Who is eating my broccoli? (pics)

[MrsJustice]

Originally Posted by Labradors2

That sounds interesting, but what exactly are you doing? Are you spreading the seeds all around the plants? Are you putting them ON the plants to be protected? They sound a bit hazardous if you have to wear gloves to touch them .

Linda

This is the hottest pepper 'I have every grown. I have to wear gloves because it hard to wash off my hands. My husband loves them, but it is to hot for me to eat, so I us them to control pest. Yes, I am spreading the seeds and skin around the plants. It works better than cayenne peppers. But, I love to eat the cayenne peppers!!!!

[Labradors2]

Originally Posted by MrsJustice

This is the hottest pepper 'I have every grown. I have to wear gloves because it hard to wash off my hands. My husband loves them, but it is to hot for me to eat, so I us them to control pest. Yes, I am spreading the seeds and skin around the plants. It works better than cayenne peppers. But, I love to eat the cayenne peppers!!!!

That sounds very interesting! I'm not a hot pepper consumer (I take my cayenne in capsules!) (LOL) I was thinking that it would be easy to take the spice shaker into the garden and sprinkle cayenne that way, but your super-hot peppers sound even better! I bet they would deter the K9 thieves as well!

Linda

[TomNJ]

Well I sprayed my broccoli, cauliflower, and brussells sprouts plants with BT this morning and grinned at all the caterpillars eating their last meal.

One question about the application. The instructions say to spray the tops and undersides of each leaf. It is my understanding that the caterpillars die from eating the treated leaves. Since they eat right through the leaves it seems they would get their deserved dose from just the top spraying. Spraying the undersides involves bending over, lifting and spreading each leaf and triples the time needed to treat the 70 plants. So how important is it to spray the undersides of the leaves?

I know that there are power sprayers with angled wands that make underside spraying easier, and I may consider that route if spraying becomes a habit, but for now I would love to just spray the top sides if it's effective, even if I have to spray more often.

TomNJ/VA

[MrsJustice]

Originally Posted by Labradors2

That sounds very interesting! I'm not a hot pepper consumer (I take my cayenne in capsules!) (LOL) I was thinking that it would be easy to take the spice shaker into the garden and sprinkle cayenne that way, but your super-hot peppers sound even better! I bet they would deter the K9 thieves as well!

Linda

Yes, cayenne pepper in any way is very good your body, even if you take capsules. But they just did not work for me as far as keeping away pest. For years I was sprinkling the cayenne peppers to keep the rabbits away, but it did not work, but it did hide the smell of the vegetables a little bit. The most funniest thing happen here on my heirloom farm this summer. I put down some Hatzs peppers around my purple kohirabi as something was eating them up badly. I watched those bugs pack their bags within minutes from my plants. They was running with some squash bugs I did not know about living in my garden. My kohirabis are doing very good now. The cayenne peppers are still growing around my kohirabi plants, but did little to protect the kohirabi plants to keep the pest away. So my little "Hatz Red Peppers" became my best friend for keeping the pest away.

[tjg911]

tom i agree with you, spraying the leaves, top or bottom, is all that is required. once the cats eat some any leaf with bt on it they have ingested the toxin. spraying the undersides of leaves is for people that are 23" tall.
you should be good for a while. BT breaks down in the sun after a while and rain will wash it off. the moths may not lay eggs again or if they do it may be far enough off that you'll need to spray again, it just depends how active they are.

i only sprayed my broccoli plants 2 or 3 times just cuz i had some left over from the cabbages. the cabbages had holes in the leaves on all 3 plantings so i knew i had to spray them but once sprayed they never needed it again. the broccoli didn't show any signs but if they were on the cabbages the broccoli plants were just 2' to the south.

tom

[MrsJustice]

Originally Posted by TomNJ

Well I sprayed my broccoli, cauliflower, and brussells sprouts plants with BT this morning and grinned at all the caterpillars eating their last meal.

