We have a great nursery here in town named Town and Country. They send out a monthly newsletter with all kinds of great info in it - this is one of their articles from the newsletter this month. I want to keep this info so it gets a post today! (Click on the link above for their website.)
Here is the article:
If you are like me, you probably don't like finding caterpillars in your broccoli. And you probably don't much like having to use chemical insecticides, either. So here's a simple, inexpensive solution. Lay row cover (available at Town & Country) over the plants to keep the bugs off. You can simply lay it over the plants as shown above or, as shared with me by a customer (who sent me pictures which for the life of me I can't seem to find now), you can build light portable frames out of 1x2 lumber and staple the row cover to the frames so they can easily be removed for harvesting, etc.
Yet another ingenious idea is to cover them individually. For each broccoli plant, you will need one of the smaller-sized wire tomato cages. Push the cage into the ground over the plant. Then place a mesh laundry bag (available at Town & Country for just this purpose) over the wire cage and pull the mouth down to the ground. Pull the tie string closed and this will keep the moths from laying the eggs that hatch into cabbage caterpillars. And you thought laundry bags were for laundry!
Click here for original article
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