What is the best way to treat Chinese cabbage to combat pests and diseases?

When deciding how to treat Chinese cabbage against diseases and pests, it's important to keep in mind that modern agricultural practices are unable to protect the plant from all insects that try to harm it. But don't despair: if you begin pest control early, you can save your harvest. To do this, you'll need to learn more about the insects that can cause serious damage to the vegetable and destroy your crops.

Cabbage pests: symptoms and signs

If you grow Chinese cabbage in your garden, with its beautiful, succulent leaves, insects will certainly want to feast on it. When planting these types of crops, pay attention to small details; they will indicate that pests have appeared in the area and are ready to cause serious damage.

How to understand that a plant is “sick”:

1. Began to lag behind in growth.
2. The leaves turned yellow, spots and plaque appeared on them.
3. Heads of cabbage do not form or this process occurs extremely slowly.

But even when the cabbage reaches maturity, don’t relax – the heads of cabbage can be affected by:

• white rot;
• dry rot;
• fusarium;
• gray rot.

The plant can become infected in the garden if it rains for a long time. However, symptoms of the disease appear after harvesting, during storage. In this case, it's impossible to treat the cabbage with anything. The vegetable simply rots.

There are a number of insects that can cause serious damage to Chinese cabbage. Let's look at the main signs of their presence in your garden.

Common aphid

The insect may be wingless and can be found in the area in early summer. These individuals do not require fertilization and produce caterpillars.

Insects like to make nests on the inside of the leaf; they feed on cabbage juice.

Later, closer to August, you may see red insects in your garden—these are also aphids. These insects reproduce quickly, producing up to 100 larvae during their life cycle. Aphids form colonies that can quickly leave a gardener without a harvest, and not just cabbage.

What to do:

1. Periodically inspect cabbage leaves for insects.
2. If detected, take necessary measures immediately.

Thrips

Thrips are small insects that reproduce rapidly. A female can produce up to 15 generations of pests per season. The problem is that while thrips reproduce quickly, detecting them in a plot is a major challenge due to their small size.

How to understand that Chinese cabbage has been affected by these pests:

• inspect the leaves - you will be able to find small punctures on them - traces of thrips presence on the site;
• Gradually, yellowing appears at the puncture sites; insects are also dangerous because they are considered carriers of fungal diseases.

Slugs and snails

Every gardener has encountered slugs and snails. They're dangerous because they're extremely voracious, and it's practically impossible to spot them during the day. Check hidden corners, look in bushes, behind slate, or in damp areas.

Cabbage fly

It is represented by two varieties. It is a medium-sized gray insect with two stripes on its back. The first specimens appear in the garden at the end of April. The fly can also be found during the flowering period of cruciferous plants.

The pests are dangerous because they lay larvae that feed on the cabbage root system, causing the plant to die because it cannot receive adequate nutrition from the soil.

Caution! Even if the vegetable's roots are only slightly damaged, they will begin to rot.

Cruciferous flea beetle

Small beetles with two yellow stripes on their backs that hop around the plot are the cabbage flea beetle. They are dangerous because they feed on plant sap, primarily attacking the lower leaves of cabbage. The insect appears in the spring. After devouring the remains of older plants, it quickly moves on to the seedlings. The cabbage plants cannot withstand this attack, resulting in the death of the seedlings.

Cruciferous bug

This red-and-black insect, highly prolific, feeds on the sap of Chinese cabbage, sucking the plant's juice through small punctures. The secretion it absorbs has specific properties; repeated exposure to it leads to the death of the plant.

Cabbage moth, cutworm and cabbage white butterfly

These pests appear on the site thanks to butterflies that lay larvae, which eagerly devour the leaves of Chinese cabbage.

How to identify a pest:

1. If you spot a small moth with gray wings and fringes in your garden, don't let your guard down. This moth poses no danger, unlike its larvae, which are extremely voracious. These green caterpillars can quickly destroy an entire cabbage crop.
2. In May and July, cabbage moths—a nocturnal moth that lays eggs on cabbage leaves—appear in the area. They start with small holes, but gradually the moth larvae gnaw tunnels through the leaves.
3. The cabbage white butterfly, or white butterfly, can lay up to 100 eggs per season. The caterpillars are large and first consume leaves, then move on to forks. They chew through them, depriving gardeners of their harvest.

Stem worm

The beetle itself poses no danger, but its larvae, which penetrate the plant's stems, eat them, causing serious damage to the root system. The larvae are difficult to detect, but their characteristic features include:

• the plant begins to lag behind in growth;
• the heads of cabbage gradually lose their elasticity;
• The cabbage leaves are turning yellow and wilting.

