Outsmart Slugs & Snails: The Secret to Growing Slug-Proof Plants in Your Garden!
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- čas přidán 24. 07. 2024
- Plant expert Stephen Ryan of @thehorti-culturalists explains how to keep slugs and snail from eating all your plants, using slug-resistant plants and other cunning techniques, which work wherever you live.
00:00 Welcome
00:23 The Horti-Culturalists CZcams channel: / @thehorti-culturalists
00:47 How to get rid of slugs and snails naturally
02:38 Grow young plants in pots up on shelves
03:02 Woody shrubs and trees are generally slug resistant
03:56 Do coffee grounds, crushed eggshells, copper tape or horticultural grit deter slugs and snails?
06:17 Plants with hard and shiny leaves are slug/snail resistant
06:40 Late season flowers can be more slug resistant because of the weather
07:42 Plants with resinous herby leaves are slug/snail resistant
10:24 Plants with furry/fuzzy leaves are slug/snail resistant
10:32 Roses are slug/snail resistant
11:05 Are rare plants more slug/snail resistant than common ones?
12:20 Mix slug-resistant plants with vulnerable ones
13:10 Manual ways of controlling snails
14:40 Garden tips and techniques playlist: • Essential gardening ti...
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I have wooden raised veg garden beds. I scrub the rims with bar bath soap. The slugs and snails never cross I to the beds. That’s my barrier method.
Ooh, thank you for that.
I went picking off slugs early in the morning when my peas were attacked. A bit fearful of putting my courgettes out as yet, but I'll try the bath soap idea on the containers where they're bound.
Easy to use the soap on the pot rims as well. Excellent!
Certainly in my experience, selecting predominantly plants that are snail resistant helps. But, more importantly, nothing can replace a nightly harvest by torch!
And beer traps work for me, although they kill the slugs
Beer traps work really well in my experience, although I feel there are still loads of them(snails&slugs) left still...but it does keep them to a reasonable number 😅
I read this quickly and laughed. My Canadian brain thought of the word 'torch' as a flaming stick...I read it again and understood it as the synonym for flashlight.
@@courtnez that's what I was thinking. Go around at night and torch the snails. 🐌🔥
Salt on double sided tape around pots work too... if they want to ban blue pellets which work really well, and stop slug damage, then salt it is... because slugs on your food crop is the most off putting thing ever. I just cant eat nothing i have seen a slug or snail on. its got to go in the bin.
Alexandra, I accidentally stumbled upon something that helps with snails and slugs...I have a horseradish plant in my flowerbed along with delphinium, hostas, and many other "delicious" flowers. I find that the snails and slugs congregate on the horseradish plant in droves, so pick them off and deal with them. They tend to leave the other plants alone while young during the Spring and into Summer. This method has been working for the past 12 years. My sacrificial horseradish plant is still surviving.
How interesting, I have never heard that before.
Posing pots on shelves doesn't work here... The climb up wherever they want, even more tha 2,4 meter...
Very interesting, entertaining and good advice, thank you. I collect the slugs and snails I find in my garden and place them in a container (with small holes in the lid), then they go on a short journey in the car to a local car park near some ponds and get released. We have affectionately renamed this the Snail Car Park and whenever we happen to drive past shout out “Hello snails!”
Chickens. My little flock of 6 hens eat slugs, snails, and slug eggs like popcorn at a theater. I turn them into the veg while it is dormant during the winter/early spring and help out by up-ending pots, mats, containers, etc. One year I kept the hens out of the veg and it was overrun with slugs. Never again! Also, learn what the eggs look like (tiny pearls) and scrape them up whenever you find them. Destroying one "nest" can get rid of dozens of slugs in one go.
Great advice!
Never thought they came from eggs😂. Never seen them. Will keep a look out . Thank you.
Filling a shallow container with beer works beautifully,slugs drink then die in dish
i tried that but it also kills beetles so stopped that ,
The beer trap method has been quite helpful for me. Especially early in the season before the population really explodes. I'm going to need to go buy some cheap beer soon!
I believe it's quite effective, but I haven't tried it myself.
I've been doing that too. Just half sink a ramekin in the ground near anything that's getting nibbled, fill it with cheap larger and the slugs take themselves for a long walk off a short pier, so to speak!
I use traps with a yeast solution: 4 teaspoons dry yeast, 2 teaspoons sugar in a jam jar, top up with water, give a good shake, let sit for 10 minutes and then dilute with 3 litres of water. It's a lot cheaper than beer, takes up less room, and very effective. I have more than 20 traps dotted around the garden, filling them all with beer once or twice a week would be too expensive.
