Decimated kale and cauliflower .

[bobbin]

Hadn't been down to the plot for a few weeks as weather poop. When I went down this week I was aghast to see my kale and cauliflower decimated. I expect by the clouds of whitefly I battled in vein back end of 2014. I'd covered them but not with the White net only the pond type netting. The cauliflowers have weeny brown centres so a right off. But does anyone know if the kale will recover at all? The look truly awful but there is a suggestion and it is just a suggestion ...of good growth right at the centre.
I sprayed with soft soap last year but it doesn't seem to have helped.

[hamamelis]

Got any pictures?

In my experience, kale can generally recover from pretty much anything, given time, though it may not produce a big crop. Mine has been scoffed down to the base twice by pigeons this year (I think the resident fox managed to pull all the netting down), but it's regrowing OK again. At this point, I'm just hoping it'll distract the feathery ratbags from my PSB though rather than expecting to be picking much.

[rustylady]

Whitefly don't actually eat the plants, so when you say they have been decimated I would suspect some other pest

[Two_Sheds]

As said, whitefly don't have big enough teeth to eat plants.
It's woodpigeons and you need to use netting

[Alison]

Pigeons are the normal culprits round here on mature plants (slugs on smaller ones) although most of my recent problems have been other people's escaping chickens