Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: mysticmog on May 04, 2004, 13:21:45
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Planted out my gherkins and courgettes that were looking lovely and big and healthy last week, under fleeces, in a wood edged raised bed, all tucked up nice and cosy. Went to check on them yesterday and all I have is 1 courgette and alot of stalks... :'( :'(
I've left the fleece off now as it doesnt seem worth
I guess this'll be slugs then...best way to get rid of them? Nematodes? Beer sunk in containers? Flame thrower?
Any advuce gratefully received....
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Mystic, comiserations :( Wood around raised beds does tend to act as a good hidey place for thew little loves >:( (well it does at mine anyhow!)
Flame thrower could be good! Has happened to me before, one day a lovely row of beans, next day nothing :'( I have tried the nematodes, but have to say that I didn't notice a vast difference, but then I do garden on heavyish soil which they say they do not like.(and it was fairly expensive) Have also done the beer traps, these I find work quite well, but you do have to keep emptying the carcasses, (well they were happy when they went!) and you get some strange looks from the offie when you ask for the cheapest beer for your slugs! :o Have also tried grit around plants, they seem to pole vault over this, but I had less damage! So now what I do is wait till my plants are quite big, grow a few extras for my hippo sized slugs, which I keep at home, put a collar around, from cut up pop bottle, throw round grit or eggshells, and put in beer traps!! (cover all bases!) They do manage to get a few, but I usually win out in the end..tis WAR I tell ya! Dottie P (oh and a pair of secateurs for when you see the little darlings!!)
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Oh Mysytic, so sorry. :'( I have just posted a similar moan in the 'shed'. I lost all of my melon seedlings to a slug and a snail. >:( Dunno what to suggest, use pellets and you will attract slugs and snails from far and wide, nematodes are a good option, altho a touch pricey for my palate, beer traps or rough stuff to deter them. I hope there is still time to resow as I am going to, so I would say, get some more going and stick them under pop bottles to start with, to get them going, then out by torch light looking for the b*ggers!
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Slugs are definitely evil - spawn of the devil and they look like it!
Last year was our first year with a lottie, and we were given three courgette plants by the soc. chairman. We surrounded each little plant with crushed up egg shells, and watered in a bit of weak coffee (no milk or sugar!).
Didn't have any trouble with slugs, so it seemed to work.
You might want to try sowing some more, as I don't think it is too late - and you can't let the slimy ones win. Chin up ;)
:-* Tricia
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Sorry to hear that,personally I don't think you can beat a few slug pellets scattered about having made sure that there is nowhere close by your beds that will harbour these pests of course.I have an allotment and had a lot of slug and snail problems until we cleared all the likely breeding/hiding places.We do still have a small problem however but the pellets do the trick there.......Alan
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They're evil little s*ds.
I have surrounded my nibbled courgettes with eggshells -which should keep them off. If my brain had been working this early in the season I would have planted the cougettes in a ring cut from a plastic bottle, and filled the ring with eggshells or 'Slugstoppa' or one of the other non-toxic things they like to crawl over. This seems to keep them off the stalks and the plants grow. Note to self do the cucumber tonight.
Other than that beer traps work a bit, but seemed to do best in conjunction with night patrols to pick them up and get rid of them. Not the best thing to be doing just before bed, especially as they seem to have enlisted the daddy longlegs as ariel support >:(
Nematodes seem to cost more than the crop is worth!
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Slugs don't tend to take on good healthy plants but will go for newly planted, sick or otherwise weak specimens.
I have lots of slugs on my allotment and use 2litre pastic bottles cut in half to protect newly planted specimens for a week of two. This seems to protect against the slugs and gives the plants a boosted start
Phil
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I had great success with the nematodes last year - on heavy clay too - but they are expensive. I have just used them again this weekend so fingers crossed. I also find that if you put an old compost bag on the ground, the slugs congregate there during the day and you can collect and dispose of them. My problem is the snails - I have loads of all different kinds and though the nematodes seem to discourage them, they aren't a cure. Any tips most welcome.
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Gillian - I have loads of problems with snails too. Slugs don't seem as bad as they can't climb, so I put susceptible things in pots. But snails...
I collect them. Much easier and more pleasant that slug collecting. I now know all their regularly hang outs and collect them up regularly. They seem to like hanging around under large-leaved plants for the shelter and damp. My sedums and foxgloves seem to be firm favourites.
When collected, they go in a plastic bag which is securely tied at the top and then the bag goes in the bin. I'm a wuss - I can't bare to squash them (although I did stamp on one after I found the remains of my sunflowers).
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I have a flat roofed double garage and lots of black birds and thrushes, so snails get thrown onto the roof where, I hope, the birds will benefit.
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Okay, this thread has encouraged me to make a couple of dozen drinking bottle collars to go around my various squashes and sunflowers when they go out in a couple of weeks time.
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I`m not that keen on beer traps as they kill benficial beasties as well as slugs and snails,but if you do want to use them nip down to the local and get the slops.
I would be a good idea to have a drink there from time to time though ;)
Stephan
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Where?
From the beer traps or in the pub?
:D
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Don't get too nasty -it's dad might come round!
http://www.cartoonyhusband.homestead.com/files/slug.gif (http://www.cartoonyhusband.homestead.com/files/slug.gif)
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hehehehe ;D - every gardeners nightmare huh! ;D
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I'm like Aqui, I collect the snails and either throw them over the fence into the verge of the walkway which borders our site(I know they probably come back ::) or put them in a bag with the rubbish for the tip.