Thank you. I will try that method. @@sarabrankaer7796
My turkeys eat snails an slugs which a great help. Chickens also are supposed to. I also have voles and ground hogs and deer which love to eat tender leaves. But winners in the wild garden are Queen Anne’s lace. Verbena Bonareinsis, oxeyed daisies, matrona sedums, and cardonna sage all growing with more tender leaf plant.
What a pleasure to see Stephan in this channel 🙏🏻
i absolutely love this - present tense because it will be watched over and over. Thank you both for all the detailed pros and cons - especially 'over the fence' and 'tap dancing'. With slugs several inches long and fat, that's a no-no. I'm just starting dahlias after a 20 year gap; in copper-taped pots on a stand full of grit and coffee grounds.Many thanks.
I take some to church on Sundays and a lady there feeds them to her lizards.
We had a particularly warm winter here in Germany and the slugs here have been overwhelming. I started going out every morning just as the sun comes up and picking them off everywhere I could find them. I have probably collected 5000 and probably more. The pressure has subsided considerably but i can still collect 100-200 in about 45 minutes just walking the perimeter of my house and through the garden. I put them in a bucket of soapy water and then cover them until they are all dead. Then i bury them in the back yard at the edge of my property.
I do much the same, but I cut them half with secateurs... No messing about with buckets or water.
You have so many, they’ll be able to speedily reincarnate into another slug family. If smart, after their drowning, they’ll go to a garden, like mine where I have zero slug control & a tree (in Florida) they love & devour to the bone (branches)….. seriously YUK for cutting up the slugs, and yes to an intoxicated drowning in beer.
Lovely and informative conversation. Thank you!
I found the horticulturalists channel through your channel and have enjoyed it ever since! Glad you are continuing to collaborate, I enjoy watching your videos!
Thank you!
Just when I thought your materials just couldn’t get better - a slug and snail video! I garden in the Netherlands and here in wetter summers like 2021 it is rather tough. On certain days I have seen 10s of almost 10cm slugs in a garden 6x10m…My disgust is a borderline phobia so I don’t touch them and avoid looking at them, but I don’t kill them either. I was hoping that birds here will eat them but to no avail - magpies and blackbirds seem to avoid them almost as passionately as I do. So my solution was slug resistant plants indeed. Any plant I introduce gets checked in advance and never introduced if attractive to them (so no dahlias, hostas, daisies, etc). The most attractive plant I have for them right now is a hortensia. They would still try here and there but would not persist on a slug resistant plant. Now you mention the monarda I will consider it. I loved the garlic someone suggested in one of the comments and I consider trying that out as well. Your material are priceless! ❤
Thank you - and the garlic is a great idea. Elephant garlic is quite attractive so it may be woth trying that.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden Thank you Alexandra - they are beautiful! 🌞 Now that I think of it, the critters ate all my allium leaves and stem surface last spring - I hope this will send the right message - I just read that they need to be planted in the autumn so on my list for next year. 😊
Oh my, that sounds terrible. I see the occasional long slug and, yes! Definitely phonia-inducing.
I find that crows will pick off some of that size. They are very amusing leading their chicks around the garden teaching them to get them, but I have more slugs than the local crows can cope with.
Luckily I don’t deal with slugs and snails on a large scale but this was very interesting. So nice to see Stephen!
Informative video!
Good rainy morning!
Over a decade ago, I introduced predatory snails, conical shelled, to my garden to be rid of slugs and snails and it mostly works.
On the rare occasion I find a slug or snail in my garden, I transport it and set it down on the tea ball in the center of the birdbath! The slug or snail is surrounded by water and presented for the birds to gratefully gobble up.
By the way, the tea ball in the birdbath contains a piece of mosquito dunk pellet that keeps the bath free of mosquitoes and their larvae. Hurray!
What kind of tea ball is it? A large size ?
@@tracyjin4818 small, personal cup size, metal tea ball. The birds don’t bother the tea ball and the tea ball keeps the mosquito dunk from floating away.
I love the idea of mosquito dunk piece hidden inside a tea ball in your bird bath! How clever. I am definitely going to try that come warmer weather. 💚
Thank you Alexandra for another useful topic. I put a layer of cinder and ash around my hostas. It seems to be working as none of the leaves get damaged. But then I have been blessed with limited amount of snails and slugs. I do not know the reason. Perhaps it is due to lavender, different types of sage and thyme planted everywhere as an addition to other snail resistant plants. They certainly do not like my garden. The places where they are resigning are mainly dark and damp corners filled with pots, wood material, compost bin and cluttered spaces full of stuff saved "just in case" like bricks and stones. I think that clean garden gives them less hospitality than they need to thrive and breed. We also feed lots of blackbirds especially through winter. As they feed on a ground walking all over my flower beds, they help to get rid of slugs and snails. Though they can be quite a menace leaving the soil spread everywhere and digging seedling out. We do not mind.
