Damage to plant leaves irretrievable or not?

 

All the leaves of my brussel sprouts and calabrese have been badly
attacked by something or other which has left my tomato plants alone.
  A lot of them  look like they have been deeply bitten or cut with
something with serated edges.   There are foxes around here but they
don't nibble greens do they?  Slugs?   But I haven't seen any.
Anyway,  is it worth looking after these plants any more?   Will they
regenerate their damaged leaves or should I call it a day?

 


kencohen@blueyonder.co.uk writes:
|>
|> All the leaves of my brussel sprouts and calabrese have been badly
|> attacked by something or other which has left my tomato plants alone.
|>   A lot of them  look like they have been deeply bitten or cut with
|> something with serated edges.   There are foxes around here but they
|> don't nibble greens do they?  Slugs?   But I haven't seen any.
|> Anyway,  is it worth looking after these plants any more?   Will they
|> regenerate their damaged leaves or should I call it a day?

Pigeons (including collared doves) or perhaps pheasants.

Annie?  Get your gun.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.

 


Rabbits?  I've had to cover my plants because there's been a baby bunny
hopping around the neighbour's allotment, nibbling his lettuce (and there's
no such thing as "one" rabbit).  And I saw pigeons pecking plants on another
neighbouring allotment.

I'm new to growing veggies, but if your nibbled plants are sprouts and
calabrese and there are still some leaves remaining, I'd wait a couple of
weeks to see if they recover.

 



Could well be pigeons or pheasants-leaves appear to have been cut by
scissors. Protect with nets, redundant Cds hung around the critical area.
Rabbits like young brasiccas, nets would have to be down to the ground.
An old gardener in Cheshire used to lay 2 litre transparent fizy pop(clear
polyester) bottle half filled with water amongst his plants to deter
rabbits. The internal reflexion+ lens effect used to frighten them.
I had trouble with rabbits eating brassicas, strawberry plants and runner
beans and found nets (and a cat) to be effective.
Ammonium aluminium sulphate (ammonium alum) used to be sold as a spray on
deterrent for food crops.
If the brassicas have developed a decent root system-say 4mm diameter or
more at the stem, they may have enough oomph to recover.
Regards
David T

 

Many thanks to all for suggestions.   We do have a lot of pigeons round
here, so maybe that's the answer.