Well using copper tape on ground-sown plants would obviously be useless as they can tunnel underneath. Dont need the RHS to tell me that. 😕
That was my thought ... did they test it on pots of hostas? That's where it works for me.
Yes me too. I use it on most of my pots with great success. I have used it to surround individual young plants when planted out in the borders in spring but it is attached to old plastic pots which are cut to open out. I put it around a plant and dig it in the soil an inch or so. Provides some protection to vulnerable younsters. Once they are big enough the pots are taken away.
Gardening. The cause of, and solution to, all of my problems.
Well using copper tape on ground-sown plants would obviously be useless as they can tunnel underneath. Dont need the RHS to tell me that. 😕
That was my thought ... did they test it on pots of hostas? That's where it works for me.
Yes me too. I use it on most of my pots with great success. I have used it to surround individual young plants when planted out in the borders in spring but it is attached to old plastic pots which are cut to open out. I put it around a plant and dig it in the soil an inch or so. Provides some protection to vulnerable younsters. Once they are big enough the pots are taken away.
All I can say is that my hostas have remained virtually untouched for the last 2 years and those are the years that I have used copper tape on each pot. Could be coincidence I suppose.
One thing I did find interesting was the comment that people spread slug pellets much too thick and they should be about 6 inches apart. I have to admit that I do sprinkle them pretty liberally - rarely 6mm apart never mind 6 inches.
In my last garden I followed the advice of hosta growers interviewed during Malvern Show coverage. Sprinkle a few pellets, very lightly, around susceptible plants starting o Feb 14th cos it's easy to remember. Top up weekly or after heavy rain. This gets as them as the emerge form hibernation deep in the soil or hatch from eggs and, more importantly, before they have time to feed and breed. I had hostas in the ground and in pots and it worked a treat.
The slugs and snails here haven't read the manual so I've had to lift every hosta I planted and put them into ITC in pots. Most have come back very healthy but some still look like lace basket cases.
I shall be trying garlic spray next spring.
Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
"The price good men (and women) pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men (and women)."
Tried garlic spray this year and it seems to work. Stinks the house out when you make it though! If you can, do it outside on a camping stove or gas bbq!!
Gardening. The cause of, and solution to, all of my problems.
On a Garden Rescue shown last week, Charlie nailed copper piping to the edge of a raised bed to deter the slugs/snails, I would like to know how much it cost and how effective.
Slugs have won - I could have told them that for nothing Crushed shell doesn't work - my house is rendered in it, and they're often to be found sauntering six feet up it. The giant snails here like hiding in the depths of the phormium foliage. I often hunt them out and squish them through the day. Very satisfying, and the birds get a freebie or two Pot edges are also a favourite haunt. Just run your hand round and pick 'em off.
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Anyone know how to keep slugs out of cabbages? I grow the spring ones and I always find that slugs have got in before me and are mulching through the hearts. I use slug pellets on the ground and plant in raised beds. What with this and cabbage whites, its a massacre.
I am careful about spraying pesticides as is an 85 year old gardening friend of mine. We do care for wildlife and grow primarily for bees and have tried the snail deterrents mentioned in the study in the past.
We both admit to using blue pellets now as we both have a lot of snails even climbing up pebble dash walls. We were wondering where the harm to wildlife rumour comes from as neither of us have ever seen birds touch dead snails. They seem to be well populated by flies and obviously lifted and binned as soon as they are found.
Personally I think it is a choice that a gardener has to make. Either grow veg and flowers in your little garden and feed the bees and the family, or accept that many plants won't do as well as you hoped if you don't act against slugs and snails. Unfortunately nematodes are not effective against snails, but may be useful against slugs. It's a personal choice I think and no gardener should feel guilty with what they decide to do.
Posts
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
The slugs and snails here haven't read the manual so I've had to lift every hosta I planted and put them into ITC in pots. Most have come back very healthy but some still look like lace basket cases.
I shall be trying garlic spray next spring.
Sorry....
Slugs have won - I could have told them that for nothing
Crushed shell doesn't work - my house is rendered in it, and they're often to be found sauntering six feet up it.
The giant snails here like hiding in the depths of the phormium foliage. I often hunt them out and squish them through the day. Very satisfying, and the birds get a freebie or two
Pot edges are also a favourite haunt. Just run your hand round and pick 'em off.
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
We both admit to using blue pellets now as we both have a lot of snails even climbing up pebble dash walls. We were wondering where the harm to wildlife rumour comes from as neither of us have ever seen birds touch dead snails. They seem to be well populated by flies and obviously lifted and binned as soon as they are found.
Personally I think it is a choice that a gardener has to make. Either grow veg and flowers in your little garden and feed the bees and the family, or accept that many plants won't do as well as you hoped if you don't act against slugs and snails. Unfortunately nematodes are not effective against snails, but may be useful against slugs. It's a personal choice I think and no gardener should feel guilty with what they decide to do.