That's interesting. Wood ash is good for the soil, whatever effect it has on snails.
Happy to see you made it over there again! Love your videos together (too and also individually on both channels)! 😊Greetings, Judit
Ps.: Your small funny story, the slug landing on your table thanks to the London method would make a great short video! 🤣
Thanks so much! 😊
I am not replacing my hosta, for slug resistant varieties of plants. Nor am I replacing other plants they like. I use the commercial products about twice a year, and that helps enormously, if applied in a timely way.
Wow beautiful Plants ^^
Like 951
My friend, thank you for good sharing
Very informative. I'm in South Africa (near Cape Town) and my garden has quite a lot of common slug eating snakes (Duberria lutrix?), Harmless to us humans but devastating to slugs & snails. I still come across snails in the garden and tend to let them be 🐌
I let the mating pairs be. I don't kill any on purpose. I only collect the large ones and often just throw them over the back fence into a reserve.
My Mom grew orchids when I was a kid, and one night in early spring she asked if I wanted to go on a "Gastropodia Hunt". Flashlights and old bread bags; we put snails in the bags, tied the tops and put them in the trash. Kind of evil, but effective. I'm still squeamish about snails. I now live farther east in San Diego county, where it's drier. I only see slugs under pots now and then. Shortly after I moved here I purchased some Rumina decollata (Decolette snails), which have been used in Southern California to control garden snails. I haven't seen a regular snail since, and only rarely see the narrow cone-shaped shells of the predatory snails. I did put copper tape (with adhesive backing) around the top edges of my tall garden beds. That seemed to work on the slugs, but did nothing to keep the raccoons and skunks from climbing up and over to dig up grubs and earthworms, LOL.
You ask all the questions I have about dealing with slugs! I suffer badly from them, they razed my daffodils to the ground this year! They even damaged my clematis, I was picking them off at eye height! I protect my dahlias with copper rings and that is very effective. I use the pellets occasionally and use traps to reduce the population.
Very very interesting and important to know. Thank you very much !!!
I l living in Flanders, Belgium ...struggeling with snails at a roof top garden.
The snails come over from far away against the walls that high ...
I ve collected the different snails put them in a plastic pit with some leaves ...send them to a labatory to investigate ...
They were not European species.
Importing plants leads also to new " garden enemies".
It s a difficult topic.
I hope we gardeners can cope better with the snail issue this year.
Happy gardening.
Oh, yes, you're so right - the snail eggs can come in with the plants.
I’ve got quite a lot of dahlias - 50 to 60, and I’ve given up trying to control the slugs and snails. I lose some, but overall I still get a reasonable display.
I’ve found that the beds adjacent to the hedges and shrubs are most affected by the slugs; the one big central flower bed seems largely unaffected. It has a circular path and a small (6 inch) brick retaining wall around it.
Not only in London are snails airborn 😁 I have given here and there snails a free flight to next door garden. But I think they come back, because there is nothing but gras. Great video. 👍🌻
🤣😂 me too.
I think they do come back sadly!
I can’t imagine tossing a destructive creature into my neighbor’s garden. It will likely come right back! If you’ve picked it up, why not drop it into a jar of soapy water or just squish the thing (under a board or such if you are squeamish as I am).
Here in the South,
in the U.S.,
one of my favorite predators of snails are the larvae of fireflies!
I know not every place in the world has fireflies, (which is a bummer) however, another cool predator I really like in Britain is the cute little
Hedgehog!
I wouldn't mind having those over here!!
Unfortunately, both the firefly AND the hedgehogs are on their way to extinction.
And it's all our fault!
Humans are constantly destroying their habitats.
What little habitat we leave for them is not even safe after building our houses & highways because of the constant use of pesticides, and also keeping those grass lawns mown super low.
I, for one, cannot imagine a world without fireflies...
Chasing after them as a child, then actually CATCHING one is a real trick since the time of day, or really night, when they come out makes it even more of a challenge to catch one!
But the funnest part of all is watching them light up in the glass jar!
They're just like little live light bulbs, and kids are just fascinated with them!
Heck, I'M STILL fascinated by them!!
But each year there are less, and less in the garden...
In a park near to me there were always HUNDREDS of fireflies!!
Last year I counted only 13 as they were glowing on and off with their little light bulbs as they to try to find their mates...
I am really hoping each one was successful in their quest.
The fireflies like to lay their eggs in heavily mulched areas where there is plenty of leaf litter. The larvae look pretty disgusting as they are short, worm like, creatures! But their shape is perfect for crawling up into a snail shell and feasting on snails!
AND that's exactly what they do!