One question about the application. The instructions say to spray the tops and undersides of each leaf. It is my understanding that the caterpillars die from eating the treated leaves. Since they eat right through the leaves it seems they would get their deserved dose from just the top spraying. Spraying the undersides involves bending over, lifting and spreading each leaf and triples the time needed to treat the 70 plants. So how important is it to spray the undersides of the leaves?

I know that there are power sprayers with angled wands that make underside spraying easier, and I may consider that route if spraying becomes a habit, but for now I would love to just spray the top sides if it's effective, even if I have to spray more often.

TomNJ/VA

Sorry I got off subject. But for the last year now, I have been telling all my farming organic secrets because my children are not interested in farming historical plants. It Is very hard work, sometimes I just wants to go hybrids to make it easier. But, We The Heirloom Farmers must continue some how!!!

[MrsJustice]

Originally Posted by Labradors2

That sounds very interesting! I'm not a hot pepper consumer (I take my cayenne in capsules!) (LOL) I was thinking that it would be easy to take the spice shaker into the garden and sprinkle cayenne that way, but your super-hot peppers sound even better! I bet they would deter the K9 thieves as well!

Linda

I took my dogs outside while saving some Hatz Pepper Seeds on the back Deck {They ran from me all over the yard}. It was so funny. I had to clean all the peppers smell off me, before I could get them back in the house. So Yes. It works on K9!!!!!

[ginger2778]

Originally Posted by MrsJustice

I took my dogs outside while saving some Hatz Pepper Seeds on the back Deck {They ran from me all over the yard}. It was so funny. I had to clean all the peppers smell off me, before I could get them back in the house. So Yes. It works on K9!!!!!

[northernimpala]

wouldn't BT kill all caterpillars? Good butterflies etc. response to the above post.

[gssgarden]

How long before you can eat food that may have come in contact with BT?

Obviously I would try my best to keep it clean but those caterpillars are a pain in the rear on my Broccoli!!! lol

Thanks!

Greg

[TomNJ]

Originally Posted by northernimpala

wouldn't BT kill all caterpillars? Good butterflies etc. response to the above post.

It will only kill the caterpillars that eat the treated leaves, which for the cabbage family (includes broccoli and cauliflower) is the cabbage white moth caterpillar. When they ingest it, it paralyzes their digestive system and they stop eating within hours. Bt does not have a broad spectrum of activity, so they do not kill beneficial insects. It is organic, has no objectionable odor, and is easy to apply - just dilute and spray. Killed all of the caterpillars on my plants and the plants recovered fully.

Originally Posted by gssgarden

How long before you can eat food that may have come in contact with BT?

According to the label, you can spray up to the day of harvest. It's a naturally occurring bacterium common in soils throughout the world and is apparently harmless to humans.

TomNJ/VA

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by northernimpala

wouldn't BT kill all caterpillars? Good butterflies etc. response to the above post.

In more response to the above response many butterflies and moths go to only one type of plant and that is it.

Worth

[gssgarden]

Thanks Tom! Great to know! Never used it before but I will try it in the fall.

Greg

[tjg911]

just as a reminder BT will kill butterfly caterpillars, it kills all caterpillars so be careful with the spray. i let milkweed grow in the garden and monarchs lay eggs on that plant. i usually pull any milkweed growing near the broccoli and cabbages and let it grow elsewhere. also spraying tomato plants for the hornworm watch that over spray for the same reason.

tom

[northernimpala]

Originally Posted by TomNJ

It will only kill the caterpillars that eat the treated leaves, which for the cabbage family (includes broccoli and cauliflower) is the cabbage white moth caterpillar. When they ingest it, it paralyzes their digestive system and they stop eating within hours. Bt does not have a broad spectrum of activity, so they do not kill beneficial insects. It is organic, has no objectionable odor, and is easy to apply - just dilute and spray. Killed all of the caterpillars on my plants and the plants recovered fully.



According to the label, you can spray up to the day of harvest. It's a naturally occurring bacterium common in soils throughout the world and is apparently harmless to humans.

TomNJ/VA