Organically Controlling Cabbage Maggot from Eating Pea, Radish and Turnip Plants

You can't organically control something if you don't know what it looks like. So an adult cabbage maggot looks like a housefly. But the cabbage maggot is smaller, about half the size of the housefly. And the cabbage maggot has hairs on it; and they are bristly.

Hidden away underground in a cocoon, the cabbage maggot makes its first appearance during one of three times: during the cherry blossom time of the year in the early spring, or during the early summer, or even in the fall.

Egg-laying Procedure for the Cabbage Maggot

The cabbage maggots lay their eggs on your pea, radish and turnip plant stems near your plants soil line, so organically controlling it will require you understanding that. It also lays eggs within the cracks of your plants soil too, so don't overlook those cabbage maggot eggs.

The cabbage maggots, appearing as a white, legless worm about a third of an inch in length, and sporting a blunt end, will attack your turnip, radish, and pea plant stems beneath the soil line--not from on top of it. So signs of its presence will be more limited until the damage is done.

Organically Controlling Cabbage Maggot: How Often Do They Lay Eggs?

Organically controlling the cabbage maggot will require diligence by gardeners, because this garden pest is recurring throughout the year (you could say that the cabbage maggot is like the cabbage looper: their recidivism rates are both high).

Numerous generations are produced each year by the cabbage maggot, so organically controlling cabbage maggots mean you need to be aware of that, as well as the fact that the life cycle of this pest for each individual occurrence is between six to seven weeks long.

Cabbage Maggot Signs and Peak Times

Off-color plants are one sign you have cabbage maggots. And stunted growth is another sign. In addition, when your seedlings wilt and die--or the plant stems appear to be riddled with a brown, slimy tunnel trail--those are signs too of cabbage maggots.

Cabbage maggot peak times occur in May and in early June, so planting in the early spring or in the fall will help you organically control them by preventing their presence in the first place.

Organically Controlling Cabbage Maggot: Organic Remedies

If you just must plant at other times, you can more easily control your cabbage maggots by employing methods that introduce an alkaline environment. Cabbage maggots don't like alkaline environments, so mix some lime and wood ashes together and place in a circle around your plants (make sure the mixture is moist enough not to blow away). And be sure to replace the mixture after a rain, or use diatomaceous earth instead, if you prefer.

Another organic method of control includes mixing just wood ashes into your plants surrounding soil, but you can only do this a couple of times, since to do so longer is damaging. Wood ashes eventually raise pH level of your soil, creating problems for your plants.

Source
"The Gardener's A-Z Guide to Growing Food Organically" by Tanya L.K. Denckla