It has been rainy and cool these last few days, which has caused us to stay inside. Well, I got a chance today to get out and stretch my legs a little. I made a point to do a checkup on the IBC tank garden. What I found was appalling. In the period of just a day or two, something had almost completely decimated several of the vegetables.
The leaves on the turnip greens and watermelon radishes were almost completely stripped. The leaves that were left showed what almost looked like scarring. What caused this you might ask? Well, after some research, I think I have found the problem.
I believe this is called a cabbage worm. If not caught early they will not only eat greens and radishes, they will eat other plants like broccoli, cauliflower, and kale. They have a relatively quick cycles and multiply quickly. From what I have read, there are a few solutions to combat this problem. Some of those being handpick the worms off, traps that capture the bugs, spray the plants with solutions or some have said that sprinkling cornmeal on the leaves will help and the final fix I found is that you could purchase a certain type of predator that will attack the eggs.
With it being late in the year and our growing season about over, I think the option that I will go with is to just remove them by hand. This is an issue that we have never encountered before in our larger garden, so before I put anything on our plants, I want to do a little more research. This infestation occurred in our IBC tank garden, so handpicking them off will not require a lot of time. Luckily, I was able to catch the problem before they started on my lettuce. I am hoping that the affected plants will be able to pull out of this, but we will have to wait and see.
Thanks for reading!
