Several weeks ago I noticed one of my brussel sprout plants was looking distressed. I harvested the potato bag taking up the space between my raised garden beds and fought past my tomato plants to see what was wrong. I touched the plant, and hundreds of little white cabbage flies darted off and returned to my poor brussel sprout plant. One of the few plants I bought from the garden center instead of started from seed, my organic brussel sprout plant was grown in a greenhouse. After some research, I learned the most common way for brussel sprouts to be invested with cabbage flies is from an infected greenhouse. However my plant became infected, the biggest question is, what do I do next?
How to care for an infected plant
First things first, I dug up the infected plant and transplanted it into a pot. This makes sure no other plants nearby are infected. Then, I removed some of the lower and more beat up leaves from the stalk. I wanted to dislodge the cabbage flies from my plant, so I used the highest power setting on my hose’s nozzle and sprayed the plant. Some cabbage flies will fly away and others will fly up and return to the plant, never fear, this is when the homemade organic pesticide comes in, see recipe below. After dislodging as many cabbage flies as possible, I thoroughly soaked the brussel sprout plant with my homemade organic pesticide. The key is to ensure you spray the whole plant but concentrate on the underside of the leaves. Cabbage flies often hide on the underside of leaves and the hose doesn’t always dislodge them. I did the same thing for five days in a row. After my initial dosage, I came back about two to three times a week to spray the plant with the hose and homemade pesticide. After about two and a half to three weeks there were no more cabbage flies at all. There is some damage to the plant but nothing too severe, a few sprouts are inedible but it seems like I can still get a harvest from this plant.
Homemade Organic Pesticide Recipe
1 Tbls Dawn soap
1 Tbls Ammonia
1 Tbls Rubbing Alcohol
1 Tbls Peppermint oil
¼ tsp ground Cayenne
Top with water
Mix all of these together in your spray bottle, I used an old well rinsed windex bottle to make this recipe, for measuring the water this information will be handy. When you top with water the soap will bubble up, don’t worry too much about it. Just fill until the bubbles reach the top of the spray bottle and you are ready!
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