brassicas and fleece?

[kitty]

how long are you supposed to leave your fleece on to deter the birdys?
i have a pigeon eyeing me brassicas as we speak......... ::)

[kitty]

[Mrs Ava]

Take your fleece off if you need it elsewhere and replace with netting.  The pigeons will have your brassicas when they are babies, toddlers, teenagers, twentysomethings, and oap's!

[kitty]

the berhoogers.
i suppose a rifle is out of the question? ;D

[Mrs Ava]

Oh I dunno..... ;)

[kitty]

blam! ;D

[undercarriage plan]

Last year, I very stupidly removed my fleece from my beautiful cauliflowers, only to have them devoured by catipillars :'(! If the birds don't get them, something will! This year, I'm fleecing everything in sight, if it grows, fleece it!! ;D

[kitty]

but for how long up?
foe ever?
aesthetics or veg i spose  :(

[BAGGY]

We have harvested our sprouts but, because we're lazy, left the stalk in the ground.  The d**n pidgies have munched them to within an inch of thier life.  Do you think if we keep them there they will leave the good stuff alone ?

[westsussexlottie]

Pull them out and burn them. Brassica stems are a great hide out for over wintering aphids...!

[LesH]

     To those of you having trouble with pigeons. Ask in you local G/Centre for bird scaring tape (thin green plastic tape). Put this between two canes several feet above your brassicas. Tension the tape. As the wind blows the tape "hums/vibrates". This noise is said to resemble a pigeons distress call. I've used this tape for about five years, it protects about four allotments either side of mine. This works for about 360 days a year, failing in the cold, windless, foggy, days of Novenber. Good Luck LesH.

[tim]

I think you may have been lucky, Les. It's certainly an attractive idea, but I wouldn't bet too heavily on it.  And since you have to have fleece or mesh over for the butterflies, why not leave that on?

If you do use tape, I seem to recall that you put it in place at the time of planting?

[Anne Robertson]

I use tape from an old video or cassette instead of buying stuff, as long as the two lines of tape are parallel and not twisted it makes a humming noise, I've also used old CDs strung along string to deter birds.  :D

[Charlotte Sometimes]

but for how long up?
foe ever?
aesthetics or veg i spose  :(

Erm, yup, I hear you on that one!

A lot of my stuff is under Enviromesh now.  I had caterpillars on my calabrese last year.  Although production didn't seem to be affected, I missed one when washing the veg for dinner one night and found it on my plate, lightly steamed and buttered!  Regrettably, I am not a fan of "bush-tucker". LOL

Last year I used no fleece and let a few self-seeding annuals grow around the veggies - wild poppies, petunia, also planted some marigolds.  It was a lot prettier, but at the end of the day, I prefer to eat the veg without having to worry about caterpillars.

[redimp]

I am planting french marigolds at more or less the same rate that I am growing brassicas in the hope that the smell of the marigolds will confuse butterflies.  I am also going to plant some unprotected nasturtians at the opposite end of my plt and when these become infested I will dig them up and do something imaginative - just haven't worked out what yet - they will probably go straight on the compost heep as I use plastic bins.

[kitty]

aaargh!charlotte!
:o...thats it!the fleece stays ON!!!!!!
clanger-i'd be interested to hear if that works......do butterflies have a sense of smell.......i sose they must have or they'd never find a flower would they..never thougth about it before....... :-\

[Mrs Ava]

teehee Charlotte.  I too have been munching my way through home grown kale only to come across a nicely blanched slug!  I am sure we have consumed 1 or 10 as I am not the most careful at washing the veggies (everyone makes note never to accept a dinner invitation from Emma).

[kitty]

 :-Xpass the buuuuuuuuuckeeeet!!
*kitty goes for lie down at the thought!* ;D

[ruudbarb]

blam! ;D

Missed..........but you can blame the holes on slugs if it is an airgun. ;D ;D ;D

[kitty]

 ;D