A sad tale today people. Regular readers will know that on a trip to Poland to visit Eddy, I was inspired to start growing vegetables, so had a herd of cauliflower & broccoli seeds and some seed potatoes. Out of 50 odd Broccoli seeds only one grew, but did OK, and nearly 100 cauliflowers seeds leapt into action and I ended up running out of big plant pots (and space) so could only accommodate 12, and chose the best looking healthiest specimens. I gave them liquid food every 2 weeks and they grew beautifully, big leaves, lots of leaves, the rain doing them good. Just before I went to dog-sit down south for Ben, I noticed 2 of the cauli’s now had heads appearing, so, having researched cauliflower husbandry on google, I tied some of the plants leaves over them, as this keeps the cauliflower white, apparently they go brown if you don’t. Chuffed factor 10! Off I went to Ben’s, Phil dutifully taking on the watering duties. When I got home they looked a bit wilted, and I knew Phil had done the watering and anyway, plenty of rain going on most days, but they also had lots of holes in the leaves. I examined under the leaves and found a group of teeny tiny little yellow eggs, but on one leaf of one plant. I took them off straight away and sprayed my plants with a non-PC bug spray. (Sorry organic people, I know you can bugger about making up garlic or special detergent non harmful repellants, but I wanted these bugs annihilated with chemicals!) But still my plants looked more wilted each day. Then last weekend I noticed one plant was drooping, and where the stem had moved away from the soil I could see these wiggly horrid maggoty things. Major freak out!! I checked all the stems and they all were in the same boat. Disgusted factor 10! So back to google, and there I find there is something called a cabbage fly, and it is cunningly disguised as a house fly so you don’t notice or worry if one lands on a plant. But these cabbage fly buggers lay their eggs in soil, not just any soil mind, but soil where cabbages, caulis’s broccoli and that kind of veg grows. Apparently the maggoty things eat through the roots and kill the plant. Just to add insult to injury they are indestructible. No pesticide, bug spray home made organic shit will knock them off. You can remove them and another shed load will hatch the next day. Nothing for it but to bin the plants. All the bloody research I did on google about how to look after them and no-one mentioned a sodding cabbage fly! I, of course never typed in ‘what kind of maggoty things will kill your veg’ in the search engine so it’s my own fault. All that time and effort thwarted by maggots. Not to mention the spending on seeds, pots, compost, feed. Goddamit!!
Farewell Cauliflower Cheeses 
Fraggle's Otherverse 
Ugh, ugh, ugh! I stopped trying to grow any cruciferous veggies just because they were so attractive to bugs. I’ll stick with tomatoes, lettuce,hot chilis, and herbs.
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Yes, my pepper plant and herbs are doing grand, and my potatoes were a success so there is that!
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We just got back from our trip – only a few hours ago! So, we went to check on the garden. Tomatoes are fine, and we have a ton of hot chili peppers – now plucked and in the dehydrator. The fig is looking good, with only one gone to smash since we were gone when it ripened. More will be ready to eat in the next week, and I am more than happy about that. Good to be home.
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Blimey it seems only a couple of days ago that you were wondering which cameras to take! Dehydrators must be a USA thing as one of my other bloggers does that too, I’d never heard of one before.
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If the flies are indestructible, how do farmer’s manage to grow so many Caulis, I wonder? I’m sticking with dandelions and nettles myself, nothing seems to kill them. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Sorry. Farmers. There is no ‘.
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Prevention is the thing Pete, ‘floating row covers’ – those long plastic half domes you see in farmers fields, also for home grown you put a cardboard collar around the stem of the plants to prevent the flies laying their eggs in the first place. I am sticking with ASDA next year and just growing herbs and flowers!
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I did notice the price had gone up in Tesco. Even a small cauli is £1 now. Pesky flies!
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I think I said before I don’t bother with Caulis, and your pictures brought back bad memories, a real nightmare. If it make you feel a little better we have lost over 100 cabbage, well good for the rabbits, but little else. On the plus side we have picked more than 100kg of tomatoes so far with more to come 🙂 That’s the things with this gardening lark, you never know what nature will serve up next.
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Oh blimey, thats a lot of cabbage
Good news on tomatoes though, home made ketchup? 🙂
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Passata! No tins of toms here 🙂
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And this is why I don’t garden!
Well, that and laziness.
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Think I’ll be joining your club 🙂
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Oh no! I’m so sorry. All that hard work and dedication… 😦 That cauliflower looks beautiful. Were you at least able to harvest that one? I’m especially sad as I love broccoli and cauliflower. Have been making a lot of roasted cauli these days… so good!
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Nope, the picture I took is of a baby one really, it had to go too. Such is the life of a novice gardener.
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