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help! my salad leaves have holes
Sally Dickinson
Posts: 5
Hi, I'm a novice gardener and have just grown some salad leaves but almost overnight they had loads of holes?? Grown in between cauliflower and spring onions if that makes any difference. Any advice gratefully received Sally
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Posts
Sounds like the old enemy, slugs and snails.
Snails tend to climb up the plants to eat the leaves while slugs chew the base and kill the whole plant.
I have tried all the convential methods but none have been successful, so I have devised my own 100 percent barrier.
Well I was going to post a pic but this damn thing dose not work???
Ah yes it does work. I use this to protect my young plants till they mature. Its a wire mesh colander with a hole cutout. No slug or snail can pass over the sharp wire ends!
Excellent idea, Ian Blue! Here in the Pennines we have mammoth slugs which eat everything in sight... I tend to use "organic" slug pellets, the ones which won't kill hedgehogs. I had problems with my salad leaves a few years ago, but the holes were tiny. Turned out it was thrips - tiny jumping insects. The leaves were still just about edible, but looked awful, so last year I bought some Wondermesh and made a cage using bamboos and this very fine mesh, over my little raised veg bed. Kept ALL pests out, including neighbour's cat!
Could be flea beetles. Again, micromesh will keep them out.
Think flea beetle was probably what I meant, Fidgetbones... thanks!
Thanks everyone, whole new world for me! The holes are very small am thinking it must be the flea beetles......but love the use of the sieve Ian Blue. Thanks for the Micro mesh tip....can feel another trip to the garden centre coming on!!
Many thanks
definitely flea beetles. Really annoying arent they!!
I grow my salad leaves in a tray on a shelf in the greenhouse. They seem to evade the flea beetles this way. I dont think they can jump that high.
Do you use large seed trays, fidget? Looking to set myself up for growing salads in the greenhouse over the winter. Wondering if the seed trays were deep enough?
I've given up with salad leaves the leaves are peppered with tiny holes caused by flee beetle, I cover them with fleece plant them in plastic bottles water them to keep the soil damp but the beetle always wins, I will grow them at home in planters in compost from now on as my allotment is flee beetle heaven.