The anglers net regulars....

[robtherake]

Fantastic, tips please on keeping underground slugs from ruining my potatoe crop. I put my maincrop in today lashing lots of wood and coal ash laced with pellets, last year I grew what looked like fine big 'taters, but they were almost all drilled through by slugs.

Sadly, the underground (keel) slug is hard to defend against. I have tried incorporating slug pellets when covering up the sets and drawing up the ridges, with limited success, although these days I wouldn't dream of using any form of poison as I feel that these products are just as detrimental to the well-being of the soil organisms as they are to your intended quarry.

 

Something which does work, but again not 100%, is to line the trenches with newsprint. Most printing inks are benign these days, so you don't need to worry about their toxicity.

 

Incorporating sand and gravel during your winter digging can help - they don't like its abrasive nature. I have toyed with the idea of mixing diatomaceous earth into the soil in the potato area of the rotation. It's made up of the shells of fossilised diatoms and is wickedly sharp - I currently use it on the surface as a physical barrier around target plants and seedlings and it is very effective at this job. Slugs hate it.

 

By far the best approach though is to plant slug-resistant varieties, or to avoid planting lates, which are by far the worst affected, maturing as they do when the weather is generally wetter. The problem being that the tastiest varieties don't seem to have good slug resistance so choice is rather more limited.

[Sportsman]

The deeper and more interesting discussions that are now apparently missed used, I seem to remember, meander about all over the place. Maybe that's what made them interesting.

Now if one dares to move slightly off topic, deviate slightly from the OPs pre planned course or have the temerity to disagree with what is being said then there is much spitting of dummies and tossing of toys. You are immediately accused of "spoiling" threads, of being argumentative and of driving people away from the forum.

With this in mind and for the sake of AN unity and harmony I tend to use my ignore button on the individuals that I can't get along with and subsequently post much less.

[Anderoo]

Disagreeing with ideas is what I like most, that's what sparks new thoughts and new ideas. But only if the disagreement comes from experience and not prejudice. There's been way too little of the former and way too much of the latter recently, in my opinion.

[chavender]

Fantastic, tips please on keeping underground slugs from ruining my potatoe crop. I put my maincrop in today lashing lots of wood and coal ash laced with pellets, last year I grew what looked like fine big 'taters, but they were almost all drilled through by slugs.

 

 

if you suffer from subterranean slugs ,you don't have to plant potatoes in the ground/garden ,raised beds or barrals work really well for small crops .and makes it easier to control the environment they're grown in .and saves going down the whole rotovator & chemical attack route

 

broken egg shells work on surface slugs (they don't like sharpe edges or gritty stuff) ,mixing in stones/pebbles in the ground your planting the spuds in should help (i know you spend all your time removing stones etc from the soil ) pop your seeders in and leave the turned soil loose (don't tread it in) and heap it up covering the lower stem as the potatoe plant grows.

[Emma two]

Sadly, the underground (keel) slug is hard to defend against. I have tried incorporating slug pellets when covering up the sets and drawing up the ridges, with limited success, although these days I wouldn't dream of using any form of poison as I feel that these products are just as detrimental to the well-being of the soil organisms as they are to your intended quarry.

 

Something which does work, but again not 100%, is to line the trenches with newsprint. Most printing inks are benign these days, so you don't need to worry about their toxicity.

 

Incorporating sand and gravel during your winter digging can help - they don't like its abrasive nature. I have toyed with the idea of mixing diatomaceous earth into the soil in the potato area of the rotation. It's made up of the shells of fossilised diatoms and is wickedly sharp - I currently use it on the surface as a physical barrier around target plants and seedlings and it is very effective at this job. Slugs hate it.

 

By far the best approach though is to plant slug-resistant varieties, or to avoid planting lates, which are by far the worst affected, maturing as they do when the weather is generally wetter. The problem being that the tastiest varieties don't seem to have good slug resistance so choice is rather more limited.

 

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Well they are in now, I have kept back a sack of ash to put over them each time I back up over the shoots. The soil is well enriched with my own made compost which has a good percentage of hen muck in it. I don't know if that will help of hinder so far as slugs go.

[Emma two]

if you suffer from subterranean slugs ,you don't have to plant potatoes in the ground/garden ,raised beds or barrals work really well for small crops .and makes it easier to control the environment they're grown in .and saves going down the whole rotovator & chemical attack route

 

broken egg shells work on surface slugs (they don't like sharpe edges or gritty stuff) ,mixing in stones/pebbles in the ground your planting the spuds in should help (i know you spend all your time removing stones etc from the soil ) pop your seeders in and leave the turned soil loose (don't tread it in) and heap it up covering the lower stem as the potatoe plant grows.

 

 

Thanks for your imput. I do use the raised bed system, this is the second year of having my veg garden (it is most of next doors as my neighbour doesn't like gardening) the potatoe bed is the largest I have and is only 18 inches high at the moment, it will get deeper and the walls higher as time goes on. I am growing my first earlies in purpose made big green bags. They did very well in those last year. If this years maincrop are all eaten through I shan't bother again, but grow even more onions and leeks which I find both an easy and worthwhile crop.

[Phone]

Rob,

 

Bet you can't save my geraniums from seeds. Now dealing with 9/24ths

 

Phone

[Phone]

All,

 

Where's Chesters1?

 

Phone

[robtherake]

Rob,

 

Bet you can't save my geraniums from seeds. Now dealing with 9/24ths

 

Phone

 

Maybe they need a better start in life It might be worth putting a fan in your grow room to keep the air moving gently around the seedlings. Stale air+humidity = damping off.

 

Try sowing them on tissue, keeping them damp (and in the dark) until they germinate. That way you only plant viable seeds. Move them together with the bit of tissue they've germinated on to avoid any root damage, and subsequent infection. Damping-off is the worst problem, with over-watering the culprit. I find it best to stand the seed trays on capillary matting and in so doing to avoid watering from above. They prefer a constant temperature for germination and early growth, if you can supply it, of about 25 degrees C.

 

They don't like the compost to be too acidic, so try mixing in a handful of lime before you use it (especially if it's peat-based).Try not to use old compost, since it may already contain spores from the damping-off fungus.

 

Cheshunt compound is the traditional remedy for damping-off, but it's been made illegal over here (presumably so Big Chem can make even more cash selling us poisons) but if you can get hold of the basic ingredients, I think it's roughly 3/4 copper sulphate to 1/4 ammonium carbonate. You only need a very dilute solution, lightly sprayed on.

 

Truthfully, though. I stopped growing them for the reasons you've already mentioned. I couldn't provide stable enough conditions for the seedlings to be regularly successful. Best of luck, buddy.

[robtherake]

The soil is well enriched with my own made compost which has a good percentage of hen muck in it. I don't know if that will help of hinder so far as slugs go.

 

Insofar as a high organic content in the soil makes for a healthier population of microbes (and thus healthier plants with better disease and pest resistance) this is a good way to go. It's almost impossible to overfeed spuds, I've found, and it leaves the soil in good nick for the following crop.

 

Just watch that your hen poop is well composted - it can burn and kill plants if it isn't.