Right there hiding in plain sight I found it...yes that would be a cabbage looper. As I kept searching I found a total of six on this plant and one more on another. I really should have sprayed BT earlier in the month when I came across the first looper.
As I was hunting loopers I also found gray aphids happily sucking the live out of my brocolli floret. Nothing a good sharp stream of water couldn't handle. I will need to check on the brocolli more often to keep these peats at bay.
On a more pleasant note the sugar snap peas gave me a nice little harvest today.
This English cucumber will be ready for picking in a few days. This will be my last one for the season.
The brussels sprouts in bed 1 are growing very slowly. But what can you expect when they are only getting one to two hours of sun. Yes sadly it is that time of year when I have little to no sun in the garden.
Photo below: Brussels sprouts
Photo below: Bed 2 at 1:30 this afternoon. This is the bed that gets the most sun this time of year.
Bed 2 at 3:00 this afternoon. I planted some lettuce and spinach in some of the empty squares.
Photo below: It's getting too cold for the basil so I pulled out what was left.
Photo below: The carrots in bed 3 get about two hours of filtered sun.
Photo below: Bed 3 all cleaned up and ready for spring.
Photo Below: Bed 4 gets no sun at all. I had planted lettuce and spinach but they are slow to grow.
I may get one or two small harvests out of bed 4.
Photo Below: Butterhead lettuce.
This weekend we will finish building the potato bins. I promise to post some photos when they are completed.
Those cabbage loopers can sure do some damage. I've found that the only way to keep my cole crops intact is to inspect every leaf daily. I know...pretty pathetic, but very effective. It's so sad that your garden gets so little sunlight in the winter months. I feel fortunate to have an area that has plentiful sunshine throughout the year.
ReplyDeleteEG hope you are feeling better. Yes those loopers are little devils. I don't want to spray anything in my garden if I can help it and since I'm off work all this week I will be on looper patrol. You are very fortunate to have a sunny garden. Come February I will get alittle more sun and then it's all good from there.
ReplyDeleteLiisa - I'm feeling somewhat better, but the coughing will take a long time to get over. My personal feelings about spraying chemicals, is that if there are no pollinators present (which are not necessary for cole crops), I get pretty aggressive. BT works great for caterpillars, but my main problem with the cabbage earlier in the year were slugs. I'll do something different next year.
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