Sunday, April 10, 2011

My slug experiment

Folks over on GardenWeb have been talking about caffeine as a slug repellent.  There's been some debate about how to apply it (spraying plants with coffee, used coffee grounds vs new), but I'm giving my own experiment a try.


My cabbage is getting eaten, despite all the hand picking and sluggo I put out.  So after saving up a can's worth of spent coffee grounds, I picked off the eaten leaves of two of them and surrounded them with a thick solid layer of grounds:


I seriously hope this works, as I'm not finding much else that does.  The slugs in my yard are tiny--the size of a grain of rice--so they're hard to get a handle on.  They also aren't to deterred by Sluggo.

If nothing else, I'm giving these couple plants an extra shot of nitrogen, and with brassicas being heavy feeders, that's a bonus.

I'm guessing I should know in a few days and will keep you posted!

4 comments:

  1. Hi Lori, I saw your blog link while reading your post over at GW's CA forum.
    I can't offer any help for plants for your fence, but for the slugs, I am planning to try spraying a solution of 1 part ammonia to 4 parts water. I have read that it's supposed to be very effective and no harm to plants. Coffee grounds have never been a deterrent in my yard!

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  2. Thanks Dorothy! I know there were mixed reviews on the coffee ground idea--some people said the grounds had to be new to work, etc. I hadn't heard about the ammonia! That's one to put on my list. Thanks!

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  3. Lori, I have had great success with the following method. Choose a bowl and dig out a shallow depression in your plant bed so that the bowl is buried flush with the surrounding soil. Fill the bowl with beer. The next morning the bowl will be filled with dead slugs.

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  4. Thanks, Silva! I've heard of the beer bait before but have yet to try it. Good to hear a success story with it. I need all the tricks I can get my hands on!

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