As a gardener, how could I dislike THAT!!
It's so nice to see videos like this which are advocating for keeping leaves IN the borders, and finding alternatives to pesticides!!!
There's so many good reasons for having mulched up leaves in garden beds!
Thanks for this video for shining your little light on this very important subject!!
I'm hoping one of the best results of "new gardeners since the pandemic" is that there are now more of us humans who will encourage the natural slug & snail predators like hedgehogs and fireflies to hang around.
Just like we put plants in the garden to attract aphids to that one plant,
maybe now there'll be more of us who don't mind giving up a few leaves (or even whole plants!) here and there to snail & slug damage, just for the sake of keeping the fireflies, hedgehogs, and other really cool predators!!
Yes, I hope for more firefly-friendly and hedgehog-friendly gardening too.
Didn't know that. Thanks, I'll have to look up how they look. Frogs and toads absolutely love slugs btw. I have water containers the tree frogs hang out in when its dry.
@@ArtFlowersBeeze8815 nice!
Thanks. Interesting topic! That’s funny about the London Method as I have been throwing mine into a large green space beyond my fence. I’m sure they just come back.
I think they probably do!
God information. I like the suggestion about putting seedlings up out of harms way. I have less of a problems with these pests being on the prairie so to speak.
I spend a few minutes when it's raining and use a pair of scissors. Works a charm! Still get the odd damage, but I have a big garden so I feel like I can share.
🇬🇧 My friend lives next to woodlands, in 14 years i haven’t ever once seen a slug or snail. Puzzling really, as there are plenty of birds in my garden as well, and yet I do have lots of slugs . So Puzzling
Nature often doesn't seem to stick to rules...
I had a lot of snails last year. And someone told me to use crushed eggshells around the plants they are eating. So I’ve been saving eggshell all winter to try this in the spring. 🤞🏻hoping it will work😀
This has worked for me for years. You need to go under and around the plant and continuously replace. Since we eat a lot of eggs this hasn’t been a problem.
Diatomaceous earth (ground up sea creatures' shells) is supposed to work, but as the gentleman said, they'll slither under paper or cardboard one places under the powder.
When the RHS did their tests on crushed eggshells, they found they didn't work. But many people swear by them, so perhaps there is more research to be done.
My 100% slug resistant plants: roses (which I grow over 130), grasses, geraniums, hostas with greyish leaves and cosmos plants when they are past their "babyhood". I use iron phosphate granules (not the blue pellets) around young dahlias, peonies and the like.
Great video
Alexandra, your snail / dinner story was quite funny, sorry for giggling x 💙🙏😇🕊️🌸🇦🇺🧡
It was quite funny at the time, except for poor Brian who was rather embarassed.
That's fascinating, when slugs ate my native delphinium I was shocked because of how poisonous they are, but I guess their alkaloids don't affect slugs? I tried to grow native clover last year and they never made it past the cotyledon stage... This year I'm starting them all inside into more mature transplants but I'm still going to have to protect them I think.
Try a mixture of cheap, instant coffee mixed with soap powder as a barrier.
Thank you for this, I have had a huge problem with slugs and snails. I do have several hostas in pots on an area we covered with cobbles, this seems to have worked. I’ve relented and will not grow delphiniums and lupins this year, I am redesigning my border with mainly pots and stones hopefully to deter the little blighters and I think geraniums as drought resistant and slugs don’t seem to like them 😊
Geraniums is a good one - I think their leaves are a bit fuzzy, too.
Your conversation also reminded me of childhood ... We collected snails and tried to arrange a competition - which snail moves faster), but for some reason they refused. In my garden, these slugs love hostas and cabbages. They are very greedy...
I have actually selected plants specifically because they are susceptible to slug and snail damage because these "pests" are food for firefly larvae.
You can buy rolls of copper mesh in gardening stores, and on line. It’s wide, at about 5 inches so I imagine it can Be cut with sizzors.
I have had a few hostas in my garden for a year or two and so far they have been fine. I do encourage birds to into the garden, mainly by having bird feeders, and there are quite a few which hang around.
I love the sound of a thrush cracking shells!
More native plants will attract more wildlife such as birds that will eat them. The more native biodiversity the more balanced the ‘pests’ are
I use slug traps with a homemade bait in the garden bed's and slug gone in the pots. The homemade bait is simple to make. Use one cup of water, one teaspoon of flour, one teaspoon of dry yeast and one teaspoon of sugar mix it in a jar and add to your slug traps. The slug gone is organic and I like it because you don't notice it in your pots.
They seem to like older leaves also. I use sacrificial leaves spread round the plant collect and give to hens, copper tape put round top bottomless pots placed as a barrier round small seedlings works well have been using this method for a few years helps cause I use old hay as mulch.
