Topic: Coffee

[thomasb]

Evening all,
I read somewhere that coffee is a good slug repellant. Has anyone tried it? How strong does the mixture need to be to be effective, and how often does it need to be applied?
This past winter I saw lots of slugs in the last of the carrots and swedes that I pulled.
Thomas

[Ragged Robin]

Hi Thomas,
 I have drastically reduced slug and snail damage by emptying the grounds from the coffee pot onto vulnerable plants. Seems to work for me, though cant help re strength of solutions or such. I'm sure there will be those who can give you more technical infomation on that front. All I can say is coffee works for me.

[gavin]

Hi ThomasB - I heard the original Radio 4 news item about caffeine and slugs, jumped up and down with glee, got lots of e-mails - and tried to write it down.  Ooooooooh, at last -- the easy answer!!!!!

But then, writing it down, trying to be fair and dispassionate, I found my typing was picking so many holes that I unconvinced myself!  http://www.keirg.freeserve.co.uk/diary/tech/pests/slugcoffee.htm.  I'll stick to drinking my coffee, thank you!

All best - Gavin

[Dunc_n_Tricia]

I heared about this almost two years ago - before we got the lottie. We only have a back yard, but it was covered in flowers - beds, baskets, tubs, troughing, old car tyers, etc - and also covered in slugs!

I refuse to use slug pellets. Nasty stuff - kills frogs, hedgehogs, birds and the rest. I don't mind killing slugs, but I quite like the rest.

I also despise coffee, (though probably not quite as much as slugs) and had a 'for visitors' jar of instant which was way past its best by date. I shook some into a watering can (about 1 or 2 tablespoons) and filled it up with cold water. This was then thoroughly watered into everything I could reach in the Yard.

We didn't see another slug until the following spring!

Last year we got the lottie, and didn't think about coffee straight away. I planted some radishes to get a quick crop, but slugs got all but about two of them. Tried again, but his time I watered the ground with coffee before I sowed the seed, and found very little was munched. It didn't eradicate them, but kept the damage down.

I have read that too much coffee can stunt growth of some crops, or turn them coffee coloured. For this reason, I intend to water each bed with coffee before it is sown / planted, and then water around the edges every month or so to act as a barrier. Not sure it will work, but that's the plan!

I don't guarantee you will have my results, but I hope this helps,

 :-* Tricia

[Mrs Ava]

Hugh, or was it Tim, one of you I'm sure did an experiment with coffee, and I don't mean drinking it  :P, or did I start on the gin to early tonite...?

[Hugh_Jones]

I carried out the experiments that you are thinking of EJ, and posted the full details on the Beeb Boards last summer.  The coffee I used was not intended to kill the slugs - a 2% caffeine solution would have been required for that - but was used as a deterrent at normal drinking strength of 50 gms per 2 gals of water, and was the cheapest I could find (Aldi at 37p per 100 gms)

Without setting out the full details of the tests, the conclusions I finally reached were:-

1. The coffee was an excellent deterrent, and, once treated (thoroughly drenched) the soil remained cleared of slugs for up to 2 months unless there was excessive rain

2. Coffee applied to growing plants, especially young carrot seedlings could cause chlorosis and retard growth in some cases

3. Coffee applied to mature carrots in September did not adversely affect the plants.

4. The most beneficial way to use coffee is to drench the bed some two or three weeks before sowing to clear slugs out, and then to re-apply around the edges of the bed only at intervals throughout the season to maintain a barrier.  I always overwinter my maincropcarrots in the ground, so once they had matured in September they were drenched, and this was repeated in November to keep the crop clean - there were no ill effects on the carrots.

The coffee was also used around (not actually on) Hostas at a radius of about 6inches from the plant stems -once in late spring and again in midsummer. Not one plant was attacked and the plants showed no ill effects.

As to the matter of the pH levels, 50gms of coffee used in this manner will have no more effect than a bucket of garden compost dug in over the same area.

[aquilegia]

aqui dances around in joy at the thought of no more slugs

fan-blooming-tastic. I'm off to buy a cheap jar of coffee. I just hope (as I can't stand the stuff) it doesn't keep me out of the garden as well as the slugs!

[The gardener]

A thought Hugh?

