Osmacote slow release fertiliser balls are hollow shells with liquid inside ...Dovefromabove says:
....... Yellow balls that pop when squashed sounds like the Osmacote slow release fertiliser balls - they have a liquid fertiliser in them - the shell of the ball becomes permeable when wet and the fertiliser passes through ......
I have the same problem. My new clems are covered in little brown balls that squish when you crush them. A friend said she thought they were snail eggs. It was a bit like finding nits in your kids' hair. But now I'm thinking they are Osmocote slow release fertiliser. They do look very egg-like and rather revolting. It is creating vast amounts of confusion internationally (judging by the write ups on the internet) and people thinking they are binning infested plants. Surely they should colour the fertiliser balls purple or something....
They seemed to care very much about their plants - they were well watered. These were the only ones that looked sad and I thought I'd resuce them
Wow, garden centres must love you wakeshine, the dream customer!
In all seriousness I think unless it’s very cheap in the sinbin, If you are paying full price for a plant it is much wiser to go for the strongest, healthiest looking plant. If all the other plants were well looked after and flourishing then it doesn’t bode well that these were not. I should imagine they are recoverable, but they have obviously not got off to a strong start so it may take some time for them to really thrive
To set your mind at ease, there are no plant pests in Britain which have eggs large enough to see in the soil except molluscs. Slug and snail eggs are ether clear or white and jelly like. The reason the fertiliser balls were empty is because the contents have leached out into the soil as they are designed to do.
I think we have all introduced vine weevil into our gardens via potted plants bought from shops and garden centres etc. I used to soak all new plants in a bucket of water +vine weevil killer for 48hrs before planting. It certainly helps, but you then need to water everything regularly every 6 weeks with the same solution to keep the weevils down.
Joyce, I don't think the things that the OP saw were VW eggs. They were slow release fertiliser balls. They look like eggs. VW eggs are barely visible to the naked eye, they are so small. Here is a note from the wonderful Clockhouse Nursery:
"... What people have normally noticed in their compost is
Osmocote. This is a commercially used and publicly available slow
release fertilizer. Hard, orangey-brownish yellow pellets contain the
fertilizer and when these become moist, they swell slightly and become
translucent... Many customers in the past have complained about their
plants dying and then go on to reveal that they have rummaged through
the compost, disturbing the root system, to remove the ‘vine weevil or
slug eggs’ that were in the pot with the plant. Of course root
disturbance of this degree will often result in a dead plant."
....... The little translucent balls certainly had me wondering...
Only birds' eggs have a crispy shell ... slugs and snails have jelly like spheres.
Joyce, you do know that regularly treating your plants with vine weevil killer will make the pollen of the plants poisonous to bees and other pollinators, don't you?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
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Eeeek don't say that please I was just having some hope!!!
Sorry, just kidding
In all seriousness I think unless it’s very cheap in the sinbin, If you are paying full price for a plant it is much wiser to go for the strongest, healthiest looking plant. If all the other plants were well looked after and flourishing then it doesn’t bode well that these were not.
I should imagine they are recoverable, but they have obviously not got off to a strong start so it may take some time for them to really thrive
Berghill, are snail eggs always jelly-like?
(It's an old thread, by the way).
"... What people have normally noticed in their compost is Osmocote. This is a commercially used and publicly available slow release fertilizer. Hard, orangey-brownish yellow pellets contain the fertilizer and when these become moist, they swell slightly and become translucent... Many customers in the past have complained about their plants dying and then go on to reveal that they have rummaged through the compost, disturbing the root system, to remove the ‘vine weevil or slug eggs’ that were in the pot with the plant. Of course root disturbance of this degree will often result in a dead plant."
.......
The little translucent balls certainly had me wondering...
Joyce, you do know that regularly treating your plants with vine weevil killer will make the pollen of the plants poisonous to bees and other pollinators, don't you?
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.