carrots

[finney]

hi all,
can anybody help with my question,4 weeks ago i sowed early nantes carrot seed,yes they are doing fine about 2inches tall and in 5 rows,do slugs like eating the shoots,coz i had a look this morning before i left for work and found 2 brown ugly slugs on my veggie bed next to the carrots i sowed,but the slugs had not touched them.....have i had a lucky escape or could the slug have been full......

[tootles]

Methinks you have had a lucky escape! Last year I lost every single carrot seedling (all of them) and I blame the slugs. It could have been mice.... but slugs can take a whole row in a night (and more).

[Pumpkin Becki]

Mice discretely ate through the tops of mine last year, so that when we 'pulled them' we ending up with leaves attached to about 5mm of carrot, with the rest of the root still in the ground!

[Capsid]

Don't forget rabbits like carrots.

[gojiberry]

You have had a bit of an escape, however I find that once carrots get to the size yours are the slugs don't bother them to much. The slugs tend to like them just as they poke through the soil, and as Tootles said they can wipe a row out in a night.

Ian

[Two_Sheds]

I kept the slugs off my carrots this year by starting them off in loo rolls until they were big enough to withstand a nibble.

However, the Carrot Root Fly has got some of them ~ the ones that were on the end of the row, and not quite covered by fleece. The ones under the fleece are perfect though, no maggots at all.

[Lurch]

Please correct me if i am wrong here, a while ago on tv Bill odie was talking about slugs and mentioned that brown slugs only eat dead vegetation, and the black ones are the damages doers.
I do not know if this is correct or i have my facts rights, i still remove all slugs from my patch anyway, but anymore info on them is useful.

[TinyT]

It's amazing how the slugs find them within hours of them going in. It's parculiar, they've left slime trails, but don't appear to have touched the plant (I think my toad friends sorted them )

[Two_Sheds]

brown slugs only eat dead vegetation, and the black ones are the damages doers.

Not quite true. Most slugs eat decaying vegetation, but happily switch to tender young or delicate plants, feeding on the leaves, stems, roots and tubers.

the common garden slugs 'Arion hortensis' can be brown or grey, and is very destructive in the garden. Large Black slugs aren't that bad (mostly found on verges and in hedgerows after rain), but the Small Keeled Slug is extremely damaging to crops, esp. spuds. http://www.gardenaction.co.uk/techni...ests/slugs.htm

[finney]

thanks alot for the feed back,i will keep my eye out for them,and keep banging slug pellets down

Finney

[SuperDad]

I think it was deer that ate mine last year! This year I've had very poor germination despite resowing twice. I've put fleece over them this year, so that the few that have germinated stand a fighting chance! What with slugs, rabbits, mice, rats, pigeons, partidges and deer, I sometimes wonder whether it is worth it! At least onions and leeks are unmolested, and the jerusalem artichokes are brilliant!

[Two_Sheds]

SuperDad ~ it really is worth sowing them into loo rolls indoors, then planting out when they've germinated. I couldn't grow carrots at all until I tried this method, now I am eating them every day.