Holes in the Broccoli

[brandon558]

I have 9 broccoli plants that are doing well....some of them I have noticed are starting to get holes in the leafs as if something is eating on the roots maybe? Any advise on what I could do to fix this problem?

Thanks

[applestar]

Have you seen white butterflies flying around? Cabbage whites have been out since last month, and I killed my first 1/2" caterpillar yesterday. Look for tiny creamy white eggs standing on their ends under the leaves as well as the very well camouflaged fuzzy cabbage green caterpillars.

In your warmer location, you could also already be getting cabbage moths/looper caterpillars as well as diamondback moth caterpillars that lay their eggs at night. They leave waxy flat yellow as well as green torpedo shaped bumps under the leaves and looper caterpillars "loop" like inchworms and diamondbacks have black pattern on their backs. The moths are more persistent and pernicious than the butterfly caterpillars which are just difficult to find.

If hand picking is not an option for you, then you may want to use Bt.

If absolutely no caterpillars or eggs are present and things have been wet lately, slugs are also very likely culprits.

[rainbowgardener]

Yes, my broccoli are getting riddled with holes, which I am very convinced is slugs. I dusted with diatomaceous earth and slowed the damage down, but then we had huge rains, so now I need to do it again.

I again tried the beer trap and again got no takers. My slugs just don't seem to be drinkers!

Slugs are only out at night, so you will never see them unless you come out at night with a flashlight.

[Fig3825]

I found it quite amazing when I went to visit my garden one night last year and the slugs were EVERYWHERE! Where the heck do those buggers hide during the day? I spent half an hour just flicking them off the plants. My fingers were 2 x bigger just from the crusty slime I picked up whilst flicking them off!

[orgoveg]

I don't know if your problem is slugs, but I tried slug bait/killer this year and it works! It's just iron phosphate, so no worries about harsh chemicals. I sprinkled it around the perimeter of the areas that the slugs like to eat.

I used to go around at night with a flashlight and squish them. I won't be doing that any more.

It is Ortho "ecosense" brand slug and snail killer. I found it at Home Depot.

[GardenGnome]

With this odd weather I missed picking mine and I can see the flowers starting to grow can I still eat mine?

[rainbowgardener]

Yup, definitely. The flowers are just as edible. Also the leaves. Broccoli is quite closely related to cabbage and those leaves are not very different from cabbage leaves.

[brandon558]

Thanks for the replys...hopefully the problem is solved!

[GardenGnome]

That's great thanks.

[SLC]

Did you solve the problem? I had the same problem last year, and I never found out what was eating the leaves, but I had heard to try sprinkling cayenne pepper on the leaves, so I did, and it worked! It's worth a try anyway, and even better, I already had it in my spice rack!