cabbage being EATEN and not by me.! HELP

yvonnehouli

i was watering my veg in the green house this evening when i noticed the roots of my chinese cabbage had been eaten in one raised bed. The whole plant came away in my hand and in a seperate pot of the cabbage i had the same problem.
They are about six feet from each other.
Please help????? very worried!!!!

michael brenock · Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 10:23 pm Post subject:

most likely the culprit is Cabbage Root Fly maggot. You probably had some member of the brassica (cabbage) family in the greenhouse overwinter or else the warm weather in April encouraged an early fly to lay eggs near your plants and the result is the maggots have hatched out in nice weather conditions under glass.> there is no control but prevention can be achieved by putting a small plastic collar around the stem at planting time.
michael brenock horticultural advisor (retired)

yvonnehouli · Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 10:29 pm Post subject:

thank you micheal you are very help full . i have just had a look outside and have noticed some little maggots where the roots are and they are about a centimetre long. Going to post up a picture so you have a better idea. Will they attack the rest of my plants or just the cabbage in the raised bed?

yvonnehouli · Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 10:31 pm Post subject:

this is what is left of my plant

Garlicbreath · Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 10:45 pm Post subject:

could they be vine weevil?

yvonnehouli · Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 11:04 pm Post subject:

i really dont know they are very much maggots anyway.

michael brenock · Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 10:36 am Post subject:

it could be the vine weevil but the vine weevil is more partial to slightly wooden stems. A close up look at the maggot will soon tell, if there are two prominent black eyes then it is weevil, far more serious than cabbage root fly because it has such a wide host range.
michael brenock horticultural advisr (retired)

tippben · Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 10:58 am Post subject:

Instead of buying plastic collars, circular cardboard cutouts from old boxes work too. Just weight them down with a few stones.

yvonnehouli · Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 6:56 pm Post subject:

what should i do with the compost i presume you cant use it again? where do i put it.

Garlicbreath · Posted: Wed May 11, 2011 9:28 pm Post subject:

Put it somewhere the birds can pick it over. They'll clean it in no time Smile

simonj · Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 12:13 pm Post subject:

I hate those things, hit the beds with supernemo (nemo.ie)

I had a touch of them, I really hate cabbage root fly and vine weevils