Cabbage worms
 

Small blue caterpillars are turning my cabbages into lace doilies.
What can I use to control them that is not harmful to humans eating
the cabbage?

Cabbage worms
 

On Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:43:59 -0400 in Richard Evans wrote:
Small blue caterpillars are turning my cabbages into lace doilies.
What can I use to control them that is not harmful to humans eating
the cabbage?

Bacillus Thuringiensis.
The only place i could find it locally was Post Nursery off of
401 a bit north of burlington mills rd.
The place for pot growers off of hillsboro street (5th season
or something like that) might have it.
Some Ace Hardwares might have it.

Also either permethrins or pyrethrins (Whichever one is in Rotenone).
I've seen Rotenone in Ace and Walmart.

The other thing to try is bifenthrin (Ortho Max for granules, I forget the
name for the liquid for spraying). Follow the california guidelines for
use on food crops if you're paranoid about residue. It's a synthetic
version of the previous item complete with a fairly high half life.

--
Chris Dukes
davej eskimos have hundreds of words for snow. I have two. Bullshit.

Cabbage worms
 

Cabbage worms
 

On 2009-06-05, Richard Evans wrote:
wrote:

On Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:43:59 -0400 in Richard Evans wrote:
Small blue caterpillars are turning my cabbages into lace doilies.
What can I use to control them that is not harmful to humans eating
the cabbage?

Bacillus Thuringiensis.

Will the plants recover when the worms are gone? They are pretty
chewed up, but then the heads have barely begun to form. Seems like
there's plenty of time for new, healthy growth.


That is hard to tell. But since it is June it is a bit late for
cabbage. With the heat they will probably bolt to seed anyway. Cabbage
needs to be planted in February. Ours bolted in late April or early
May.




--
Wes Dukes (wdukes.pobox@com) Swap the . and the @ to email me please.

is a garbage address.

Cabbage worms
 

Wes Dukes wrote:

On 2009-06-05, Richard Evans wrote:
wrote:

On Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:43:59 -0400 in Richard Evans wrote:
Small blue caterpillars are turning my cabbages into lace doilies.
What can I use to control them that is not harmful to humans eating
the cabbage?

Bacillus Thuringiensis.

Will the plants recover when the worms are gone? They are pretty
chewed up, but then the heads have barely begun to form. Seems like
there's plenty of time for new, healthy growth.


That is hard to tell. But since it is June it is a bit late for
cabbage. With the heat they will probably bolt to seed anyway. Cabbage
needs to be planted in February. Ours bolted in late April or early
May.

Jeez. I'm gonna have to read up on this stuff before I try it again.
At least my tomatoes are doing well.

Can anyone point me to a schedule of recommended planting times for
this area?

Cabbage worms
 

On 2009-06-05, Richard Evans wrote:
Wes Dukes wrote:

On 2009-06-05, Richard Evans wrote:
wrote:

On Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:43:59 -0400 in Richard Evans wrote:
Small blue caterpillars are turning my cabbages into lace doilies.
What can I use to control them that is not harmful to humans eating
the cabbage?

Bacillus Thuringiensis.

Will the plants recover when the worms are gone? They are pretty
chewed up, but then the heads have barely begun to form. Seems like
there's plenty of time for new, healthy growth.


That is hard to tell. But since it is June it is a bit late for
cabbage. With the heat they will probably bolt to seed anyway. Cabbage
needs to be planted in February. Ours bolted in late April or early
May.

Jeez. I'm gonna have to read up on this stuff before I try it again.
At least my tomatoes are doing well.

Can anyone point me to a schedule of recommended planting times for
this area?

Try this info from NCSU. Even shows a planting layout with dates.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/ag-06.html

A lot of those March 1 dates I would move back to as early as Feb 15 in
warmer years.



--
Wes Dukes (wdukes.pobox@com) Swap the . and the @ to email me please.

is a garbage address.

Cabbage worms
 

Will the plants recover when the worms are gone? They are pretty
chewed up, but then the heads have barely begun to form. Seems like
there's plenty of time for new, healthy growth.



Weeds and worms run the same schedule in early spring. Once
they have a leg up on you you are in a catch up game. My
motto has changed to work the hardest in early spring and
the rewards will come through in the harvest.

Our personal choice is to use liquid sevin for the worms.
It's very effective to save you broccoli and cabbage. We
attack early and often.

For weeds we use the school of hard labor and a hoe. Again,
early and often. Once the canopy of the crop is up the sun
will not get to the weeds as effective.

Good luck and keep up with your open desire to learn.

Craig