A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Plant pests and problems nasturtiums & brassicas

So I have an issue & I am not happy about it. I am here to vent ('cause it won't fix things but it will make me feel a little better).

I was making my evening rounds through the veggie garden last evening, looking mostly for cabbage worms, and slugs on my lettuce (it was a slug weather weekend). I found, maybe 3-4 cabbage worms, total, on 18 brassicas-- in fact, none on the cabbages themselves.

Now, the cabbages are closest to the nasturtiums I planted specifically to help control cabbage worms. I have never planted nasturtiums before, and so I am thinking, "Well, this is good. Nasturtiums are a good companion for cabbage. Cool." AND THEN out of the corner of my eye I spy... a cabbage worm on a nasturtium leaf (they haven't started to blossom yet). And another, and another.

Oh oh. Did I not read all of those companion plant articles & so on correctly? I checked all my tables, I looked at pretty much every site and book about this and they all say brassicas helped by nasturtiums b/c the nasturtiums repel cabbage worms. And then I search for "nasturtium cabbage worm" and what to I see? About a 50/50 split, with 1/2 the results stuff on the benefit of nasturtium to cabbage, and the other 1/2 telling me things like this about the worm:



This really ticks me off. If nasturtiums are a good companion to cabbages BECAUSE they attract the worms away from cabbages, someone should just come right out and say this. I have no problem planting sunflowers behind tomatoes to attract aphids away from the tomatoes, because the sunflowers aren't going to be outdone by a bunch of aphids, but come on. I don't want chewed up nasturtiums out there (especially is they are at the very edge of the front yard veggie garden).

O.k. Thanks for letting me rant. Stupid cabbage worms.

I didn't specifically notice cabbage worms on my saturtiums the once or twice I grew them, but I did notice a small amount of damage from some sort of skipper larva...I am a "butterfly gardener," among other things, and plant some things to attract moths/butterflies, and tolerate a little damage on other things, but cabbage worms sometimes destroy one crop or more entirely. I imagine you know about Dipel Dust, bacillus thurengiensis ( a non-toxic biological control.) Hit 'em with that, it's the most effective thing I know of, better than soap, pepper spray, or even the dreaded Sevin.
Feel free, however, to vent, it's the next best thing to sending the little boogers packing!
(Care to come take care of my #$%$#$% asparagus beetles? GRRRR!

They seem to have gone. Just an ebb and flow .... Freaking cabbage worms.

Venting works. I'll pass on the beetles, thanks much.

M

Once my cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower are growing I'll come vent right with you. Those worms are so irritating and just plain and simple gross.

Thanks for the "Dipel Dust" reminder pepperearter.....I'll be sure to give it a try this year .... if I can find it in Canada.

By the way have any of you ever tried to use garlic spray. It's organic and I found a web site on the net that sells it especially for gardens and they say it should work for mosquitoes too?