I've noticed less snails, after tap dancing with a torch at night.....culling most of the adults....but have found the snail eggs in a large bunch under an upturned terracotta pot.
And having hedgehogs and Berty, blackbird in my garden helps to keep numbers down too.
There were plenty of small holes in my bean leaves this summer, but I'm sure they were caused by a different pest.
Our dog was fed on dry dog food which comes in the form of pellets. Slugs n snails love these, and my theory is that if you scatter a few of these the slugs will have less of an appetite for our plants. Humane.
I only use an iron phosphate slug pellet & it works quite well for me as long as I apply it a couple times in the spring as all my herbaceous perennials are coming up. This year has been a bit rough since we seem to be having major rain storms every other week & I have to reapply the slug pellets after every storm. Otherwise, for snail control if we notice there are quite a few on any given day we pick them up & drop them in a bucket to feed the chickens.Our chickens don't eat slugs but they love snails.
Iron phosphate might be approved for organic farming, but it’s still very harmful:(
@@user-ed7et3pb4o the only issue I can find with iron phosphate slug treatments is if they are chelated using EDTA & that potentially creating toxicity problems for earthworms.
Also, I'm in the USA in a very large suburban area so I likely have different concerns & considerations compared to folks living in other areas of my country or the world.
spot on with Laburnum snails used to defoliate mine grrr :) thankfully it doesn't seem to happen now the trees over a decade old
Glad to hear the laburnum survived
I have been an avid night-time hunter of slugs, armed with a bamboo skewer. The first time I found one of the giant invasive slugs, I was amazed. I took it inside, to measure and photograph. It was about 6”, a middling specimen. In addition to their size, they have structure - a sort of mantle, about where shoulders might be, whereas the local type of slug is just a bag of protoplasm. I nicknamed my catch The God Of The Slugs, and let it go, in another part of the yard. I soon changed my mind about that, however. Eventually, I noticed a few places where they seemed to congregate. At first, I thought those places might be nurseries, but later decided that they were trysting places. One year, I continued observing well into the autumn, and was surprised at how active they were when temperatures were in the 40s F, but then the earthworms and all the other who-knows-whats were out and about, too, at that time of year. When I found myself feeding one of them (it liked fungi), I reflected that it had all gone too far, and abandoned my observation post.
Put out shallow tins (tuna cans, catfood cans) of beer. The slugs are attracted to the beer, climb in and drown. Works like a charm! But, I often throw them into the road, too, if I'm working in the garden and come across any, though I do feel mean doing that.
I expect the birds appreciate them, though
I have heard of people using ducks for slug control. I've never tried it myself.
I’ve found the best way for me is a late night hunt ( preferably in the rain) with a torch, I’ve almost eradicated them from my garden with this method.
Me too.....I'm sure my neighbours wonder what I'm up to when I transport them in the dark 🤣
@@charmainepattie7904 🤣 yes, I’m sure my neighbours think I’m crazy. 🤪
Me too, but I find it easy to hunt them during the day too. They hide between bags of compost, stacked pots, plastic edging around my vegetable beds and in the hollows of cement building bricks. It's easy to find them.
I know many people who swear by that method. I'm a bit too squeamish.
I remember back in the latter 1950s, when my siblings had gone off to school in the morning, our Mom picked up a paper grocery bag & folded its top edge over, then took me with her outside to fill that bag with slugs & snails. . . . We always left enough room for her to firmly fold the top over to keep the slugs from getting out . . . then she dropped it in the trash can. I don't know how many mornings we filled a bag up with them -but it was several mornings in a row- & eventually we could no longer find very many of them anymore, & those we would find was always removed. NO poisons necessary!
I have researched and tried everything to stop the snails and slugs. I have lived on the same property for 30+yrs and never dealt with slugs until the past two years. They are already everywhere in my garden know😢.
I have added new plants over the past few years but they are repeats of plants I have grown, so I don't think the problem started with introduction of a new plant that is prone to slugs.
Yet I feel after 30yrs slug free, I mean literally never saw ONE and now this being the 3rd year of these pest, they are taking over my beautiful plants, there has to be something that attracted and brought them in? The slugs have become a major chore and discouragement to the pleasure of gardening for me!
Maybe there was something eating the slugs that has died or some sort of barrier or repellent that was inadvertently removed?
@@pendlera2959 I don't know what it could have been, but I'm sure that is possible. I just find it odd that after 30yrs slug free and now for the 3rd year, I am invaded with so many slugs.
Have you had unusual weather? If it’s been wetter than normal they could’ve proliferated. Or maybe a plant/soil that was accidentally brought in was harbouring eggs?
