[Solidthegreat]

Hi all, My first year at growing Sprouts, and have currently got 6 plants about 10-12 inches high with about 5-6 leaves on each plant. I have them covered with nets at the moment and they are now touching the top of the net. My question is at what point do i take the nets off and what pests will devour them. or should i put bigger nets up? Thanks

[mumofstig]

You either take the nets off and squash eggs/caterpillars every day or put up higher netting The choice is yours 

[cooperman]

my netting is suspend at least 4ft off the ground so at no stage the plants are getatable...
I us pond netting which has a much finer mesh than standard crop netting (and is much stiffer too), the pesky cabbage white cant squeeze thru that.......

[DD.]

No net = no plants for me, whatever stage of development they're at.

Pigeons would have them before the caterpillars.

If your nets are touching the plants, the butterflies can still lay eggs on them, so they're pretty ineffective now from that point of view.

[JohnB47]

I agree with DD.

I net mine from the start and eventually build a tall net cage around them. The size of netting I've used in the past doesn't stop the cabbage white butterflies so I've just had to collect catterpillers when they hatch (I dump them off site - I can't bear to kill them).

I saw a post recently where someone showed how they built a cage using water pipe covered with some sort of fleece. It was built into a frame so that he/she could lift the whole thing off for access and the fleece stopped every creature getting at them.

I might try that this year.

[potatogrower]

used bigger netting from the start, as you know they will grow big and butterflies will do  their business on them. used 5ft bamboo stakes, made a small split on the top with a knife and pushed the netting in the split and netting on the sides held in place by broken bricks.