Pests of Chinese cabbage and their control are increasingly becoming a source of discussion, as the culture is rapidly gaining popularity, and there is much less information about it in the sources than about its colored or white cabbage counterpart.
The yield of Chinese cabbage, subject to optimal soil moisture, is very high, but all the efforts put into growing cabbage are reduced to zero if the gardener ignored precautions against harmful insects. How to protect the future harvest from the invasion of voracious caterpillars, and how to get rid of pests if they have already been noticed on cabbage inflorescences?
Methods for controlling garden pests
Agricultural technology will not name a single technique that would definitely help rid the garden of all types of pests during a single application, and even with a future perspective. Some methods will be effective against gnawing insects - these include: cabbage cutworm, cabbage whiteweed, cruciferous flea beetle, long-legged mosquitoes and others.
Using other methods, we get rid of sucking type pests - these are: aphids, thrips and cruciferous bugs. A special group consists of naked slugs, which can ruin the entire future harvest of Chinese cabbage over the course of a season.
The only general rule that can be applied to all types of pests in the garden is compliance with the timeliness of the event, that is, the use of funds during the period when insects are most vulnerable in terms of development stages. In order to correctly comply with this condition, it is necessary to combine the identified pests according to the cyclical nature of their growth and transition from one state of development to another.
This will help in choosing a universal substance that affects several groups of pests at once, because they never visit the garden alone.
In total, there are three directions for protecting Chinese cabbage from pests, each of which has its own risks and its own limits of influence:
- The method of chemical treatment against pests of Chinese cabbage is considered the most effective and urgent, which is why it is used most often in large-scale field work, or in the presence of a large vegetable garden with plantings “for sale.” Chemical treatment of Chinese cabbage against pests, due to its aggressiveness, can negatively affect the beneficial qualities of the vegetable crop and even give the cabbage an unpleasant taste. However, this method is the only one that helps protect the heads of cabbage from losing their presentation and yellowing, in the shortest possible time, when there are too many pests that have reached the peak of gluttony;
- The biological method protects Chinese cabbage only if the required conditions are regularly maintained, since it does not act to destroy pests, but to reject them. The method is considered the safest, but is not used as an independent solution for treating a culture - only as a preventive measure. Also, slugs will show complete indifference to biological methods;
- Folk, “home” methods using decoctions and solutions prepared without the use of chemicals really help against pests on Chinese cabbage, but, as a rule, not for long, until the first good watering or rain. With the help of “grandmother’s” recipes, cabbage can be quickly restored from a disease caused by insect activity, but if organic ingredients or poisonous herbs, such as aconite or hemlock, are used incorrectly, the vegetables, and subsequently the people who consumed them, may suffer.
Cabbage fly
This insect lays its eggs on the soil near the base of Chinese cabbage or on its stem. After some time, larvae appear and feed on the stem stalk, making holes in the stem. Seedlings usually suffer the most from cabbage fly attacks.
If this pest appears, you should sprinkle the soil around the plantings with a special mixture of wood ash, tobacco dust and ground pepper, which repels flies. After pollination, the soil needs to be loosened shallowly every 3-4 days. Spraying plants with tobacco solution also gives good results.
Pests can make growing Chinese cabbage very difficult, but knowing how to deal with them can significantly reduce their attacks, if not completely eliminate them. The main thing is to remember to remove plant debris after harvesting, regularly weed the plantings and inspect vegetables for insects. It is worth noting that chemical preparations give good results, so many gardeners use them rather than traditional methods. However, Peking, like many other vegetables, is capable of accumulating harmful substances, so care must be taken with such pest control products.
Preventative measures against garden pests
Pests on Chinese cabbage may not be guests, but quite legitimate owners - if the owner of the garden, before cultivating the soil for planting cabbage, did not carry out special soil treatment “in winter”, which implies cleaning the area from weeds, old mulch, garbage, and also deep digging.
If this is not done immediately after harvesting the previous crop, then the pest larvae remain overwintering in the ground, and in the spring they calmly move to the Chinese cabbage seedlings.
What should be done to avoid such a situation if the time for autumn soil preparation was missed or autumn prevention against pests on cabbage turned out to be ineffective?
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A week or two before the expected planting of Chinese cabbage seedlings, you need to weed out the weeds, and in return, sow plants around the perimeter of the site that work to attract insects that are indifferent to cabbage, but willingly eat pests. As a rule, these are strong-smelling umbellifers or onions, tomatoes, and marigolds.
