A couple more cabbage cages.
I always need more cabbage cages. These are for all the brassica and other vegetables that the wildlife love to eat. It protects these plants from moose, elk, deer, wild boar, hares and even butterflies and moths.
The cabbage butterflies lay their eggs on the cabbage leaves whereupon the larvae feed, leaving only skeletons of cabbage. I gave up growing any kind of brassica for many years until I came up with this idea. I also use bacillus thuringiensis for the few that squeeze in.
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Thank you so much for posting this. I’ve always had problems with the cabbage moths, but until last year it was more in the form of cutworms cutting down my young plants. I thought I read that those were the early stage of the cabbage moths, but may have that wrong.
There was always some leaf damage, but nothing like last summer. I had the most beautiful kale, broccoli and collards crops last year, that were attacked in biblical proportions and turned into lace. I was so busy with other things, that about all I could do was grieve and shrug.
Luckily I had so much growing in other parts of the yard, that there always seemed to be enough to eat, which is another possible strategy – safety in numbers. That is how I dealt with the cutworms. As soon as a young plant toppled, I replaced it with another I had growing in reserve.
However, if things were that bad last year, I worry what might be in store this year. The cages sound like a great solution and could also protect the young corn which the birds and squirrels are happy to pluck out of the ground, snipping off the attached corn seed. Once the corn was better established then the cages could be moved to the cabbage family.
Since the farmers started growing mustard and rape seed big time around here, it has been almost impossible to grow brassicas. With garden fleece, cages and b. thuringiensis it can be done. It sounds like you have a different set of problems, but the cages will probably help. Try to find a small gage net and build them big enough to contain the plants. Sometimes the plants get so big I have to cut back a lot of leaves when I lift the cages for weeding etc. Good idea with the corn too.
How wonderful! These look perfectly sized and relatively easy for even someone like me to make! Would you mind giving the dimensions you used?
I make them all sizes, but mostly 240 cm long, 90 cm high and 90 cm wide. It depends mainly on the dimensions of the chicken wire/net at hand. I’ve started to make them smaller, so that they are easier to move around, like for weeding. I’ll blog some more on this with more details.
thank you! i look forward to more info!