Who are these gray invaders on cauliflower and broccoli?

[pamidor]

Dear forum users,

As a newbie gardener, I focus on organic farming in our small garden that is surrounded with many concrete blocks. I guess it is hard when the ecology around you is corrupted and you try to grow some leaves without using fertilizers and pesticides. Nonetheless I will insist on not using any commercial pesticides or fertilizers to grow few plants in my small yard.

Here is the picture of cauliflowers that I plated last year but couldn't harvest anything since they directly went to flowering. It is the same with broccoli and cabbage. Cabbages do not take the shape of a ball to be harvested. We always consume them by picking the leaves. I have no clue about why this happening! :/

As you may notice from the picture there are those gray invaders covering the plant's core where the fruit should be.



I appreciate in advance for taking your time. : )

[ginger2778]

Most insects that size respond well( by dying) to a good soaking with strong oil/soapy water spray.
1Tablespoon olive or corn oil, 1 tablespoon organic liquid soap, can be dish soap, just not detergent, both mixed with 4 liters water. Sorry, I do not know the metric conversion for a Tablespoon.

[moray-eel-bite]

Originally Posted by ginger2778

Most insects that size respond well( by dying) to a good soaking with strong oil/soapy water spray.
1Tablespoon olive or corn oil, 1 tablespoon organic liquid soap, can be dish soap, just not detergent, both mixed with 4 liters water. Sorry, I do not know the metric conversion for a Tablespoon.

A tablespoon is 15 ml.

[Nattybo!]

Those are aphids. Aphids will distort plant growth.

The easiest and fastest way I have found to fight aphids (and cabbage looper caterpillars since we are talking multiple Brassicas here) is to take some liquid dish soap (like Dawn, Palmolive or Joy...whatever you have by the kitchen sink) and mix it with cold water in a hand triggered squirt bottle. I don't measure but if I had to guess it would be like a table spoon to a cup or 2 of water. I just squish the soap bottle into the spray bottle, count to 3, then fill the bottle the rest of the way with water.

Shake the bottle of soap and water to mix it up well and the then squirt your plant all over with it. Tops of leaves, bottoms of leaves. Peel back the twisted leaves and spray inside there too. Spray early in the morning so that the soapy water has time to dry before the sun gets high in the sky and burns the leaves.

Soapy water is an indiscriminate killer. If you are lucky to have ladybugs or green lace wings or another good bug eating those aphids the soapy water will kill them too. Look before you spray

Now as to why your plants are not growing I will leave that to a more knowledgeable cauliflower grower because I have yet to successfully grow cauliflower. I keep trying to spring grow it but this year I am going to try fall (planting seeds about July 7th.).

[Starlight]

Besides using the method Marsha suggested, which is good, another organic method is spraying your leaves with a cayenne pepper spray. It will keep the moths and butterflies that lay the eggs on your plants off.

Even with the dish soap method, spray the tops and the bottoms of the leaves.

[b54red]

I have never seen aphids do that to cauliflower in 40 years of growing it. I have seen it get a type of mold disease similar to what hits Brussels sprouts sometimes and I have seen it eaten up pretty bad by loopers and cabbage worms and even slugs or an occasional grasshopper. If you have aphids that bad you need to probably resort to pyrethrin which is organic along with soapy water or a neem oil and pyrethrin mix that is also organic to really thin them out. Soapy water while effective has to be applied and reapplied constantly if an aphid infestation is very heavy. An even better solution might be to dust the plants heavily with diatomaceous earth that is food grade and reapply it if it gets washed off by rain or watering. Unlike soapy water it will keep working as long as it is on the plant and is safe to eat although I rinse it off but be careful not to breath the dust when applying it.

If I had an infestation that heavy and wanted to really get it under control quickly and organically, I would start with a pyrethin and soapy water spray one day and follow it the next with a good dusting of diatomaceous earth. The DE will also help some with cabbage worms and loopers but for them I would use a dust or spray that contains bacillus thuringiensis which is an organic solution to almost all chewing worms and caterpillars.

Bill

[Starlight]

I can't see the picture well, but I almost wondered if it wasn't cabbage maggots with the way it looks chewed up to like mush to me.

[coronabarb]

Yep, the curse of the aphids. My last year's brassicas are bolting/blooming and we love the flower stalks before they go into full bloom. For some reason, the collard florets are fine but the Russian kale florets, which are purplish, are covered, no smothered with aphids. We are removing all those plants today. From your photo, I'd say the plants are too far gone. You might try snipping the damaged parts off, spray with insecticidal soap and see if the plant grows back.

[pamidor]

@ginger2778 Thank you for taking your time, I will definitely try this out and share the results here.
@Nattybo! Hi Thank you for stopping by. I will try the soap-water mix. You said that aphids distort the plant growth, so, maybe that is the reason why they fail producing their edible parts?! I am also planning on building ladybug houses to attract them.
@Starlight Hi there . I actually tried the pepper spray on caterpillars (with those small hot peppers) last year and it slightly helped out. I still had to hand pick some of them. I think I have to start doing it before they appear.
Do you mean that there is problem with seeing the picture or those gray things too small to see in that picture? I will include another one.
@b54red Thanks for an alternative suggestion. I have never heard of pyrethrin. I made a google search and found out that this essential oil is extracted from a plant called feverfew. I will check that out. I think, the reason why my cauliflowers are infested by so many aphids might be lack of other living bugs and organisms around me. There are very few gardeners around here while the place is full of buildings. I wish we had those kind of houses like in Hollywood movies here . I also fight with loopers and cabbage worms time to time. I have heard about diatomaceous earth since I have a cat, but never had a chance to buy some. If the other methods do not work, I might try this one. There are some controversies about bacillus thuringiensis (BT) around, so I am not sure if I will use this solution.
@coronabarb Hi my friend . I will probably going to remove the plants seen in the picture since I do not need seeds and the season is already over. I will use the tips here on my young plants that are now about 8-10 cm high. They are all free from any invaders so it will be better to spray them beforehand.


Ozan