Are Brussel Sprouts Safe To Eat After A Cabbage Worm Infestation?

Supposedly. If you thoroughly examine and wash them, Brussel Sprouts are safe to eat even if the plant has been ravaged by cabbage worms. That's what they say, anyway.

I think I'll pass. Call me paranoid, but after reading articles such as this about parasitic infections, I'm a little leery of eating something from a plant that I know has been infested.

What a shame! I love Brussel Sprouts. I was looking forward to having them fresh and organic from my garden, instead of the ordinary store bought kind. As you can see from the first picture in this post, they're growing nicely too! Not so much in the second picture, where you can see some worm damage.

Maybe next year I'll get some nets to cover the plants and keep the butterflies off. Meanwhile I guess these plants will get pulled and tossed...




Plant Avenue Home

How To Stop Cats From Eating Plants

I love my cats. I also love my plants.

Cats need to eat greens, for hairball management, extra vitamins and fibre. They prefer grass, but if they're stuck indoors they may turn to house plants instead. House plants with long slender grass-like leaves. House plants like mine! (sigh)

Since some plants are poisonous to cats, and since the plants no longer look as nice once they've been chewed on, I thought a quick review of cat deterring strategies would be useful.

• Water bottle squirts! Having direct personal experience with this one (think "keeping my cats away from new leather couches") I know this would work for plants as well.
• Offering planted cat grass for them to have instead.
• Placing the plant on some plastic carpet runner with the pointy side up (ouch! aw, that's just mean ;)
• Surrounding the plant with tin foil - cats hate the noise and feel (again I can vouch for this one, having had success with it myself).
• Spray the leaves with vinegar (although some plants might not like this either).
• Try creating a homemade spray with ingredients such as lemon juice (not hot pepper sauce though because this can burn the cat's eyes).
• (Have you noticed that I haven't included "put your plant out of reach"? That's because my cat is an agile Manx who can climb and jump A.N.Y.W.H.E.R.E.) However, relocating plants might be a useful tip that would work for someone else.

So far, this time around, my cat has focused on one plant in particular, left all the others alone, and not had any ill effects from the plant she's been eating. I'm ok with that for now, but I'm glad to have some strategies in case the situation worsens in the future...


Plant Avenue Home

Mold On Zucchini Leaves

This is my latest gardening hurdle: there is powdery, grayish mold on many of my zucchini leaves. As it turns out, there are a few simple things you can try to combat this.

First and foremost - never put moldy leaves in your compost. The spores will survive and spread.

As for getting rid of mold on leaves, I was able to find three different organic solutions that can be sprayed directly on the plants to alleviate mold:

1. Chamomile tea. Make a strong brew and let it cool first before spraying. Chamomile tea is high in sulfur and is a natural fungicide.
2. Baking soda and water. Mix 1 tbsp of Baking Soda and 1 gallon of water and spray on leaves.
3. Skim milk and water. Combine at a 50/50 ratio and spray on. This remedy supposedly changes the pH of the surface of the leaves, which prohibits the mold from surviving.

PS - here's a handy link http://www.ghorganics.com/page15.html with more remedies for other plant diseases (in addition to mold).


Plant Avenue Home

Cabbage Worm

Aw, he's cute!!! Too bad he and his lil' buddies are devouring my pretty blue ornamental cabbage.

I picked off all the worms I could find yesterday, and tossed them in the yard as far away from the garden as I could (they turn into the Cabbage White butterfly so I didn't have the heart to kill them).

My edible cabbage in the back garden has also been devoured, and although I can't find any worms, I do recall seeing these lovely little white butterflies flitting about (ah-HA!).

The butterflies deposit their small eggs on the underside of the leaf. After a short time (about a week), the eggs hatch and the worms start munching away, nourishing themselves to make their chrysalis for the next generation of butterflies.

Hmmm.

I found a great article on this topic at EcoSMART, which includes a photo of the eggs, as well as several solutions including:

• Use floating row covers and/or nylon stockings to cover your plants.
• Remove and destroy the worms (does throwing them across the yard count? I'm thinking not, lol).
• Plant other things to deter these pests (such as RED cabbage, Mint, Sage, Rosemary, Thyme or Hyssop).
• Catch the butterflies with nets or sticky tapes.

They also sell their organic insectide, which is another option to try.

Another spray option, which I might try because I can mix it myself and is chemical free, is the combination of 1% garlic, 1% fish oil and 98% water. You can visit this site for more information on this.

Flour, dusted on the leaves when they're damp from dew or rain, also works. The worms eat the flour, become bloated, and die. I'm considering trying this as well, since it's a totally non-toxic option. This e-How article by Chris McLaughlin describes the flour method.

There are many things you can do to combat the Cabbage Worm - I'm planning to add to this post as I come across more information. Meanwhile, I guess I'll try one of the remedies described above and see what works!
_____________________________

PS - I just went out back and inspected my cabbage - I saw some eggs, although no big clusters of them - AND I saw some that had hatched into tiny baby worms (about 1-2 mm in length)!! Previously I had scanned for full grown worms and not seen any, but this time I looked closer...

Plant Avenue Home