Topic: Cold frame

[Marlborough]

I'm planning to make a cold frame, as I was a bit pushed for space in my greenhouse this year. What would be an ideal medium to stand trays and pots on, to stop snails/ slugs having a feast!   

[Vinlander]

None of the available slug repellents work properly, and they tend to be counter-productive if they get wet.

Anyway, it should be possible to make a cold frame slug-proof (snail proof is easy) - at least against slugs coming in over the surface - until the weather warms up and you need ventilation.

It also fails against slugs from below - especially the keeled black ones that can be only 1mm long.

Putting a capillary tray(s) raised above the ground will much reduce problems from below - but slugs and snails coming in through essential ventilation gaps will still be an occasional problem.

Basically you are always going to need quite a lot of some kind of slug pellet to get the population down to manageable levels reducing to just a few to deal with incoming...

The alternative is using a fine mesh cloche instead - it's much better at ventilating itself. The downside is that rain gets in so your emergency backup slug pellets will only last a few days in situ whereas the ones under a proper cover can last for months waiting for their prey...

I suppose a mesh cloche under a raised open car-port type roof might be the best of both worlds. This type of open-sided roof is also very good against blight provided the tomatoes are well away from the edges (and you don't suffer from horizontal rain).

Cheers.

[Tee Gee]

I basically agree with Vin it is nigh on impossible to get rid of them 100%

In days of yore we used to use ashes from the coal fire as a base .

So any gritty base should improve the situation.

I have found that any type of what might be described as shelving to raise your pots/trays above the soil level can be counter productive as this can create the ideal hideaway for slugs during the day and then they crawl up it at night.

The arrangement I have is duck boarding which I raise or lower as needs be when the plants are growing.

That is it is at its highest when the plants are small so that they get good light, then I lower it as the plants grow in height..

Periodically I spread some slug pellets around and these either land on the slats or drop down.to the soil. After a while I get the slug/ snail population down to tolerable levels but never 100%

I hope this info is of use to you....Tg