Methods for controlling pests on Chinese cabbage

After planting cabbage in your garden, be sure to treat it for pests and diseases. You can take preventative measures using traditional methods or opt for other methods, such as chemicals.

Folk methods

These methods are used to get rid of various insects that can damage crops. Let's look at several ways to help solve the problem:

1. Experienced gardeners catch slugs by creating traps. They place slate and boards around their plots and water the soil beneath these shelters. In hot weather, the pests will gather in the trap; all you have to do is destroy the shelter and collect them. Slugs also have difficulty climbing over broken brick or rubble, and they also don't tolerate salt. Simply sprinkling salt on the slug will kill it.
2. Wormwood is a good insect repellent; its branches are placed near plantings to repel pests. It's a good method, but you'll need to regularly replant the grass.
3. Chop 10 heads of garlic, pour 5 liters of water over them, leave for 4 hours, then boil for 20-25 minutes, cool, strain and use the decoction for spraying.
4. A mixture of wood ash and tobacco dust will protect the crop from aphids and other pests.

Insects successfully lay eggs on the lower leaves of plants. This fact should be taken into account when carrying out treatment.

Chemical and biological preparations

When using such solutions to treat crops, remember to carry out the procedures promptly, otherwise toxins will remain in the plant and could harm human health.

The following preparations are the most popular among gardeners:

• Rescuer;
• Aktara;
• Spark.

Mechanical processing method

This involves maintaining optimal conditions for plant growth. But even regular cultivation, watering, and soil loosening won't rid the crop of slugs and caterpillars.

For this reason, if they appear in your garden, collect the insects, usually by hand, which helps preserve the cabbage. This method is effective against caterpillars that have already grown and begun devouring the cabbage, as well as snails and slugs, but only if the crop is biologically healthy.

What diseases is the plant susceptible to?

There are a number of diseases that can affect vegetables, causing serious damage and resulting in crop failure.

Alternaria

With Alternaria, dark-colored spots can be seen on the plant's leaves; over time, they become covered with a gray coating - these are the spores of the fungus that causes the infection.

Peronosporosis

Another disease that can affect Chinese cabbage is downy mildew. In this case, dark, irregular spots appear on the underside of the leaf, followed by a bloom. Affected leaves quickly die.

Mucous bacteriosis

It affects many crops, and its symptoms can be noticed as early as the second half of the growing season. The plant's leaves are initially affected, but the rot gradually spreads to the stalk. The disease often manifests itself after harvest, during transportation.

Blackleg

If the stem darkens, turns black, and begins to rot, the seedling will likely die. This is most often due to overwatering of the soil.

Marginal or apical burn

Yellowing of the leaves is thought to be caused by a calcium deficiency; if the condition is severe, the head of cabbage fails to form, loses its elasticity, and eventually dies. As a preventative measure, add crushed chalk or ground calcium gluconate to the hole, but only do this on the day of planting.

Pinpoint necrosis

Not considered an infectious disease, it appears after harvest or during ripening. Spots of necrosis appear on the surface of the crop's leaves. The cause is excess nitrogen in the soil. Potassium fertilizers can help correct the problem.

An integrated approach to treating diseases

To prevent the crop from getting sick, it is recommended to follow certain rules:

1. If you are concerned about pests and diseases, treat your plants promptly and use folk remedies as a preventative measure.
2. Provide Chinese cabbage with the necessary conditions, monitor the temperature, water and loosen the soil in a timely manner.
3. Don't forget about fertilizing and treating seeds before planting.
4. Make sure that there are no pests in the area, as they can easily spread from one crop to another.

An integrated approach involves following general rules for vegetable care, which helps minimize risks.

Preventive measures in the garden: when and how to carry them out?

An experienced gardener always protects their plants before pests or the first signs of disease appear. Saving and protecting a plant are two different things, while eradicating slugs, aphids, or caterpillars from a plot is a complex task. The key is to begin treatments early, otherwise they will be of little use.

So, what you need to do:

1. Before planting the seeds, place them in hot water (temperature at least 50 degrees), keep the seeds in the water for 20 minutes, while the temperature should be stable, then immediately cool them by placing them in the water.
2. Before sowing seeds or planting seedlings (as a last resort), treat the crop with a growth stimulant.
3. When planting in the ground, do not forget to water the cabbage with a weak solution of potassium permanganate - this is a good preventative against black leg.

Other preventative measures are carried out as needed, but keep in mind: if there were any pests in the area last year, there's a high probability they will return this year, causing damage to the plants. Therefore, take action in advance.

 

Chinese cabbage has succulent shoots that are a popular target for various pests, which in turn can lead to the development of fungal diseases. If you notice any changes in the plant, such as darkened leaves or a coating, treat it immediately. Otherwise, the chances of a good harvest are extremely low.