Pigeons and Brassicas

[Hector]

This may be a silly question BUT do you have to net brassicas for their life OR is it just when they are smaller. We live in Pigeon-Heaven...loads of Woodies in the trees here...so wondering if I can only grow Kale under permanent protection?

[Hector]

[katynewbie]

Last year I netted mine as babies and then left them to it, without protection, once they were about 9 inches tall. They did ok, the whitefly was more of a problem than any bird!

[SPUDLY]

Hi Hector
Pigeon's will strip the leaves of young plants so it's best to net them. Once they are established you could remove the covering, but that's not the only threat. Cabbage white butterflies are a right pain, and will cause great damage to brassicas. You should be fine at this time of year. Check out this link.

http://www.dgsgardening.btinternet.co.uk/cabwhitelge.htm

[OllieC]

We have a lot of pigeons & need to net the whole time - especially the winter when there's not much else around for them to eat. You need a wide mesh for winter to let the snow through but not the pigeons, otherwise the snow pulls down the net & they help themselves.

[Hector]

Spudly. I netted last year and din't use the right gauge. My broccoli were destroyed by caterpillers. There were so many they were climbing up walls of house into first floor bedrooms. My daughter now has a thing about them. Never seen so many, like something out a horror movie :(

I want to have a lot of Kale and have debris netting but wondered how folk cope with say more than 6 plants f they have to cover them :)

[claybasket]

We have pidgons,butterflys,monk jacks,the lot,we got so fed up with the loss,hubby made frames that take up to six cabbages all barssica really,tryed too types of netting but still butterflys got in i swore i saw one fold its wings to get in ?but this year we beat them all with scaffolding netting we cut it to size and using a heavy duty stappler it was brill, also fine net curtain from Ikea,we got the best cabbages and cawlis ever ,there is still plenty of light gets through the netting .

[Alex133]

You can get slightly finer gauge netting which will keep butterflies out - got mine from Gardening Naturally - very good with fast delivery.

First year with allotment took netting off my cabbages in late winter - they disappeared down pigeon throats in no time.

[Ellen K]

Our pigeon population is unforgiving and it is getting worse - they've gone for lettuce and swede this year.  Brassicas would be striped in a day.

[pumkinlover]

Agree with DV there was never a problem over winter until last year but the population increases and the hard winter made them hungry (not surprising).
Most everyone covers all brassicas now, most that do not loose all the leaves :-[

[Robert_Brenchley]

Pigeon problems seem to var wildly from one place to another. I've been getting away with it for the last couple of months, but I have to net most of the year. Even the largest plants are liable to have their leaves torn apart and devoured.

[Hector]

I never realised till I grew veg why my neighbour had such a thing about Wood pigeons. They look so thick and harmless!

[SPUDLY]

Hector,
When i first got my plot and was new to gardening i left everything out in the open. That was my first mistake. Cabbage white butterflies layed so many eggs that i could not keep up with them. The second year i searched the internet for some netting. Scaffold net was the cheapest i could find, 50 metres long by 2 metres wide, delivered for about £26 from eBay. This stuff is worth it's weight in gold. I have since constructed a fruit cage big enough to house my fruit and some of my veg.

[Monkey Brains]

Pigeons might ignore Brassica's for now as there is plenty of other stuff for them to eat, but  deeper into winter come Nov/Dec/Jan when veg plots become more empty bare, they'll strip a plant down to nothing when they're hungry....

[ajb]

I need netting  on mine all the time. I use enviromesh so that it keeps the butterflies and most aphids off too. There's a picture of mine here:

http://abseeds.blogspot.com/

I used some discount metal poles on these to raise the netting up, on others I've used thick plastic tubing and that work well unless you leave it on when it snows!

[Digeroo]

We had a particualar problem when it snowed, most things were covered  but anything sticking out soon disappeared, both the pigeons and the muntjac were tucking in from the top which the rabbits nibbled anything they could reach.

I do find bits of hawthorn stuck in the top of the PSB is quite good protection.

[Hector]

I will net with a vengeance then :)