[fred basson]

g'morning, I have just joined this forum today, I live on the sunny south coast of England, and would love to remove the white butterfly netting, from my brassicas, so they can grow, unhindered.    does anybody out there know roughly when the cabbage white's egg laying season is over??,  my allotment is still, (2nd. sept.) plagued by the airborne beasties!!

[8doubles]

http://butterfly-conservation.org/679-605/large-white.html


http://butterfly-conservation.org/679-604/small-white.html

There you go !

[8doubles]

And welcome to the forum !

[mumofstig]

Welcome to the forum

All the while it is warm enough for them, there will be butterflies.

I'll move this over to the GYO part of the forum, where more people will see your post.

[spadework]

Welcome to the forum from me too.

I always leave the barrier material on the brassicas until the end of October. Even then there my still be one or two caterpillars in  warm autumn but hopefully not too many.

[azubah]

Welcome.
I would not trust those cabbage white caterpillars.

[victoria park]

There is another answer this time of year.
I'm very fussy early on to protect smaller plants from the butterflies, and my plot is a sea of enviromesh in places. But this time of year, although of course the problem still exists, I start to take a different approach. Off come most of the nettings, with those nets remaining more there for the birds than butterflies. Fewer young plants around, and more time to check plants. Only my sprouts tend to be still covered.
Basically, my answer this time of year is to revert to the old method of checking carefully every other day for eggs and caterpillars and squishing them. The sun isn't so bright and they're easier to see for one thing. I don't know why I have ended up with this policy, but it feels right in late Summer. I wouldn't dream of doing it like this earlier in the season, when plants are small, and other pests are foiled by the mesh as well.

[sunshineband]

Welcome to the forum Fred 

We end up netting brassicas all year round...enviromesh-style through until the end of October, then bird netting after that to keep the pigeons off. We change over as the finer mesh is quite wind resistant and our site is very open. The bird netting saves frames from being demolished in gales.

This season we have had the best cabbages ever, as they have enjoyed the slight shade too I think