[rainie]

I went to my local garden club last night, hadn't managed to go much last year due to work, but this year, it's in my diary to go each month.  

Anyway, apparently if you place a little piece of cut rhubarb in each hole where you plant a young plant, the plant will eventually soak up some of the chemical from the rhubarb and the bugs will leave the plant alone. (This doesnt include birds). Has anyone tried this or heard of it?

[BabbyAnn]

Rhubarb contains oxalic acid which eaten in large concentrations is poisonous - however, these are concentrated in the leaves and only a small amount is found in stems (otherwise it would be inedible)  Oxalic acid in its pure form is a strong acid so is more likely to react with minerals in the soil, notably calcium to form oxalates.

IMO, I would not think putting a small piece of rhubarb in a planting hole would make any difference in controlling pests.  More likely it will compost down and simply provide some trace nutrients to the plant.

[DD.]

As much rubbish as putting a piece down to prevent club root.

I tried it once - still got club root AND plenty of whitefly, (always do).

[bigben]

I agree that it sounds unlikely that it would have much effect. Might be better to spray a solution of rhubarb on the plant and hope the bugs dont like the taste or get confused by the smell!

[BabbyAnn]

I agree that it sounds unlikely that it would have much effect. Might be better to spray a solution of rhubarb on the plant and hope the bugs dont like the taste or get confused by the smell!

Now I wonder - some people do make an evil brew from rhubarb leaves (soaked and rotted until it is a stinking mess) and use it to water the brassicas about the same time that cabbage white butterflies are out.  It is said the smell is so overpowering that the butterflies can't "smell" the brassica plants to lay the eggs.

[mumofstig]

I remember watching a TV programme showing Terry Walton doing just that, and the cabbage whites were flying all around him (and his cabbages) while he was spraying them. They didn't seem at all bothered 

[gobs]

They surely deter me.

One year I had some desparete cabbage whites laying on spinach likes. Now they do not have that much oxalic acid as rhubarb or an extract thereof, just saying though, that it might not do much.

[Auntiemogs]

I'm with gobs on this one...