Cabbage worms didn't find my brocolli

My garden is organic so cabbage worms don't get sprayed. They get picked off and squashed but that method doesn't find them all. This year I tried something to keep from having so many cabbage worms. When I harvested the garlic I chopped the tops into about 1 inch pieces and laid them around under the brocolli and cabbage plants. I also planted my tomatoes in the next row, up wind from the cabbage and brocolli row. The prevailing wind blows the tomato smell over the broc and cabbage. I have picked about 6 of those green worms off the plants, that's all I found. Yesterday I processed 5 heads of brocolli for the freezer and found NO cabbage worms. I am not sure what worked, maybe both things, but I will do them again next year.

Thanks for the tip, Mary! I wonder if planting garlic next to cole crops will act in the same way? Or if it has to be chopped to release enough of the smelly stuff? Does anyone know? Sounds like an experiment coming up.

Wingnut,

Broccoli _is_ a cole crop. Brassica oleracea, just like cabbage, cauliflower, collards and kale, among others.

If it works for one it should work for all.

It wouldn't work for me, however. By the time the garlic was ready the worms would have turned my plants into green lace.

If you plant hyssop, rosemary, or thyme near your cole crops it deters both the white cabbage butterfly and the cabbage worms.

Yes, I know it's a cole crop. :) I used that term instead of brocolli as I know they all are affected by those little #@$%^$#.

What I was asking is will planting garlic next to them do the same as chopping and sprinkling. I'm thinking that if one times the planting right with pests repellance more in mind than garlic production, it may work.

Sorry, I misunderstood. Heat must be melting my brains.

Interplanting garlic between tomatoes seems to help deter some pests, so it might work with cole crops too. Certainly worth a try.

If you plan things out carefully, you can have your cake and eat it to. Decide where you're going to put the cole crops, then arrange your garlic to fit between them when you fall plant it. You can then get the benefit of any deterence, plus harvest the bulbs.

Once harvested, however, you'd probably have to try Mary's technique anyway, because the cabbage butterflies are still active.

Yeppers! I've been having regular brain farts lately. ;)

Thanks for the info, Brook. My Mom-in-law has a bajillion garlic plants from some her brother (or parents?) planted ages ago and I was thinking since there's that much, I could get some and plant them in with the cauliflower, brocolli, etc., this fall, leaving them the entire time the cole plants are there, which would be all winter. (Yes, I'd pump her for info and take pics to post here in case the garlic is a special old variety ~ wouldn't that be neat!)

I was also thinking of putting garlic in all the beds and leaving it in hopes it will deter many pests. Are there any plants that the garlic will hinder the growth of, that you know for a fact or have heard of it happening?

Then again, I like having my cake and eating it, too. Harvesting garlic would be great! I'll be trying fall-planting for a real harvest this year. I'm not very experienced in that ~ have always just stuck some plants off in one corner and let them go, pulling and using the greens when I felt like it.

My experience with planting garlic between the cabbage types is not as good as chopping the tops. Maybe one or two plants isn't enough. Plus, about the time the garlic needs to be dried up to harvest it the cole crops need lots of water! My planting of the tomatoes next to the brocolli and cabbage was purely by accident, but it may have had an effect as well. I wonder if laying the suckers from the tomatoes next to the cole crops would work. Wingnut, I have a catalog from Garden City Seeds that has more garlic varieties than I ever dreamed of, and also lots of interesting spuds. Maybe the garlic your mother in law has is listed in there (good reference book) or you could provide them with a new variety. Wouldn't that be cool!!They have both hard and soft neck varieties, one is planted in fall and the other in spring as I recall but maybe that is just for colder climates since they specialize in short season crops.

Thanks for the info, Mary! I'll have lots of the stuff to play with if I just go dig it, so I may interplant quite a bit and see what happens (this is assuming that our plans to finish the garden get done in time).

Yep, that would be insanely cool! I'm off to find Garden City Seeds and order a catalog!

Wingnut,

Does your mother-in-law have a name for that, or does she just call it "garlic."

It would be real nice if you could collect all the data possible for this family heirloom: name (if there is one), how long they've been growing it, what the original source was, etc.

Oh, you bet I will! It might be just another run-of-the-mill garlic that's found in backyards everywhere, but I realize it just may be something special. All I know so far is from Kenny (I asked him about it again this morning). He thinks, though isn't absolutely positive, that his grandfather planted it when he bought the land way back when. His grandfather died 30 years ago, so unless his mother tells me different, it's been there atleast that long.

Kenny and I have an old a family photo album with some pics of his mother's people in it. I plan to show it to her and get her to help put names to the faces in the pictures. I'm hoping that when we show it to her, it may jog her memory of "old times" and while she's in that mood, I plan to ask her about the garlic ~ not just name, how long it's been there, etc., but absolutely anything she can remember about it. has she given it to anyone else? How did her mother use it? Etc. It's all kind of exciting! At the very least, it's a source for a LOT of garlic that we'll cherish!

Those cabbage moths came looking again and did find the cabbage/brocolli row. The garlic must have worn off, so I snipped some suckers off the tomatoes and laid them across the tops of the plants. In a few minutes I didn't see any more of those white moths. I hope I was in time but just in case I'll keep a sharp eye out for the worms. They must mature quickly and produce several generations per season. Anybody know?