Cauliflowers are best eaten fresh, but can be stored in a fridge for a few days – they keep better with a few leaves intact. Cauliflower florets can also be blanched then frozen.

Slug and Cabbage Collars are impregnated with copper to repel slugs and snails, they will also protect brassicas from cabbage root fly PLUS these collars act as a mulch reducing soil moisture loss and suppressing weeds. The female cabbage root fly lay eggs in the soil close to the brassica plant. The egg hatches and the larvae eat the finer roots leaving only a rotting stump. With a collar in place, the female lays eggs on that instead of the soil, so the larvae cannot eat the plants roots. Slug and Cabbage Collars are a vailable in 3 different sizes – 12.5cm / 5″, 28cm / 11″ and 38cm / 15″. Encourage predators and other natural enemies in the garden such as birds, hedgehogs and ground beetles. Some ground and rove beetles are efficient predators of root feeding maggots Adult cabbage root flies look a lot like bristly houseflies only slightly smaller. They’re about 1 centimeter long with bristly hairs all over their gray bodies. This European species is now found across much of North American and up into southern Canada. As with any vegetable crop, companion planting with beneficial plants can help to reduce the threat from pests.Note: if you combine cardboard with another material, you can make your plant collars a bit more sturdy so they will last longer. At planting time in May firm your young plants in the ground and slide the collar around the base of the plant using the wavy cut in the collar.

Stop cabbage root flies laying eggs by placing collars over the base of your young plants at planting time. This barrier method often proves more effective than chemicals and is ideal for organic growers reluctant to use chemical products on their harvests.

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For consistent crops of tasty, high-quality caulis, it’s best to choose F1 hybrid varieties, and if you’ve ever had problems with clubroot disease, select resistant varieties. Look too for varieties with an RHS Award of Garden Merit (AGM), which shows they performed well in trials – see our list of AGM fruit and veg for RHS-recommended varieties of cauliflowers and many other crops. The circumference of the plant collar is 3.14 x D (pi times the diameter). The diameter is 2, so the circumference is about 3.14 x 2 or 6.28 inches. If you are worried about damaging the seedling, you can cut a line from the outer edge to the center hole and wrap the brassica collar around the seedling that way. You will then have to staple the cut edges together for the collar to be effective. Just be sure that the collar opening can be enlarged as the plant grows. To do this, once the cauliflower head is the size of a golf ball, tie the outer leaves loosely over the head of the vegetable and secure them in place with twine. Leave enough room so the head can continue to grow unhindered. This will both protect it from the elements and the sun from discoloring it.

Paper towel roll tube – a leftover cardboard tube from a paper towel roll is longer than a toilet paper roll tube. As such, you can cut it into several cutworm collars. Toilet paper roll tube – once the toilet paper is used up, just take the cardboard cylinder and use it as a cutworm collar. You might be able to cut the roll into two or three collars. However, make sure you make the collars tall enough to deter pests and keep them away from your plants.

How to Guide

Cover the crop at all times with insect-proof mesh or fleece, supported on canes, and put brassica collars around the base of plant stems – this will protect them from most brassica pests, including cabbage caterpillars, cabbage root fly and pigeons At the end of the growing season, the collars can be tossed onto the compost pile after pulling out and discarding the staples.