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Salt table?

FireFire Posts: 19,096
edited May 2018 in Problem solving
I'm plotting ways to out-fox slugs in my garden. Has anyone tried putting the legs/feet of a structure (table etc) in large bowls of neat salt? I have a paved area, far from any planting, which might be suitable for trying it out. If it rained heavily and the bowls filled up, it wouldn't risk harming any plants. The bowls would need to be wide enough so that slugs couldn't bridge the gap to the legs. Ideally the table would be big enough to the shelter the bowls from rain (a bit). I would use neat salt rather than salt water and it's more a summer plan (less rain). In all my testing, it's salt that slugs won't attempt to cross. I would dearly love to try to grow some dahlias. I have some tall chimney pots and a small plastic greenhouse that could potentially be used with salt bowls.

Mad as a cabbage #2?
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  • Singing GardenerSinging Gardener Posts: 1,237
    I'm sure someone posted recently that they did something like this? Sounds like a good idea to me. I balance planters on pairs of copper rings, which also works well for me.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited May 2018
    There are also copper (coated) planters. I imagine if you put really virgin soil in them they could stay a bit snail / slug free for a while.  Again, it would have to be far from walls, hedges and other plants. But it would be interesting to try it.
  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    You may have to work up the prototype a bit but the principle sounds plausible.

    If you don't already own the table you intend to use, you could just buy one with metal legs. I have an old sewing machine trestle doobrey that I found in a junk shop for £10 and a defunct bbq grill as a table top. Slugs don't go near it and mice don't seem to be able to climb it either. 
    Harder for you to replicate perhaps but for the really busy seedling times (i.e. now) I suspend a couple of planks on wires from the roof of my mini polytunnel. It's great as long as we don't get a storm (everything falls off the shelves as the tunnel bends with the wind). Again - no slugs and no rodents. The slugs try. They climb the polytunnel walls and try to jump  :o
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    I have set up some planks on tall chimney pots so I will try these in salt bowls. I use hanging baskets for seedlings from a rose arch, but snails crawl down the basket chains. I will try with my large round garden table and fill it with seedlings that need to get out in the sun. My little plastic greenhouse is hopeless currently as slugs crawl in and have an all night feast, leaving bare earth my morning.
  • raisingirlraisingirl Posts: 7,093
    Can you get an old oven shelf/tray that fits in the bottom of your greenhouse? You could sprinkle that with salt, or fill it with a grit/salt mix and stand whatever shelf/rack you have in it? Or is it just a low cloche so no structure inside?
    Gardening on the edge of Exmoor, in Devon

    “It's still magic even if you know how it's done.” 
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    A large oven shelf might work well, yes.
  • Blue OnionBlue Onion Posts: 2,995
    What about using four animal salt bricks to balance each of the table legs on?  They don't dissolve sitting around outside, as far as I can tell, but you might protect them from the top with a few plastic lids or something.  They are also fairly inexpensive.  
    Utah, USA.
  • steephillsteephill Posts: 2,841
    A more robust solution might be to use pads of sheet copper under the table legs or perhaps wind copper tape around them. 
  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    You could cut the tops off some plastic bottles and thread the necks up the table legs enough to make umbrellas for the salt trays (Assuming the table had thin enough legs).  5 litre water bottles would work nicely.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    edited May 2018
    Salt bricks are an excellent idea. I'm not convinced by copper as a deterrent. It's more vaguely off-putting to slugs. Sometimes. Salt is a much more hard core option. I've done experiments putting six slugs inside a wide band of copper to see what they would do. Also separate circles of bleach, grit, coffee and egg shells. The slugs went through all quite happily. Only with salt were the slugs still inside the circle the next morning. It's admittedly a different story for slugs outside the circle to bother getting into some juicy morsel inside, but I think the principle holds.

    On Youtube, various people's vids: molluscs versus
    copper
    copper
    copper, wire bristles and electric fence

    v soot
    v broken glass
    v egg shells
    v grease
    v 9 volt electric fence (they still make it!)
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