What's Eating My Kale?
Kale is the toughest green in the patch and still ends up on everyone's menu. Damage almost always reads as one of five patterns.
The usual suspects
Cabbageworms
The signs: Ragged holes mid-leaf with green pellet droppings along the midrib.
What it looks like: Green velvet caterpillars flat against stems and veins; white butterflies overhead are the confession.
What to do: Handpick, fine-net the bed, Bt for heavy pressure.
Flea beetles
The signs: Dozens to hundreds of pinholes, worst on young leaves in spring and early summer.
What it looks like: Tiny shiny beetles that vault off the leaf when disturbed.
What to do: Row cover at planting; mature kale outgrows the peppering.
Cabbage aphids
The signs: Gray waxy crusts along the leaf undersides and crinkled new growth.
What it looks like: Dense powdery-gray colonies, tight in the curl of the leaf.
What to do: Strip the worst leaves, water-blast the rest, soap-spray what remains.
Harlequin bugs
The signs: Pale blotchy stippling that collapses to brown, mainly in hot regions.
What it looks like: Glossy black-and-orange shield bugs with barrel-shaped striped eggs.
What to do: Handpick and egg-crush; pull nearby mustard-family weeds.
Slugs
The signs: Smooth-edged holes low on the plant with morning slime sheen.
What it looks like: Nighttime feeders under mulch and lower leaves.
What to do: Beer traps, board traps, iron phosphate — and water in the morning.
When it's not a pest at all
Lower leaves that yellow evenly and drop while the crown grows on fine are just nitrogen moving to new growth — feed the bed. Purple tinting in cold weather is the variety showing off, not stress.
Or just point your phone at it
Snap a photo of the leaf, the bug, or the droppings, and Harold — the advisor built into Homestead Paradise — names what he sees, tells you friend or foe, and what he'd do next. Honest when he's unsure, and careful where it counts.
Put Harold's Eyes on it — free 14-day trial