How to protect cabbage from pests: useful tips

Fresh juicy cabbage leaves are loved not only by people and animals. Every season of planting, hordes of pests attack. Not only can they gobble everything up to the stump, but they also suffer any infection. Spores of fungi, viruses, bacteria - all this causes great harm. Spent a lot of money and many efforts to get rid of nasty things.

Isn't it better to do prevention? Today we will figure out how to protect cabbage from pests. And there are a lot of them.

Fleas and bugs

These insidious comrades attack very young sprouts of cabbage. First, microscopic holes appear on the leaves, so you can’t immediately see it. Then, as the plants mature, these holes turn into tears of a decent size.

To protect the just planted seedlings of cabbage, they propose to cover it with a thin non-woven material. Arcs are pre-installed, and then the shelter is removed, because the coarsened leaves are no longer to the taste of fleas and bugs.

The method is good, but only for a small area. And if several hundred hectares are planted? How much spunbond do you need? It is better to apply sprinkling and spraying.

These small pests on the spirit do not tolerate the aroma of fir. But do not rush to run into the forest and peel innocent trees. Stomp to a pharmacy or specialty store. Buy a bottle of fir oil there. It will be enough for a long time, because 12 drops per 10 liters of pure water are enough for spraying.

There is no harm to plants from such a mixture, so you can water young plantlets from the heart. And for greater reliability from above, it is advisable to sprinkle all this good with fine ash sifted through a sieve. Ash is perfectly replaced by tobacco dust, which can be purchased at any gardening store.

Old garlic (200g) is kneaded with a crush, then poured with a liter of hot (+ 50 ° C) water. Insist this good 4 hours, then filter. This liquid must be mixed with 9 liters of clean water and spill the soil thoroughly. Fleas and bugs really do not like such a fragrant shower.

A similar effect has an infusion of leaves and flowers of marigolds. Only in spring often they can not be found. Last year’s stocks or surpluses of young flower seedlings are quite suitable. Just sow them somewhere in the corner under the film. When it comes to planting cabbage in the open ground, you will already have a grown tool against pests.

Tip. Fleas and bugs do not like wet soil. All the same, after all, water the cabbage, do not spare the water for row spacing.

Butterflies and flies

As soon as the cabbage leaves become rougher, the fleas lose interest in planting. The first heads of cabbage begin to curl, and here new gluttonous guests appear. Butterflies whites, night scoops, cabbage flies. They themselves do not eat your vegetables. But they lay eggs, from which caterpillars and larvae then leave. These gentlemen very much respect cabbage in all forms. If you leave everything to chance, then the crop can be lost in 2 days. Only the stumps will remain.

How to protect cabbage from pests without chemicals? Indeed, now the number of supporters of organic farming is growing rapidly. Let’s ask nature for help? Midsummer is the time for wasps and ants. They intensively feed their offspring in order to continue the clan. Their diet includes caterpillars and larvae. But how to attract them and make them collect pests?

Yes, very easy! Surely there is an old jam or compote. If not, then take regular sugar. Then we breed it all with water, but not much. The smell of sweets should be felt. And feel free to spray cabbage planting. Ants and wasps will arrive for the sweet, will not find it.But they will find larvae and caterpillars of pests which they will gladly drag into nests.

Popular wisdom says that the whites do not lay eggs where relatives have already visited. How to trick a butterfly? It is recommended to put halves of white egg shells on sticks so that pests fly by. But a strong gust of wind can break these shells, or the birds will fly to feast on.

We recommend replacing them with pieces of a white rag. The wind will sway shreds, and the butterflies will think that the cabbage planting is already taken.

There are recommendations to collect pests manually. If you have only 5-10 plants, then you can not bother and really once a day walk with a jar, shaking off the tracks.

But the difficulty is that the caterpillars of the scoop work their jaws only at night, and during the day they hide in the bases of the leaves. In addition, these beasts are very nimble. Even a person can catch them is difficult. And the larvae of the cabbage fly gnaw at the point of growth and roots of plants. Will you each dig out and look for parasites? Ants will be poorer than you.

What if the butterflies have already flown by and you missed the appearance of the caterpillars? We will make the cabbage leaf tasteless. First, sprinkle the cabbage over wet blades with a mixture of ordinary wheat flour and baking soda in a ratio of 1 to 1. The caterpillars eat the leaves together with the adhering mixture, then they die.

But sometimes it rains or it’s time for you to water the cabbage from above. The mixture is washed off safely, and not all the caterpillars have eaten up treats. Here we need re-processing. Pest residues safely rest.

Another remedy that makes cabbage inedible is an infusion of tar soap with onion husks. To do this, take 500 g of husk or even old onions, pour 2 l of boiling water over them. Insist a day. Then add 50 g of liquid or grated solid tar soap, stir well.

