by Did67 » 19/05/17, 15:19
I also had attacks on my different plantations (cabbage, celery, mainly different kinds of salads).
With variable damage: some cabbage or celery lost (but as I wrote elsewhere, I plant 100 or 150, then 3 lost, that does not "count"); a few curls on one board, but about half of the uncurled escaroles on another ... There, it "warmed" me!
What I observe:
b) the previous one plays a role: my significant damage is in the plot where I had left + thrown away what was left of the cabbage; the rather woody stems, but hollow, are an excellent marker for slugs ... Elsewhere, under a "simple" layer of hay, it seems much less worse ...
c) little success with Ferramol: do some species not like it? prefer very tender vegetables? Likely. Is the action too slow so that a slug descent is fatal for a small plant, even before the Ferramol "stuffs" the slug (the Ferramol does not kill; it cuts the appetite; slugs bury themselves to die). Possible.
d) finally, my "fight" is quite simple and not very "exhausting": I did, 3 days in a row, at nightfall, a trip and ... I picked up by hand. We think there is a plethora of them, but sometimes it's a "medium", red slug that gets embedded on a foot and plows it down to the core. Just one. You catch it and the problem is solved. There may also be a hatching of tiny snails, but they are too small to "shave" a foot; they "eat away" the surface of the leaf, without being able to take the entire thickness ... There, it is more boring to collect.
So 3 rounds and the big part (95%) of the problem is solved, at the end of the news ... (or after a hot storm rain). They're outside, usually on top (assholes!). When you have a cabbage stalk attacked and you don't see one, it is worth bending down and "scratching" around the plant; sometimes she's just level with the hay ...
It cost me, come on, 3 times 10 minutes at maximum ... For 4 or 500 m² (but I focus on the areas where I planted; but all the same: about 300 salads, 100 cabbage , 70 celery, 150 leeks ...).
Today, noon, for a ride: it's raining hard ... And I still find a lonely one, during this little observation tour!
I had already had the same experience last year. I was surprised that in such a short time, I had seriously reduced the population ... But it's the same this year ...
Conclusion: gardening living soil is gardening WITH slugs. Provide 30% losses, the share of maintaining slugs, to feed the auxiliaries (enemies of slugs) so that they settle down and stay ... So when you want to have 4 courgettes, you plant 6. Knowing that 2 will be the "share of the angels". We must give up the idea: I plant 4 zucchini when I want to have 4!
Another note: "bare ground" gardeners also have slug problems, but they use an easy weapon - metaldehyde, very effective, cheap! But we must see all the consequences of this "system": hoeing, digging, the environmental effects ... So not to envy their apparent "absence" of slugs - which is not disastrous eradication!
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