I have a lot of frogs in my garden and they seem to be doing a good job of keeping slug numbers down.
Me too! I have installed two ponds, a fountain and have a water and plant filled Butler's sink in the veg patch. I even have a tray with gravel and plants in the greenhouse that I have seen frogs in. The frogs in my garden are awesome at keeping the slug and snail population in check!
Here in the US, I have used sluggo just around the newly emerging host as, but then I don’t use it anymore. I may try not using it at all this year just to see what happens.
Our Sluggo has only got ferric phosphate, so it doesn't harm birds or small wildlife. However many people say it can harm worms and soil organisms. I use it, but try to use it very sparingly - One packet has lasted three years, so I don't think it can be causing much harm.
My experiment this year will be to use hanging pots suspended from my wood fence. I want to grow lettuce and it is just too disgusting to pick a head of lettuce and find slugs inside. Am curious if it will also discourage earwigs.
What about root weevils? My Rhodos all have lacy edged leaves.😢
No one mentions beer. I've found it works great. A small bowl in a protected spot attracts them and does them in. And it's not toxic.
I protect my lettuces, brassicas etc by sprinkling a barrier of soap powder mixed with cheap, instant coffee. This needs to be renewed after very heavy rain but works fine during showers. When I have wood ash, I will also use this in the mix.
Interesting!
Hi. I love to grow hostas, which as everyone knows, are loved by slugs and snails. I am planning to try garlic stray this year.
Garlic sounds promising.
How does one grow garlic and hosta together to control slugs - one loves shade while the other craves the sun?
You don’t. You grate or liquidise garlic cloves in water , strain , pour into spray bottle and spray the pots and some of the foliage.
I have snails but I also have a lot of
birds.That seems to do the trick!I have some holes on some plants but nothing outrageous.
Absolutely
I’ve found out my plants that love water every day like canna have so many slugs. But my drought plants don’t have a gastropods mollusks in site
Tried any method including the plastic cover. They dug under the plastic covers. They found way under the tray covers too. Only thing working are the pallets hand picking and raising vulnerable plants really high like at least a meter.
My father used to say 'the price of victory is eternal vigilance.' He would certainly be right about that with snails.
They make a very satisfying crunch under the sole of my gardening clogs. 🐌
My favorite method of controlling slugs is sitting out a shallow bowl of beer. Works very well to attract and kill them.
guess what! i found an rare slug! a
Gorgemelter and very interesting. So nice to see Stephen!!
Goodness - I'm rather glad I haven't found one of those!
yea i was a little terrified!😰😳😰@@TheMiddlesizedGarden
and can you please mention me in one of your videos
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden
We had an invasion of rats from next door’s uncovered drains and manholes. The rats ate all the slugs but, while gnawing away at the base of my giant hostas, gnawed right through the leaf stalks. It took me a while to work out why the hostas leaves were all lying fanned out on the ground. Nature’s ways are not always a balance between life and death.
I live in Devon in the U k. What is the zone here please? I'm a beginner gardener and I see that alot of the advice to weather is in the American zones. Thanks for making these Vidios they are really helping me. I was going to plant out all of my dahlia tubers last month until I saw one of your Vidios so thankyou so much.
Zones are a measure of winter temperatures and are about which plants you can grow. They're mainly useful in terms of understanding which plants will survive winter in a specific area. In Devon you will roughly equate to a USDA zone of 8 or 9 (although our summers are usually not as hot - there are also 'heat zones' but these aren't mentioned as much). You can grow most plants for zones 5 and above in Devon - you just won't have as many problems with keeping them alive over winter as people in Zones 5, 6 and 7. There are lots of gardening factors that are not related to zones, such as soil quality, aspect, whether your garden is windy etc. And when it comes to gardening techniques, such as pruning or planting, then HOW you prune or plant has nothing to do with which zone you're in. However, your zone may affect WHEN you do something. So everyone in Zones 5-8/9 prunes their hydrangeas in early spring, and they prune their hydrangeas in the same ways, but their 'early spring' may vary from mid February to early April. I think you can safely take advice from most US gardening videos, just be aware that if anything is related to winter temperatures, then it's specific to zones. The US talks about zones much more than we do in the UK, because our winters don't vary as much around the country. Their winters can vary by 30 or 40 degrees from north to south (or more) whereas ours vary by less than 10 degrees from the north to the south!
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden thankyou so much. That is such a useful explanation for me which I can understand and hydrangeas are the main plant along with dahlias that I would love to have growing in my garden. I have successfully grown three dahlia bushes on my balcony in pots previously. I grew one last year out in the garden in a pot which grew enormous but only put out one large flower. Your a really great teacher and I'm going to be watching many more Vidios. I have been getting emails for a couple of years so have already watched many but just didn't get the zone thingy. So thanks again and for such a fast reply. Lolx
Alpaca fur works a treat. Not so much the pellets, but the actual fur around the base of plants is a very good slug snail barrier.
