Sprout problem

We've planted sprouts and they were doing really rather well until we had a pest infestation.
A lot of the leaves have been chewed away.
Can we save them or is it best to pull them out and wait til next year?

 

It depends what the pests were and how much has been "chewed away".

Most sprout plants would still have quite a way to go before they produce much so I'd leave them be but only if you've dealt with the pests.

What were they? Slugs? Snails? Pigeons? Rabbits? Deer......????

 

they are (were) little green and black caterpillars

 

Ah, those were almost certainly the caterpillars of the Large White butterfly - the Pest Supreme of the brassica family. At this point in the season, I'd be surprised if they had done so much damage to healthy sprout plants that they couldn't recover. Sprouts have the advantage that caterpilars can't hide in them as easily as they can in, say, caulis.

If you've picked the caterpillars off and squashed them, you could give the sprouts a squirt of Provados Ultimate Bug Killer (to kill any residual pests), a dose of liquid fertiliser, plenty of water and just see what they can do to recover. You've nothing to lose!

And keep an eye on them. I check my cabbages for butterfly eggs every evening.

 

If you get the pests off them I expect they will recover (probably either Pigeons or caterpillars [under the leaves]). So unless you desperately want the land for something else I'd stick with them. The Sprouts come from the buds at the bottom of the leaves, so as long as those haven't been eaten (normally they aren't) you'll still get sprouts - just the plant needs leaves to make energy to do a good job!

 

OK - we'll stick with them and see what happens.
Thank you for all of the advice !

 

Good advice there