Next, you need to strain the mixture through gauze or a sieve, dilute with water to a volume of 10 liters. And you can spray cabbage. And it’s better right from the heart and not sparing to pour over the landing. At the same time, the stinky tincture will fall to the roots, where the larvae of the cabbage fly will taste it. They are also not lovers of such an amber.

Another mixture that caterpillars, larvae and even adult insects do not favor is prepared as follows:

• Take 1 kg of tomato tops and burdock leaves, coarsely chopped.
• Pour 3 liters of boiling water, insist 4 hours.
• 6 l of pure water and 30 g of potash or laundry soap are added.
• Thoroughly mix and filter.

The resulting mixture is sprayed with cabbage on top of the leaves, watered under the root and wetted the underside of the leaves. Such treatment is absolutely harmless to plants, and pests really do not like the specific smell of infusion.

Tip. The slush remaining from the infusions and decoctions is not thrown away, but laid out in the aisles and under the plants. This will provide them with additional protection and top dressing.

Slugs and Snails

Well, do you think you can calm down on this? You think that all the pests have been drained. And try to look below, for example, under the leaves. Or under what remains of the lower leaves. There are also plenty of uninvited guests. Slugs and snails with great pleasure crawl to feast on juicy leaves. Moreover, during the entire growing cycle.

To get rid of such pests do not need aggressive chemicals. Crawling enemies have a very tender abdomen. When a rough or prickly surface is found in the path of slugs and snails, they try to bypass such sites. Why not use this feature?

Aisles of cabbage beds and soil near the plants are sprinkled with a decent layer of ground eggshell. For these purposes, it is not thrown away, but collected all fall and winter.

If you are not a fan of scrambled eggs, then ash or coarse sand may be an alternative. All this is also not to the liking of the tender belly of slugs and snails. Just do not! We all know that this is the leg, not the stomach.But the principle of the rough surface does not change from your knowledge,

Tip. In order not to have to crawl, sprinkling several hundred cabbage plantings, simply draw a wide path along the perimeter of all beds with ash or sand. The strip must be continuous and at least 40 cm wide.

Another method involves using baits and traps. To do this, use wide containers into which old fermented jam or beer is poured. Then, these containers are dug in the beds so that the edges are flush with the ground level or even slightly lower. Be sure that snails and slugs will not fail to taste aromatic treats and crawl into traps. They will not be able to get out of there.

The disadvantage of this method is that every day you have to catch pests and put it somewhere. It’s good if you have poultry. You can give prisoners to feed them. And if not, you will have to destroy small reptiles yourself. Very squeamish or especially compassionate we suggest dragging these comrades away from the site. Again, you can offer ants.

Usually, the difficulty in diagnosing an attack by slugs on cabbage is due to the fact that they crawl out to eat after 21:00. Signs are thickened plantings, high soil moisture, shaded areas and large holes on the lower leaves. Do not leave the situation unattended. When the first tier of burdocks ends, the next will go for lunch for snails and slugs.

By the way, it is very easy to check your guess in the afternoon. To do this, take 3 tbsp. l liquid ammonia, the most common, pharmacy. Dissolve in 5 l of pure water. Then directly from the watering can water the soil under the cabbage and the plants themselves. After about 4-7 minutes, the slugs crawl out of the soil, they do not like the smell of ammonia. Because they die from him. Therefore, you should stand ready with the second watering can of the mixture. Water again, only now pests. This helps 100% on reviews.

Such a procedure does not harm cabbage, it will even be a kind of nitrogen top dressing. At the same time, plants will gain strength for recovery.

Tip. Instead of ash or sand, mustard powder can be used. Bitter pepper tincture perfectly replaces ammonia solution.

Some recommendations

The most malicious pests of cabbage are the bear, whitefly and aphid. You can’t tell about them in one paragraph. An entire article will have to be devoted to this topic, because it will be very difficult to protect cabbage from pests of this order. But probably. Look for articles on this topic, sometimes there are very useful tips.

Just be sure to turn on your head before applying each new recipe. Indiscriminately following can lead to very disastrous results. Ordinary logic still helps. After all, it's simple to first think about how the new recipe will work on pests and will it work at all?

By the way, the current industry produces special preparations based on spores of fungi and carnivorous nematodes. When spraying cabbage, the nematode attacks only insects, infecting them. And spores of fungi grow inside, damaging internal organs. For plants, people and animals, the preparations are completely harmless.

How to protect cabbage from pests? Folk wisdom has evolved over the centuries. And they did well without chemistry and other drugs. Apply our tips on your site, choosing the one that suits you. Then the harvest will be excellent, and pests will have to look for food elsewhere.

Video: the easiest way to protect cabbage from pests