Sweet “baits” in the form of rags soaked in sugar syrup, dug shallow underground between the rows of Chinese cabbage, are also suitable. Why is this being done? This feeding will be appreciated by wasps that destroy cabbage cutworm caterpillars, and garden black ants that do not leave in their path the larvae of all pests localized at the roots of cabbage without exception.
Nurse insects can not only be attracted, but also purchased in specialized stores. You should pay attention to the following types of beneficial garden insects that do not pose a danger to garden crops:
- phytoseiids (mites);
- neoseiulus;
- orius;
- anthocoris.
To combat slugs and aphids, encourage the presence of ladybugs, lacewings, and hoverflies on Chinese cabbage and near plantings. Below we list the main garden pests that cause death or severe diseases of cabbage.
Slugs (woodlice)
You will also need to protect Chinese cabbage from slugs. These pests are so voracious that they can eat even a large bush in a short time if the gardener does not take timely measures. The main danger of slugs is that they destroy not only the above-ground, but also the underground part of the cabbage, and they cannot always be detected in time. Pests are active mainly at night, and therefore it is almost impossible to notice them before holes appear on the leaves.
Folk remedies for fighting slugs are used with high efficiency. To prevent pests from attacking cabbage heads, the soil around the plants is covered with a mixture, for which the following is taken in equal quantities:
- salt,
- mustard powder;
- ground red pepper;
- wood ash.
Tillage is carried out on a dry sunny day. It is necessary to spread the composition 2 times with a gap of 7 days. This will destroy all generations of slugs. If there are too many of them, then you shouldn’t waste time, but urgently need to buy a special chemical against slugs in the store.
Cruciferous flea beetles
The best protection against the cruciferous flea beetle is the prevention of its occurrence, since it is very difficult to get rid of colonies of this small insect, no more than 3 mm in size. Since the pest overwinters in the outer layers of the soil, its appearance can be prevented during the period of autumn digging and garbage collection - removing rotted leaves and mowed weeds from the territory.
If the seeds were properly treated before planting, the likelihood of them being affected by flea beetles is lower, but only if the soil was also treated - otherwise, the cabbage seedlings will be defenseless against the pest.
Among biological methods, during the period when the pest has not yet settled in cabbage plantings en masse, but individual units have already been noticed, you can try planting plants that have a strong specific odor. Onions and garlic help well, the aroma of which pests cannot tolerate.
It is not difficult to understand that the flea has already carried out its first attacks on the garden. It is necessary to examine the cotyledon leaves of the young planting at the time of their integrity. Small holes, as if left by shot and quickly drying out around the circumference - this is the main sign of the presence of this pest. A hole can also be seen on the leaf of a developing head of cabbage, but a mature plant does not lose juice so easily and adult cabbage can still be saved by taking urgent measures.
Among traditional methods, experienced gardeners primarily use spraying with garlic infusion or solutions prepared using wood ash. Ash can also be used in dry form, sprinkling it between the rows. In the same way, tobacco dust and lime (slaked) are used.
If home methods against the pest do not help, urgently rid cabbage of flea beetles , a mixture of the following components will help:
- hexachlorane 12%;
- insecticide DDT.
The ingredients are mixed in equal proportions, and Chinese cabbage is sprayed according to the scheme - 15 g of substance per 10 square meters. meters of plot. In total, 3-4 treatments are carried out using this method per season with a one-week pause.
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Common diseases of Chinese cabbage
Pests are carriers of dangerous cabbage diseases. Harmful microorganisms penetrate into the damage left on the stems and leaves of garden crops by bugs, flea beetles, and caterpillars. They provoke the development of bacteriosis and rot, which are very difficult to get rid of.
Chinese cabbage is affected by the following diseases:
- Alternaria blight. It is manifested by the appearance of black spots on the leaf blades. Infected specimens gradually turn yellow, wither and then die.
- Downy mildew. Gray blurry spots with a fluffy coating form on the leaves. In cauliflower, the central head dies off, after which the plant dies.
- Mucous bacteriosis or wet rot. Dirty yellow wet spots appear on individual leaves. At the same time, the heads of cabbage smell unpleasant.
- Vascular bacteriosis is characterized by yellowing of cabbage leaves and blackening of their veins.