I use good ole Epsom salt around my plants. No toxicity, nutritional for the plant and economical. Reapply after rain.
Interesting, although there seems to be a lot of debate around Epsom salts and its use around plants.
I have found snails are less likely to climb up the side of a grow bag than a pot.
I use to use pellets they didn't work not for the last 6 yrs I don't use
Nothing poison.i glue Penny's around my plastic pots my glazed pots they don't bother my plants .but my clematis they like. I collect the snail s in early day or evening put them in the area where my bird feeders the birds get them.
good idea
we try lots of natural ways to stop slugs, they can be very very effective. removing the bottom leaves. ay old plants that are rotting. not leaving anywhere that they can make into a habitat. for example, leaving bits of wood or buckets that they can hide in.
What about using wood chip for paths? Do you think that could inadvertently help the slugs?
@@user-ed7et3pb4o I've use wood chips extensively in my garden for about the last 4 years of the 8 years we have owned our home & I have not noticed it increasing the slug population compared to when there was no wood chips.
Oh my! Those lilies. 😱 Must be tree lilies to be so tall.
Fortunately, I am not too plagued by snails and slugs. Probably due to my sandy soil. My nemesis are Japanese beetles.
Are you aware of the beer method for controlling slugs? Place a shallow dish, like a jar lid, pour beer 🍺 in it and slugs, attracted by the fragrant liquid, fall in and drown.
Ironically, I have a garden I call my "snail" garden. As you, I'm overhauling it this season. It's called that due to its unintentional shape. 🐌 A shape I will keep. I am getting itchy to start the work. Alas, I have to wait for knee-high snow to melt.
The lilies are the ordinary (not the right word!) lilies, but the garden owner said they had had an exceptional year, which I think we can all agree with. Yes, beer traps are good (unless you're squeamish like me!)
Milky spore to treat Japanese beetles
Has anyone tried using copper mesh around the base of plants ? I have bought some in readiness for planting out some of the plug plants that I have potted on. I plan to cut it up and put it around the base . Any experience of this ?
The tape doesn't work, since slugs can burrow under it. Does the mesh go under ground level?
@@MyFocusVaries I haven’t yet planted these new plants out and was just planning to put it on the ground around their base . So far I have only used the mesh to cover tulip bulb bowls but that was against squirrels . I agree about the copper tape though I have only used it on pots . I had assumed it was because it wasn’t proper copper. I am going to give the mesh a goas i already have it. Maybe I will now do a experiment with some of it around my planting hole as well as above it
In the video, Stephen said that if he was to use copper, he'd make sure that it was embedded into the ground by at least a few inches to stop the slugs burrowing under it.
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden oh dear that’s embarrassing . I completely didn’t take that in ! Now I will have to watch again to see what else I failed to take in !
I pick them off my hosta at night, put them into a snail proof canister, and dump them out in the chicken yard the next day. Works until the snugs figure out what's happening and start hiding. Oh yes, they're that smart. Then suddenly, my hosta become like swiss cheese and I resort to slug baits. I grow my hosta in pots. The most helpful way to keep them safe is to put each pot in a large diameter container filled with water 3-4" deep for a space of 4-5". Of course, if the water dries or gets too low, the snails march onward and upward. I love hosta and I'm not going to give them up. Every year, the battle is on!
I was shocked to see my daughter hurling snails over the fence in Astoria, NY.
The London method is really similar to my italian method 🤣
Perhaps it came over with the Roman Empire! It probably did because the Romans imported the snails as food
@@TheMiddlesizedGarden for sure 🤣
Work garlic into your design nearby-- that is what works for us, even in the wettest summers
A few people have mentioned this, it's interesting! And some garlic can be quite ornamental too.
I think our slugs must be mutants then🤷🏻♀️ Even using 3 methods ( copper tape+wool pellets+slug barrier gel ) they still got at my dahlias and hosta😣 Now I’m going out at silly o’clock with a torch to collect them and trying diatomaceous earth as well. Neighbours must think I’m a complete lunatic 🤓😅🤷🏻♀️
Interesting that neither of you mentioned nematodes, which seem to be an increasingly popular way of managing slugs. Do you have any experience of using them?
I have found them difficult to use because they have to be used when the weather is at certain temperatures. This isn't a reflection on nematodes, just that I find it difficult to follow the instructions as there seems to be such a narrow window when it's right to apply them. But I know professional gardeners who find them good, I think it's worth trying them and seeing what you think.
