potato slugs

[young digger]

i took on an allotment plot last year and it was really overgrown and had not been worked for a few years. i completly cleared it and dug it over before starting to plant my veg. i was surprised just how well my plants grew. the only problem i have had and not been able to sort out has been slugs attacking my spuds. about a third of them were useless. what can i do over the winter to neutralise my slug problem?

thanks guys

[Lesley Jay]

We had the same problem and reading books they say that the ground needs to be cultivated for at least 4 years before they start to reduce in numbers. Don't do what we did - A load of manure was dumped on one of our plots that we had not ordered and I did not want. However he dug it in and the following year when we were digging up the spuds the ground was full of mounds of white eggs which I assume were slug eggs bought in with the manure.

Now to get around the problem of slugs (which over the years have greatly reduced) and also the chance of blight attacking I just grow early potatoes. These are always really expensive in the shops and earlies don't stay in the ground too long.

You could try nematodes but they are pricey and I don't know if they really work.

[Jaxom]

You could try nematodes but they are pricey and I don't know if they really work.

Saw the Staff at the Eden project on TV tonight using nematodes and singing their praises to high heaven. the estatic glow on their faces while talking about how the slugs die, leads me to think that it works extreemly well

[Beryl]

I would agree with Lesley.
Rough dig your plot and expose them and their eggs to the elements. Let the birds and the weather do the work for you.
Don't be tempted to cover the ground at all else they will over-winter all nice and snug and warm till spring.
You won't get rid of them completely but you can substantialy reduce the numbers.

Beryl.

[Geordie]

Potatoes

The advice about growing earlies is good but to go one step further, choose your varieties to show some slug resistance.

Romano is a second early

Pentland Dell is an early maincrop

Goldon Wonder is a late maincrop

These are just 3 examples that have proven resistance to slugs....not something i suffer from so have not grown these varieties.

[NovicePlotter]

Potato Slugs

When I inherited my allotment earlier this year with it there is a small pond - it's only about the size of a large bucket but is home to two frogs which I understand are excellent at slug control.

I have also seen halves of grapefruit upturned on other plots. I understand the theory is that the slugs are attracted to the fruit and gather underneath and can then be picked up and disposed of.

[Lesley Jay]

Yes your little pond and frogs will help as would halved grapefruits or oranges. You could also make beer traps out of plastic bottles. But these are mainly for those big fat brown slugs that you see above ground level. The ones that give me trouble with my potatoes are small black ones that you will find underground (I have never seen them on top of the soil). This is why I only grow early potatoes - because they are not in the ground too long and stand less chance of attack.

[eskymo]

I've tried nemaslug and it worked a treat.

It totally reduced the number of slugs attacking my crops.

But I still go out at night with head torch and scissors and get any that have survived and also to pick off snails as we get tons of them.

Using nemaslug has meant that my nightly visits to the garden on slug patrol have been reduced considerably which has also helped with the 'oh my god we've got a barmy one next door' thoughts from my neighbours.

It is a bit pricey - but I always look out for offers of buy one get one free or even look on ebay for offers.

[rauni]

nematodes

Slugs are really bad in this area, so the only way forward is to attack on all fronts at the same time. In my experience (which isn't vast) Nematodes are the best thing. They seem to make the biggest single difference,both straight away, and by vastly reducing the population of bigger slugs the following year. I also tried Victoriana's 'Vanish' this year, which certainly shrivelled them up for a few weeks, but it didn't seem to last. Maybe there's too much rain here in North Wales, so it got washed away, but it was supposed to last 'up to a year'. Comparatively, Nematodes are cheap, as they do the job.

Good luck fellow assassins!

[eskymo]

What on earth is Victoriana's 'Vanish' - sounds very interesting. I've never heard of it - what do you do with it? And what does it do? And if it's good where do you get it from?

[Nicos]

nematodes

We bought in a huge batch of nematodes last year which were very expensive and found quite a few large slugs (10cm +)amongst the potatoes and tomatoes at the end of the season -though very few smaller ones.Only a few eggs were found on the autumn dig. I hope this means next year will mean a reduced number of slugs. Time will tell. We grow on Peat so the moisture is very attractive to slugs. The rest of the crop seemed to be less munched by the beasts!. May try again next year to diminish their numbers further but we do have toads so we need to consider their needs too.

[rauni]

Vanish

Victoriana is a nursery advertised in GYO, and they sell some mineral salts called vanish, which is supposed to form an impenetrable barrier to slugs. As I said, it worked for a while for me, but not as effectively as nematodes. They say it's compatable with organic methods. You can also find Victoriana on the web.

[Esther Greentree]

Nematodes and keeled slugs

My understanding is that nematodes don't work on keeled slugs, or on snails. I've found that what works for me is to leave an old bit of wood on a patch and systematically kill every slug we find under it every time we go back to our plot.

I also have a partially broken upturned flowerpot in a shady damp spot (by the waterbutts) that attracts snails. They congregate under it and I kill them. Sounds grim, but it's them or our lettuces.

[poultrychat]

I have a similar problem with slugs and potatoes, in fact growing all crops because the place is infested, last autumn I put a couple of wheelbarrow loads of soiled straw from the chook house on 2 of the raised beds, left it a couple of months then when the weather wasn't too bad went and checked under the straw and the little darlings were all sitting there nice and snug in amongst the straw. I have just been out again to check and there are not nearly so many so I will be doing it again next autumn

[Nicos]

Slug traps

We once tried beer traps but the buggers kept nipping out for a pee before they drowned ! Must be the northern bitter !