[Tykelad]

Hi all,

Still new to this as its only our second year of growing. My question is....last year my brassica's got hammered by all things flying and i ended up putting string and cd's etc but to be honest it looked like steptoe's yard so this year i figured i would buy some cloche's. The question is what sort should i get ? poly, netting, fleece ? Whats the best ? Do i need to remove them to water ? I need them to be 3m long for for my 3m X 1.5m raised beds.

Thanks in advance.

Neil & Emm

[mumofstig]

netting.................it would be too hot under fleece or poly for the brassicas.
mesh needs to be 7mm or less to keep butterflys out.
You'd have to get a cloche with big hoops though cos if the leaves touch the sides, they can lay eggs through the holes, onto the leaves.

[Yorkie]

Cloches are unlikely to be big enough to protect the plants all season.

Brassicas tend to be attacked by cabbage white caterpillars (cabbages in particular) and by pigeons / other birds.

To protect against both, you need netting with a mesh size of less than 7mm.  Enviromesh is great, Harrod Horticultural have an offer at the moment (see the Frugal Living board for a relevant post there and try to access the offer by clicking through from 'Allotment Shop' near the top of the page), or debris netting.

*Snap, MoS* 

[brownp]

On our allotments, most people use blue water pipe across the beds to make a tunnel shape and then drape the netting over - in essence a netted cloche.

[Kleftiwallah]

There is stuff called "enviromesh".    That's the stuff for you.    Cheers,   Tony

[kevinp]

Or scaffold netting 3mtr wide by 50 mtrs long for £38.00 if you look around.

[Nadlen]

This will be perfect. I've ordered 10m one for myself just now.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/englishseadog/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562

[Irene]

Call me crazy but I tried marigolds last year...planted them randomly throughout my garden, and white flies were simply not a problem. I will use cloches at times this year but definitely have several trays of marigolds ready to go out when required.

[mumofstig]

You think marigold stop cabbage white butterfly from laying eggs?

Not here they don't 

[Irene]

mumofstig:

I tried them because of something I read on an organic gardening site...I wouldn't depend on them...I'm not that foolish...but I did not have the problem last year that I had the year before so I'll plant some more.

In any event the garden looks pretty.

[Nadlen]

I planted some marigolds between my toms last year. Didn't have any ( visible ) pests.
As for cabbages...I used fleece,nets,bug killer,ash,Fairy+water but they got munched anyway,except some Savoy ( though it stopped growing at some point,only had small heads ). And all nasty flying,jumping,crawling munchers with huge hungry mouths were up there through ALL spring,summer and WINTER,especially tiny white fly. Ain't they afraid of cold???!!!!!!! GRRR! Going to build massive cage with 1mm net so none sneaks in.  

PS: Toms were killed by blight  So meh...