Here in Vancouver, we have slugs the size of mice. I have to use slug pellets if I want plants to survive their onslaught. I go hunting for them in the evening but I’m no match for the thousands that come in from the green belt right beside me.
That does sound very challenging!
The size of mice is a tiny bit of an exaggeration. :) Our slugs are monsters, sure. Though the black slug is apparently spreading in our area and can get up to 18cm long!!!! Though I've only ever seen those in the forest.
@@MyFocusVaries you’re right, I exaggerated a bit but maybe the size of a shrew? Last year, the tiny slugs invaded my garden and they were actually worse because they were so hard to find!
My ducks love slugs and snails. They spend all winter hunting them out then when plants emerge they live in a separate area so they don’t eat my flowers.
That sounds like a good way of doing it
I have boiled water, pour it into a bucket then go out and hand pick snails and slugs (actually use bamboo tongs on the slugs). I drop them in the hot water and come back after the water has cooled and pour it out in the garden, dead snails and slugs included.
Im in ireland and i find the slug pellets are very expensive and absolutely useless. I have tried to protect my emerging amastad salvia which was a good size clump. the salvia kept trying to grow only to be eaten back again. Its now july and no sign of it, i think i may have lost it.
I have four box turtles in a section of my garden. No slugs or snails.
I’ve had snails at gutter level, so they will climb. Not sure what they expected to find there 😂
I agree, I had one on my bedroom window last summer. I can't imagine what it was after, but at least it was only one.
For years our slugs are eating kilograms of Bergamotte and destroy them into non-existence.
So I stopped after the video suggested those as „slug-resistant“ a few seconds in. They go for it like mosquitoes for blood.
oh, dear, I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe slugs in different places have different tastes, as Stephen runs a nursery so he really does know what plants are eaten by slugs where he is.
I throw them on the road outside- usually the birds lie magpies and ravens have a feast and the cars run over them as well
I found that copper doesn't work in the slightest.
There's a wide copper strip on the step of my porch door - and my husband called me to look at a slug crawling right across it with no hesitation.
I balanced containers on top of pieces of copper pipe. No use.
I ringed plants with multiple copper wire loops - useless.
However -
'Nothing' will slime their way up my galvanised tank to get to all the goodies I keep on top.
Seeing this, I've bent over pieces of thickly galvanised wire mesh to create little tables, stood pots and troughs of goodies on top, and the slimies didn't crawl up those either.
So, try making galvanised stands for pots (you won't be able to buy them as far as I know).
I snip squares of heavy duty agricultural wire mesh sheets into squares (got to be heavy duty enough to support your containers when filled and well watered, so not the sort of mesh you can buy in commonplace garden centres/hardware stores). Bend down 2 opposite edges of the square to make a very basic table, and ensure there's no other route slimies can get to the plant pot (leaves touching other plants, floor, walls, no overhanging plants).
I've got a photo of a group of snails actually sitting on a piece of copper. So I have my doubts, but Stephen has a nursery so he has grown thousands of plants every year for the last 40 years. It may be to do with the kind of snail. Or the weather....
My slug resistant plants: hardy geranium, dicentra, sedum, ferns. Please answer this comment with your suggestions for slug resistant plants. Thank you🙏
My suggestions for slug-resistant plants are in the video, but I agree that hardy geraniums, ferns and dicentra are good. But my sedum have been nibbled by slugs, they're a bit too fleshy to be slug resistant. Lamb's ears, camellias and roses also good.
I think it would be good to include that many U.K. slug species eat mostly dead matter.
You're right, and I have mentioned that in other videos, but forgot in this one. Good point.
and if you go out at night with a flashlight attached to your head so you can keep your hands free with a squirt bottle of diluted household amonia and squirt them, it kills them right then and there. and since the amonia is good for the plants as it's nitrogen it's fun really.
dhalias are very aromatic, yet slugs love them.
Hm, not sure that my dahlias are particularly aromatic, but I think probably everyone varies in what they would consider 'aromatic'.
We put a sheet of sandpaper around courgettes and cucumbers etc .....the slugs and snails don't like thd tough surface .
White, stone chipping as a groundcobera works well
sounds great
I have found that slugs and snails don't seem to like dark -- leaved dahlias.
Interesting
"You don't have a snail problem; you have a duck deficiency!" ~ Bill Mollison (father of permaculture.)😍
Putting the pots up high does work. They don’t bother my eggplants and orkas as they r in the most sunlight spots in my yard.
I saw snails n slugs craw over DE. They evade basils n rosemary but still heading to my flower beds. Sad
I found one on a rose bush yesterday. I can't imagine what it was after as there weren't even any leaves out!
My agastashe 'black adder' has been devoured by tiny slugs
That's a shame. And unusual.