thank you for mentioning that. I have scads of dill plants that self seeded and you're just in time to save them. I will now make sure every squash plant is liberally dosed with dill weed. Maybe dill tea sprayed on would also help. I will gladly try just about anything short of poison because they ruined mine repeatedly last year. I felt like a rat on a wheel, constantly planting and pulling out squash while getting nothing for the effort.
I tried Bt/Dipel when it first came out 20? years ago. I put it on the Tomatos for hornworms - the Swallowtails on the dill dropped dead too - they were about 20 feet away. I haven't used Bt for caterpillars since - although maybe nowadays it doesn't become airborne as easily as it used to. I do use the strain of Bt for mosquitoes once in a while.
I will probably offend some people - but I don't decide what to use in my garden by whether it is "organic" or "chemical". I use & I avoid some of each.
You're welcome twiggy. That's exactly what I did - dosing with the dill weed - lol.
Dill is also a magnet for hornworms, so may be worth planting as a trap crop if your season allows. Here Dill and Tomatoes don't grow at the same time for the most part. Well they do in the winter, but no hornworms then - lol.