If I drenched my potato trenches prior to backfilling them, do you think this might deter keel slugs etc

[Hugh_Jones]

Coffee seems to deter all kinds of slugs, but in our climate the effect seems to be limited to a maximum of about 2 months.  This should protect your seed potatoes, but they don`t need protection.  Whether the effect would last long enough to protect the tubers as they form is a different matter.

I would add that when I went on holiday early last July, with half my earlies still in the ground, I put coffee on the rest in the ground, and certainly there was nothing like as much slug damage to the last ones, but the crop had more or less finished growing by then.

[gavin]

Does the coffee work for slugs - and slugs alone?  Or does it affect all sorts of goodies as well?

I haven't a clue - but has anybody else?  I'd like to know a lot more before I start using it.

I'll stick to drinking my coffee myself - share it?  With slugs?  Not likely - I've got green Yemeni coffee beans - got to roast them myself; and they make SUPERB coffee!

All best - Gavin

[Hugh_Jones]

Gavin, as far as I`m aware coffee only works with slugs, but as for not wanting to share the coffee with the slugs, would you want to drink coffee at 37p a jar?

[thomasb]

Thanks all for sharing your thoughs and experience.
I will certainly try coffee this summer.

One last thought....if its the caffeine that keeps the slugs away, would tea have the same effect? If it did I would keep my old tea-bags.
Thomas

[gavin]

37p on a jar of "coffee"? ???  I'd happily spend a VERY long time finding something else on which to spend my 37 pence!

But then I've been utterly spoiled - picking, drying, roasting, grinding my own coffee beans [no smiley found to indicate such heaven].  And so few slugs that 37 pence strikes me as extortion.  Ah well - I'll enjoy being spoiled!

All best - Gavin

[Hugh_Jones]

Wait till the slugs find your patch, Gavin.

Anyway, 37p a jar for coffee is a lot cheaper that slug pellets and it doesn`t bring the environmentalists down on your head.

[gavin]

Ah but, Hugh, I had slugs.  They've moved on,  got squashed, or got eaten.

And there's slugs all around me too.

I wonder about the ones who moved on - to those who use slug pellets.  :) :) :)   The ironies of life!  But will I tell 'em?

I don't grow anything like hostas - only veg.  So spring and early summer cultivation probably makes things a little uncomfortable for them.

All best - Gavin

[Hugh_Jones]

Ah, but it won`t last, Gavin. At least not if your neighbours are all using slug pellets.  You see, although the pellets are usually described as `showerproof`, in fact the poison quickly dissolves out of them when they`ve been wetted a few times, leaving only the harmless bran bait. This very quickly turns little slugs into big slugs, and big slugs into mummy and daddy slugs, and eventually the population explosion will send `em all back your way.

In any event, you`re surely not going to swallow the grounds from your Yemeni coffe beans, however expensive they are, and coffee grounds scattered around the crop in sufficient quantity will still have the deterrent effect.

[gavin]

Hugh!!!!!  I am shocked! :o :o :o :o :o

What a truly horrific suggestion - would I dream of disillusioning my neighbours!  They have such trust in the little blue jewels - hundreds of them, thousands, more!  How could I even contemplate undermining their efforts!  How unfair!!!!!

Actually, I'm a silly bu..er >:( - and I have tried.  95% bait (which lasts for months); 2-3% poison (which lasts until the next rain);  what a neat marketing trick - a good kill for 48 hours, and attract the slugs in for months afterwards ----- just to remind one to buy another packet.

Do my neighbours listen?  Nope.  Do I smile, quietly and smugly?  Yup ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D !  

So for the moment, coffee grounds into the compost heap (but alert to the possibly needing to use them sprinkled around).

All best - Gavin

[bananagirl]

I spent last summer on slug patrol. Every night after work, I went over all my pots with a torch, and threw the little beggars away. I will be trying the coffee thing this year, especially if it works on Hostas. Yay!. I can't abide chemical killers.

[The gardener]

Don't know if I have mentioned this before; I find out where the slugs hibernate to during the day, in my case it is an ivy covered wall, and a couple of hedges.

I sprinkle a row of slug pellets along the bottom of these and the slugs have a feed on there way out for the nightly travels, and those that don't have a feed on the way back.

This saves me spreading the pellets all over the garden.

All I have to do then is shovel up the dead bodies.

If you want to take this further you could lay a plank of wood in these locations,lay it slightly tilted, and put the pellets under it. This is a more animal friendly method, plus the pellets are kept relatively dry.