I have finally Mastered the Art of Savoy Cabbages

Posted on 11. Aug, 2010 by Tracey in My Veg Plot

I have been growing cabbages ever since I started growing vegetables in my back garden raised beds, so nearing on four years I would have thought I might have got it sussed by now?! Well my answer is kind of.

The first year I had a large amount of cabbages but learn’t that growing them close together was not the best idea and they caught the disease white blister which spread to the other cabbage leaves. Once these were removed I still had some cabbages left and managed to harvest quite a lot of cabbage leaves.

Cabbage - Greyhound

The second year my cabbages were eaten by whitefly and caterpillars.

The third year was a complete cabbage disaster, it started with my spring cabbages bolting, then my summer cabbage seedlings were eaten by slugs, then my spring cabbages for this year, the seedlings got eaten by caterpillars again.

My love (sarcasm) of the Cabbage White Butterfly
I have learn’t very quickly that the cabbage white butterfly and its caterpillars are the enemy and this year I am netting my cabbages throughout their whole life. I will not be removing the netting completely for any weeding, watering, harvesting, photographing as I’m determined my cabbages will survive this year!

Cabbage White Butterfly

In my experience you have to be vigilant, a cabbage white butterfly is very devious and can work its way into a mesh cover even if you thought you had all entrance points pegged down, believe me I found one of them inside the netting the other day and spotted another one trying to get in. Why do they love cabbages so much?

If you do find a cabbage white butterfly in your netting, then you must check the underside of every leaf in your cabbage bed for yellow eggs and destroy them.

If you’ve never experienced the wrath of the cabbage white butterfly and its minions (caterpillars), then you may think I’m being a bit over dramatic, once you have you’ll either not bother with growing cabbages or be vigilant and netting will be your saviour for evermore.

Without further ado, here are my lovely Savoy Cabbages.

Variety: Cantasa F1
Seed Supplier: The Organic Gardening Catalogue

: Savoy under Netting

: Large Savoy Cabbage

: Savoy Cabbage Leaf

Links to help you fight against the Cabbage White Butterfly and other Cabbage Diseases:

Tags: cabbage bolting, cabbage caterpillar yellow eggs, cabbage diseases, cabbage pests, cabbage white blister disease, cabbage white butterfly caterpillars, Cabbage White Butterfly,, cabbage whitefly, grow veg cabbages, growing cabbages in raised beds, growing savoy cabbages, help to fight the cabbage white butterfly

3 Responses to “I have finally Mastered the Art of Savoy Cabbages”

Damo

11. Aug, 2010

I have experienced the wrath of cabbage whites in my first year when we returned from holiday and my friend who had been watering for us was overrun by the things. Netting is the only way to go and since then I have invested in environmesh and built tunnels to go over all my brassicas. It’s the only organic way to do it in my experience.
claudia

01. Oct, 2010

Hi, We are novice gardeners and had the same problem this summer. Our cabbages were completely stripped. However, leaves have been growing back now. I am now wondering if there is any point in leaving the cabbages i.e. will there still be a reasonable result?
Tracey

07. Oct, 2010

Hi Claudia,
If your cabbage leaves are growing back, there may be some hope for them although the cabbage may not produce a head just leaves, it depends on how severe the attack was by the pests and whether it stunted its growth. I would say just see how they go and after a month or so if they are recovering leave them in.
Thanks
Tracey