How to treat Beijing cabbage from pests: effective control of them

Pests of Chinese cabbage and the fight against them are increasingly becoming the cause of discussion, as the culture is rapidly gaining popularity, and there is much less information about it in the sources than about the color or white counterpart.

Beijing cabbage's yields are very high, given optimal soil moisture, but all the efforts put into growing cabbages come to naught if precautions against harmful insects have been ignored by the gardener. How to protect the future crop from the invasion of voracious caterpillars, and how to get rid of pests if they have already been seen on cabbage inflorescences?

Garden pest control methods

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 on gnawing insects - these include: cabbage scoop, cabbage white, cruciferous flea, centipede mosquitoes and others.

With the help of other methods, we get rid of sucking-type pests - these are: aphids, thrips and cruciferous bugs. A special group is made up of naked slugs that can spoil the entire future harvest of Chinese cabbage in a season.

The only general rule that can be applied to all types of pests in the garden is the observance of the timeliness of the event, that is, the use of funds at a time when insects are most vulnerable in terms of developmental 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, 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, according to the methods of protecting Beijing cabbage from pests, there are three areas, each of which has its own risks and its own impact limits:

The method of chemical treatment against Chinese cabbage pests is considered the most effective and urgent, which is why it is used most often in conditions of large field work, or in the presence of a large garden with plantings "for sale". Chemical treatment of Beijing cabbage against pests, due to its aggressiveness, can adversely affect the beneficial qualities of a vegetable crop and even give the cabbage an unpleasant taste. However, this method is the only one that helps to protect 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 voracity;
Biological method, protects Chinese cabbage only if the required conditions are regularly maintained, since it does not act on the destruction of pests, but on their rejection. The method is considered the safest, but is not used as an independent solution for the treatment of 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 Beijing cabbage, but, as a rule, not for long, but before the first good watering or rain. With the help of "grandmother's" recipes, cabbage can be quickly recovered from the disease caused by insect activity, but if organic components or poisonous herbs like aconite or hemlock are used improperly, the vegetables, and subsequently the people who consume them, can suffer.

Prevention 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, as well as deep digging.

If this is not done immediately after harvesting the previous crop, then the pest larvae remain to winter in the ground, and in the spring they calmly move to seedlings of Chinese cabbage.

What to do 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?

A week or two before the proposed planting of Beijing cabbage seedlings, you need to weed out the weeds, and in return, sow plants around the perimeter of the plot that work to attract insects that are indifferent to cabbage, but willingly eat pests.As a rule, these are strongly smelling umbrella or onions, tomatoes, marigolds.

Sweet "baits" in the form of rags soaked in sugar syrup, dug deep into the ground between rows of Beijing cabbage, are also suitable. Why is this being done? Such top dressing will be appreciated by wasps that destroy caterpillars of cabbage scoops, and garden black ants, which do not leave in their path the larvae of all pests, without exception, localized at the roots of cabbage.

Insect orderlies 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);
neoseius;
orius;
Anthocoris.

To control slugs and aphids, encourage the presence of ladybugs, lacewings, hoverflies on chinese cabbage and near plantings. Below we list the main garden pests that cause the death or serious illness of cabbage.

Cruciferous fleas

The best protection against the cruciferous flea is the prevention of its occurrence, since it is very difficult to get rid of the colonies of this small insect, no larger than 3 mm in size. Since the pest hibernates in the outer layers of the soil, it is possible to prevent its appearance even during the period of autumn digging and garbage collection - removal of rotten foliage and mowed weeds from the territory.

If the seeds have been treated appropriately before planting, the chances of flea infestation are lower, but only if the soil has also been treated - otherwise, the cabbage seedlings will be defenseless against the pest.

From biological methods, at a time when the pest has not yet settled on plantings of cabbage in the mass, but some of its units have already been noticed, you can try planting plants with a strong specific smell. Onions and garlic help well, the aroma of which pests do not tolerate.

It's easy to understand that the flea has already made its first attacks on the garden. It is necessary to examine the cotyledon leaves of a young planting at the time of their integrity. Small holes, as if left by shot and quickly drying around the circumference, are the main sign of the presence of this pest. A hole can also be seen on the leaf of the emerging head, however, a mature plant does not lose juice so easily and adult cabbage can still be saved by taking urgent measures.

From folk methods, experienced gardeners, first of all, use spraying with infusion of garlic or solutions prepared using wood ash. Ash can also be used in dry form, spilling it between rows. Similarly, they use tobacco dust and lime (slaked).

If home pest control methods do not help, urgently rid the cabbage of the flea, a mixture of the following components will help:

hexachlorane 12%;
insecticide DDT.

The ingredients are mixed in equal proportions, and the Beijing cabbage is sprayed according to the scheme - 15 g of the substance per 10 square meters. meters of area. In total, 3-4 treatments are carried out per season using this method with a weekly pause.

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 Beijing cabbage. It is easy to recognize the work of a pest - firstly, an insect, crowding into a continuous living crust, will always be present right there, on a leaf of a head of cabbage; secondly, the plant itself will quickly lose viability - it will wither, become covered with brownish pits.

Often, on cabbage, from the activity of aphids, the leaves turn completely yellow.

From biological methods, insect-orderlies such as aphidius riders and ladybugs are effectively used against aphids. Around the garden and even between the rows, you can plant carrots or dill sparsely, releasing them “into the seed.”

Methods of folk struggle, start with the simplest methods for prevention - this is spraying Beijing cabbage with onion or garlic infusions - and up to complex ones, using solutions.

The universal, "home" method against aphids is tobacco decoction. Tobacco leaves (a little 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 chips are diluted in it until the latter is completely dissolved, and the cabbage is abundantly watered with this composition, 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 anabazine sulfate is prepared. This solution is taken 0.5 liters per 10 square meters of land.

Naked Slugs

The presence of such a pest as slugs in the garden is almost impossible to detect at an early stage of their appearance, since these creatures are active only at night. The first signs of their presence are expressed in sticky, shiny marks on the soil and cabbage heads, and a little later - in visible damage to the leaves.

If slugs are seen in other areas, but have not yet shown interest in Beijing cabbage, you should try to prevent them from planting by scattering a dry mixture of s alt, mustard powder, red pepper and ash, taken in equal proportions between the rows.

You need to wake up the composition twice, with a week-long pause, however, if the slugs have already shown great activity and voracity, it is better to purchase a ready-made mixture, especially from these pests, for example - "Thunderstorm". The drug does not affect any of the types of insects, so it can be used without fear of harming the beneficial fauna of the treated area.

You can also protect cabbage from slugs using folk methods, but it is useless to use them with a significant accumulation of pests. First of all, spraying with an aqueous vinegar solution (2 cups of vinegar per 10 liters of water) and sprinkling the rows with tobacco dust or ash is used. If a simple option, how to deal with slugs, had no effect, prepare a complex composition of 2 teaspoons of s alt, dry mustard and red pepper mixed in a liter of ash.

Several times during the season, sprinkle the mixture over the cabbage heads and the space between them.

There are many methods to rid the garden of unwanted guests, but the easy way, using chemical compounds, often leads to the fact that the vegetable becomes dangerous to eat. Therefore, before treating Chinese cabbage from pests with the help of chemistry, use 1-2 methods of the folk prescription piggy bank and, perhaps, you will be able to save the crop without the use of dangerous reagents.