[Benandbill]

Who thinks it would be safe to do it now?  Autumn is here, it's cooler in the mornings and nights, butterflies should now not be in such abundance - or so I hope?!?!  The plants are bigger now so would the birds still go for them? 

[DD.]

I never, ever take my nets off. (Well, only to harvest & weed).

My pigeons would strip the toughest brassicas.

[Benandbill]

Hmm, it's just I don't have proper frames DD, I have them threaded through plastic tubing and I'm worried the nets could be stifling the growth.  The purple sprouting broccoli have a long way to go as they grow tall so and they're already bursting to get out.  I'm going to have to un, nut the psb at some point anyway.

Think I'll err on the side of caution with the cabbage and caulis then - ta.

[DD.]

The pigeons on our plot will strip PSB in the wink of an eye, it's the first to go after the brussel tops.

I seriously do recommend having them netted, even it it means some extra work.

[asd1]

I un netted mine two weeks ago, birds are fine but caterpillars are everywhere ! 

[Salmo]

Plenty of cabbage whites on my plot yesterday. A couple of weeks and they will probably be less active or too late to do damage.

When you take the nets off you could erect a cover of big mesh net to keep pigeons off.

[sunshineband]

Plenty of cabbage whites on my plot yesterday. A couple of weeks and they will probably be less active or too late to do damage.

When you take the nets off you could erect a cover of big mesh net to keep pigeons off.

I change my netting over at the end of October, to a wider holed one just for pigeons. This is because the weight of snow on the fine mesh woudl cause my frame to collapse

[Nikkithefoot]

I've had to make bigger hoop and use 3 pieces of netting to keep my sprouts covered. A veritable PIA for weeding, but will be worth it come sprout picking time.

As DD says brassicas aren't safe to be let out alone 

[Babstreefern]

You have got to be joking - come to my plot and find lots of white cabbage butterflies and I've dug up loads of catterpillers .  A fortnight ago, I went on my plot and nothing was wrong that I could see.  I even tapped the sprouts to see if there were any whitefly - which was mentioned on these pages.  But today, they were like lace .  So no, dont' remove your netting as yet.  Personally, white cabbage was so tough, I wouldn't be surprised if they flew when its snowing, you don't see them because they merge into the background

[operabunny]

In a word, NO!!!

The cabbage whites seem to be at their peak right now.

The birds might not be giving you trouble yet, but as autumn sets in they will start getting more hungry and then bye bye brassicas...

[AnneB]

I would take a lead from others in your area.  What eats brassicas seems to be quite local.   At our allotments, it is only necessary to net against birds when they are quite young plants.   

Later on, it is better to take the nets off, as I discovered to my cost.  The biggest nuisance here later on is the slugs, who protected from the birds by the nets, proceeded to feast on my summer cabbage Precoce de Louviers - they seemed to be especially partial to this variety.

Now I have taken the nets off, the cabbage, red cabbage, swede, pak choi and cavolo nero are doing fine.

However in our garden 2 miles away, the wood pigeons will eat anything, so I grow all my brassicas at the lottie now.