Your brassica seedlings come with free bugs. I’ve never seen a six-pack of broccoli starts at a nursery that don’t have a few holes in the leaves from caterpillars, or a collards plant without an aphid or ten.
This is not a big deal.
Nonetheless, before you plant it’s good to scan the leaves for these bugs and eliminate them so that the plants get a less interrupted start to life in your garden.
This week I planted some seedlings of cabbage, cauliflower, and kale that I bought at a local nursery. I scanned them and wiped off some caterpillars and aphids. I found the bugs on both sides of the leaves and on different parts of the leaves.
Then I planted and watered them in.
Nature will happen, and new bugs will eventually find the plants. That’s okay. Here are some posts for dealing with that:
“Controlling aphids on broccoli and cauliflower: an experiment with the kids”
“Green caterpillars on brassicas”
But cleaning the seedlings before planting can only help. This is what we’re aiming hoping for:
Lots more about growing brassicas:
“Growing broccoli and cauliflower in Southern California”
“Spacing and interplaning broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage”
“The economics of homegrown broccoli”
There are no ads on my Yard Posts because of generous gardeners like you, which I call my Supporters. Thank you.
A cabbage worm can eat a seedling down to the ground. If they were smart, they would hold off and let it grow, plenty more for everybody. Unreported data from the “marshmallow test”: some entitled individuals ate both marshmallows, then made off with all the experimenters’ bags of marshmallows.
Hi Greg
Looking for a couple canary island date palms . Do you have any recommendations of North county San Diego nursery’s ?
What causes-small reddish spots on healthy leaves of avocados ? Thank you for your time .
Happy Harvesting
Respectfully
Steve from Alpine