- Point necrosis also occurs due to infection in the soil or damage to the heads of cabbage. Black dots of different sizes appear on the leaves outside and inside the heads.
Diseased plants easily infect healthy ones, so gardeners prefer to remove and burn such specimens. After digging up the affected heads of cabbage, the soil must be shed with a solution of copper sulfate or potassium permanganate. Plants untouched by bacteria and fungi are immediately treated with the following preparations:
- Baktofit;
- Planriz;
- Fitosporin;
- Trichodermin;
- Binoram.
Aphid
The pest is of the sucking type and rarely exceeds 2 mm in size. Aphids are one of the main provocateurs of crop death, contributing to the disease of Chinese cabbage. It is easy to recognize the work of the pest - firstly, the insect, crowded into a solid living crust, will always be present right there, on the leaf of the head of cabbage; secondly, the plant itself will quickly lose its viability - it will begin to wither and become covered with brownish ulcers.
Often, cabbage leaves turn yellow entirely due to the activity of aphids.
Among biological methods, nurse insects, such as aphidius parasites and ladybugs, are effectively used against aphids. Around the garden and even between the rows, you can plant carrots or dill sparsely, releasing them “to seed.”
Methods of folk struggle begin with the simplest methods acting for the purpose of prevention - this is spraying Chinese cabbage with onion or garlic infusions - and up to complex ones, using solutions.
A universal, “home” method against aphids is tobacco decoction. Tobacco leaves (slightly less than 0.5 kg) are poured with two liters of water and kept on low heat for two hours. Then the cooled liquid is filtered, 50 g of soap shavings are diluted in it until the latter is completely dissolved, and the cabbage is generously watered with this mixture so that the pests are literally washed away from the plants.
Chemical treatment is used when it comes to saving cabbage from certain death. For these purposes, an aqueous 0.2% composition of anabasine sulfate is prepared. Take 0.5 liters of this solution per 10 square meters of area.
What is this, what does the problem look like?
The leaves in the hole in Chinese cabbage are the consequences of an insect attack . Vegetable pests such as larvae, caterpillars and slugs eat greens. Therefore, after hatching, they begin to eat the leaf blade near their eggs and gradually spread over the entire surface of the plant.
As a result, the sheet looks as if it has been pierced with a finger many times. The edges of the holes on the leaves gradually dry out, turning yellow.
Fertilizer
Chinese cabbage has a short growth period. Watering and fertilizing affect the growth rate. When applying fertilizers, keep in mind that cabbage accumulates nitrates in the leaves; fertilizers are used in the quantities indicated in the table below.
When growing Chinese cabbage, organic fertilizers are applied, which are mixed with mineral fertilizer depending on your needs.
Before fertilizing with minerals, an analysis of the chemical composition of the soil is carried out to ensure rational application of fertilizers in accordance with the needs of these vegetables.
Growing
Peking cabbage is planted no more often than every 4-5 years in the same area. Avoid planting other brassica plants as this increases the likelihood of contracting a disease common to this group of plants. A particularly dangerous disease in cabbage is clubroot.
Cabbage can be grown after plants such as onions, peas, beans, potatoes, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, grains, and cucumbers.
Growing methods
Due to the specific biology of vegetables, the growing period is July. Cultivation is possible in the early stages, but plants are susceptible to inflorescence set, limited head set or poor quality head set.
Chinese cabbage is grown from seedlings or seeds. Due to weak roots, the seeds are sown in open ground, or grown from seedlings in pots. Of course, it is also possible to grow in greenhouses, in which vegetables are harvested in the spring.
Seedlings are prepared for autumn harvest in July. To obtain healthy plants, Chinese cabbage is grown from seeds in open ground. The rows between plants are 50 cm wide, and between plants 30-40 cm. In case of group sowing, the plants are weeded. Sowing depth is 1-2 cm. Young plants appear 2 days after sowing.
Reviews from gardeners
Mandrake
This year I had “Nika F1”, the heads of cabbage began to set, but a new misfortune prevented the crop from ripening - the cruciferous flea beetle. No environmentally friendly methods of combating it have yielded results.
OlgaV
I planted Pekinka both in greenhouses with cucumbers and in open ground in spring and summer. In the spring, planting was unsuccessful - almost all of it disappeared (slugs). There were practically no lunges in the greenhouses.