Today my 3 year old granddaughter was with me she thinks snails are the cutest thing alive and when on the lottie she walks around constantly with one on her hand showing everyone who will lsiten how it smiles when it comes out to "speak" to her. It began to pour which meant the "poor snails will get wet and get colds and their mummies will cry" so we had to go round putting them in shelter under a box - still hopefully they'll still be there tomorrow when I go back to dispose of them!
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Thanks for the ideas. We're to weedy to kill them, so it'll be into the green wheelie bin with 'em, where they can munch as much as they like.
The council did a wonderful thing giving us the green bin - it's taken all the tap roots this year.
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Stick some of them in the cool compost heap where they can do some good :o
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Or when you have collected all your snails, do as we did a few years back on Mum's 70th, have a snail race! Daube some paint on the shells, draw lots of circles on a piece of board and watch em go!! OK so it was a long race....but that made for more hilarity! Wonder what the neighbourhood thought seeing snails in their gardens in varying colours!! :o (well we had to let them go, they had worked for their freedom!) Dottie P
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Would snails drown in deep water?
My as yet unlined pond filled up a bit in all the rain over the last few days, so I threw any snails I found yesterday into it. Would they just crawl out or would it actually kill them?
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I use my boot Aqui, that way I know they are gone, and quickly! :-\ Have a look in the pond and see if you can see any bodies! Have a funny feeling the resilient little darlings would find a way out!
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Had a poke round in the still undrained (it's not lined yet - full due to rainwater and clay!) pond last night with a stick. And what do you know - found two very wet, very dead snails in there! Left them on the side for the birds/toads to munch on.
My theory is - if I supply the predators with easy food, it'll incourage them to come into the garden (Maude? ;D) um... more and then they'll start doing the hard work for me!
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Last year I read somewhere that you should collect any slugs you find, pop them in a plastic bottle, pour in some boiling water, and keep doing this until you have a bottle full. The slugs will die, melt and you have yourself a bottle of the most vile smelling black liquid known to mankind. Your are then meant to pour this liquid on your plot- the theory being that it will stop slug eggs from hatching, as the slime in slugs acts as a population control mechanism -i.e. if there are lots of slugs in an area leaving slime everywhere, the eggs won't hatch, preventing over population of slugs.
I have no idea if it works- I have a bottle of said liquid from last year and am too scared to use it in case it does serious harm to plants!
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Or your sense of smell Ross! Phew :P
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Ross - I need a really good vomit emoticon. blurgh.
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I endorse the "2-litre plastic bottle cut in half" method for protecting very young plants. By the time each one had outgrown its very own personal cloche it's big enough and ugly enough to look after itself - with a bit of help from slug pellets.
Sue
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METHINKS YOU ARE ALL MISSING THE OBVIOUS SOLUTION
FROGS FROGS FROGS FROGS FROGS
AND MORE FROGS.
i HAVE THE MOST BEAUTIFUL LARGE LEAVED HOSTAS
NOT A HOLE IN SIGHT!!
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Have to say Margaret, I too have loads of froggies, but they just can't seem to keep up with my hippo sized slugs!!! My hostas that are coming up next to the pond, already have the net curtain look! :'( What I need is an army of hedgehogs too!! Only heard the one so far snuffling in my hedges :o Still, worth the holes to see the wildlife I reackon! ;D
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Mwah, they have been eating my peas in the garden border. Caught a couple of snails in the greenhouse nibbling my beans and tomatoes & squash. Still got the trail over the sage leaves. Might go on a slug hunt tonight...
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Visited my sis yesterday to give her a hand in her garden and she was moaning like hell about the slugs eating all of her french marigolds she had just planted out. When I looked, every plant in her garden seemed to be infested with tiny little slugs, as though a couple of huge egg clusters had hatched a couple of days ago! Her whole garden is raised beds and she loves to mulch with bark and I do wonder if she has made a have for slugs of all sizes! So, before I had left, she had almost emptied a whole pot of slug pellets our her plot. :-\
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:'( :'( Got 4 heritage peas left from the 15 I planted out. The snails got them :'( :'( They also got my marigolds (or their homeless cousins) and 3 out of 5 lettuce seedlings. Caught the 2 snails in the greenhouse responsible for eating tomato & bean seedlings. The trail of one is still visible on my sage seedlings.
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went slug & snail hunting - monday yielded 50, yesterday 135 and tonight 105. Putting oatmeal as bait - also put this round my 4 surviving heritage peas and had 2 nights without slugs and snails there.
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they is evil, I tells ya. Planted out some EJ Aubgerines in pots, with a Marigold for company, and surrounded edge of pot with expensive Slug Barrier grit about an inch wide. Result this morning....marigold and aubergine in tatters with slug slime all over the pot. this is war.
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I have a horrible feeling that this is going to sound stupid but doesn't salt work? [running for cover]
My biggest fear in the whole wide world is slugs, with snails a close second. I gave a big pot of Hostas to my neighbour because of the slimey visitors [I might be regretting it now they are coming up a treat!]
Chezzie
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pouring salt on slugs will kill them- but leaving salt around plants is bad for most veg crops (think beetroot and asparagus are two that don't mind a little salt)
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So I'm not as silly as I thought, does that mean it's ok for Hostas and non-edibles?
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Plants that like/tolerate salt are those that come from species that orginally grow on the coast
I can't recall seeing Hostas on the Golden Mile!!
Phil
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Interesting about asparagus tolerating salt -my dad told me that my granddad used to put salt on his asparagus beds. Is it realted to samphire/glasswort?
Jeremy
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I do live 5 minutes walk from the sea Phil so they have grown up with it.
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Presumably they also like candy floss!! ;D
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...and wear 'Kiss me Quick hats' ;)