[Paul Rhodes]

My 10yr old son and me have a small garden plot, just for us to tinker while we wait for an allotment allocation. As we are novices to this woderful hobbie or passion certain things are unknown to use, but we know some things. We have planted some cauliflower and cabbage which he has grown from seed but to our disbelief we have noticed something has had a free meal on us. All that is mostly left are stalks, some are ok but 60/70% have been eaten, we have put some pellets down for slugs and since then we have had a number of snails found dead in and around our patch. Someone has said birds enjoy these also, messing will see to that. Is there anything else we can do or put down to prevent this happening, eg planting near onions etc...please help.

[chris.selvey]

Hi, you must cover all brassica plants with some sort of netting. Cheaper netting, which can be picked up at poundland is alright for fighting off the birds. But it is advised that you go for some more expensive netting which is better quality and will last for much, much longer. You can usually find it under builders/gardening netting on ebay. This netting is much more thinner and stronger. You would be protected from the birds, but also smaller pests like greenfly and white fly which will come later in the year.

Hope this helps

[peterjf]

slugs , snails ,butterflies , catapillers ,greenfly, aphids,black fly , white fly, cats,

the short list of what we vegetable growers are up against , good luck lol

[gobs]

Pigeons quite characteristically leave the inner veins and stalks behind of a leaf, get a fine mesh netting as suggested. And then, there are the other critters as Peter says.

[Salmo]

Slugs and snails have rasping mouthparts and leave a ragged edge. Pigeons snip bits off with their beaks leaving cut edges.

[skeltonsuperstud]

If slugs have 'munched' the leafy part of the seedling will the cabbage grow if slug pellets are then placed around the stalk that is left or is it now dead and better off starting to grow from scratch and placing plenty of pellets around?

Cheers folks

[chris.selvey]

Yes, it would grow back eventually. But i advise you to replace it because by the time it has its primary leaves back, it would be too late and not worth the long wait and attention it needs.