Caterpillars? In my broccoli?
This is our second summer on the boat, and therefore, my second summer to try to grow anything that isn’t a beginner-level herb on our back deck (though you’ll notice I still can’t say no to lavender, mint, rosemary, and basil!).
I was feeling a bit limited by our pots, however, so I spied an alternate use for an old drawer that used to be beneath the captains cabin bunkbeds. After drilling a bunch of drainage holes along the downhill edge and coating the whole thing in a layer of varnish, I filled it up with some compost and planted in a bunch of french bean and broccoli sproutlings I’d grown from seed in the wheelhouse (which doubles nicely as a greenhouse with all those windows!).
Here’s some shots of the garden as it is now, mid-summerish:
Now, you may be confused about the title, but I’d noticed a week or so ago that my broccoli was starting to look decidedly Emmentalish, and I found the cause to be an awful lot of very hungry caterpillars. Some are of the big black variety, and others are still only at the tiny green stage, but all have to be picked off every night and sent overboard to their watery graves so my poor plants have at least some hope of feeding us come Spring!
I’m hoping I’ve got the bulk of the critters and eggs now, so hopefully my tedious evening ritual of checking the underside of every single leaf won’t continue much longer… I’ve suddenly got a new respect for organic broccoli farmers!
Thankfully, they seem to not like the taste of beans at all, because the leaves are fine and I’m able to pick an extraordinary amount of them every single night. Here’s just one night’s picking, and I get this many about every night….
I’ve been told to pick the big ones regularly to make sure the plant keeps producing, so it means we’ve pretty much got a constant supply of really tasty green beans in the fridge at all times.
Brian, 5 August 2008, 01:14:
Just a note, in case you’re past the cabbage looper (or whichever nibbly caterpillars they are) pest problem: you might want to get some bigger pots for that broccoli. It’s a remarkably large and nutrient-hungry plant. In the event it never produces a head, you can still munch on the leaves. Treat ‘em like kale.
If you’re looking for an organic pest killer, you can use Bt on your brassicas. It’ll kill off larval insects once they take a bite, but it needs regular re-applications. There are organic and non-organic versions, so check the label. If it includes the phrase “inactive ingredients” or some such, it’s probably full of industrial byproducts, so you’ll probably want to pass.