Topic: grey creatures on my sprouting brocoli

[x1sjwebster]

Hi
I have just been out in the garden and noticed that some of my sprouting brocoli leaves were tightly curled up had a look and they seem to be alive with some form of egg or mould lots of grey mouldy looking eggs on the leaves this is my first year growing veg and i was hoping to stay as organic as humanly possible what have i been infested with there are also loads of ants around the plants that have been infected the plants pulled up out of the ground very easily and do not seem to have much of a root on them.
let me know what to do if anyone has any idea should have taken a picture but have burnt the affected plants to be on the safe side
thanks

[weedin project]

Sorry but "grey mouldy" I don't think I can help with, but ants and minimal roots I can confirm both go together.
Ants will nibble the roots and leave your plants weakened.  I have treated ants with powder in the past with limited success, but the biological ant-remover aka H₂O seems to work pretty well.  I've found the ants particularly successful in the greenhouse bed and under our bird bath - both places where there is not a lot of naturally occurring moisture.  I shifted a load of ants from a greenhouse bed simply by watering it copiously and regularly.  Funnily enough the sorry-looking spinach I was growing there really bucked up as a result.  Beware waterlogging by over-watering and creating damp-induced problems though, vegetable-growing life is a delicate and rarely perfect balancing act!
Sad to say, I think the plants you have thrown away that the ants had been at might well have survived and thrived once the little beasties were sorted.

[redimp]

The grey thing sounds like Cabbage Mealy Bug - does it have a waxy appearance.  Not an egg or mould but the bug itself.  If they are aphids, then the ants may be farming them - they eat something they excrete so protect them from predators.  They wash off with a strong jet of water and they can be brushed of a crushed.  Have also read on here that rhubarb tea kills them - macerate leaves for a couple of days and then spray on the leaves.

[westsussexlottie]

See my topic on cabbage aphids. Be careful they spread fast and go for the heart of cabbages too.
Ladybirds do not seem too keen on this type of bug as food...

[x1sjwebster]

having got a book on pests and diseases i can confirm that my greens are being attacked by cabbage mealy aphid these apparently also cause the leaves to turn yellow and die some form of mosiac virus? the good news is i have obtained some horticultural soft soap £4 which dilutes to 100 litres sprayed all my greens on friday both sides of the leaves and saturday morning they had already picked up seems to work really quickly i will have to keep spraying them about once a fortnight i am told or i could of course use a pesticide but am trying to stay organic apparantly if you grow nastursiums near your sprout and brocoli it will lure the aphids away will try that next year
thanks for all the helpfull comments