Polyculture vs Netting

I would like to try polyculture with my brassicas but in my experience, they get eaten alive by birds and caterpillars whenever they're not covered with netting. I didn't always have to cover brassicas, but where I live now, they never survive unless I do. It doesn't seem feasible to create indivual cloches for each plant. So I figure I have to decide between polyculture and netting. I am wondering, will the polyculture confuse pests sufficiently that I won't need netting?

I am hardly a polyculturing expert, but I have also had to turn to netting for brassicas. They disappear practically overnight otherwise.

I've not tried a deliberate pollyculture but I did have some random cabbages come up last year, there were only two and they were away from all the others (which were netted) by around 40m they were next to my strawberries in an area of rough grass and weeds, the butterflies found them, it was a bit later than when I saw the first ones trying to get at my carefully netted plants.

Slugs and weeds were my issue this year under the netting, it makes it much harder to get in there to work, so it puts me off and I slack off!

Thanks guys, that's helpful. Sounds like I'm right to be cautious. Yes, Skandi, I have the same issue with netting, it's such a hindrance to weeding and other plant care.

Netting doesn't obviate polyculture. You can even do square-foot gardening with netting. It's just necessary to net everything that's in with what you're netting.

For that matter, and some may not agree with me here, but it is possible to incorporate row and even block planting and still be growing in polyculture. The key here would be whatever is growing in pathways, including species of fungi in deep-woodchip beds, or in mulch layers.

Honestly, if you have paths between beds, even between rows, that are either polycultures of step-tolerant plants, or wood chips hosting a mycelial network that connects all the pathways with all the beds and everything in contact via the network's perimeter, the beneficial effects of growing food in polyculture should be the same, vis a vis the movement of root zone exudates from places of overabundance to those of lack.

J. M. Fortier has done quite a bit of work, and written at least two books, on the adaptation of permacultural principles to the demands of market gardening. In his work, he has addressed the uses of plastics in terms of tarp-as-mulch and netting. He is also on YouTube.



-CK

Polyculture is a great way to deal with pests but it isn't just about confusing or distracting pests. Often people plant flowers mixed in with their other plants. These flowers can support beneficial insects that help you by eating the pests. This way your not only relying on pests being confused but you're also helping to increase the number of predators so the pests that do show up are more likely to get eaten.

I also like to take this a step further and plant mini-meadows close by my polyculture garden beds. One way to do this is to plant flowers all around the boundaries of your garden--you can even plant shrubs and/or trees on the northside (south side in the southern hemisphere) of your garden. I like having hedgerows close by my garden beds--and ones planted on the northside can also block cold northern winds which can improve your growing conditions. And if you've got a large garden with lots of defined beds you could set aside every 4th or 5th bed as a mini-meadow for attracting and supporting beneficial insects. Mixing in native flowers and other native plants will provide even more benefits since they support a wider range of insects. I've mixed in native onions and native checkermallows (all edible) in my kitchen garden and I'm looking at adding others.

By having a diversity of habitat across the board you can support a large number of beneficial insects and other predators that can help keep your pests under control. That combined with planting your food crops as polycultures (with flowers still mixed in) can really do a lot to reduce your pest issues. But I wouldn't rely on the pests being confused as the only solution--supporting the predators too is a key part of this method.