Yes its hard to call it summer! Still wearing a wool jumper and sick of slug damage. Now theyre getting to my ripening strawberries, we have to get picking fast!
I empathise with you strongly, I've emptied my veg bed of productive strawberry plants because the slugs were nibbling at every strawberry that was getting close to ripe. In one area I found a few strawberry 'skins' with a slug inside finishing off the rest of the juicy innards. It's a shame because it was going to be a bumper harvest. I think doing them in pots with copper tape around (perhaps hanging baskets or fence/wall mounted containers would be even better) is the way for me to go in future, if I bother. The slugs have been a pest every year since we moved to this house 5 years ago but this year has been worse than ever and it's making me miserable.
Your allotment is very well laid out, you must have spent a lot of time planting those neat rows, very impressive. I also have lots of slugs and snails.
I'm in the states and have the same slug problems! They defoliated so many flowers including my lemon gem marigolds! I didn't think anything ate marigolds! I hope it upset their stomachs! It's been cooler and rainy also, so many of my plants just are not growing, they are waiting for some warm sunny days. I'm trying to grow walla walla onions. Tonight it's raining again! Better luck in July!
Hi Dan. Absolutely devastated for you mate and all the other growers as well. My allotment friend has nicknamed this month, 'June-uary'. Little behind you on the onions planting wise, also got ours from Marshalls', so I'll let you know how they get on. Best of luck for the rest of the season Dan. Takes summat to beat us Northerners mate!!💪Catch up soon, Andy and Karen 👍😎
Unbelievable temperatures as we approach Midsummers Day 🤣🤣🤣. Had cucumbers and squash die due to cold. For lettuce… take a look at Oakleaf varieties Navara and Smile…. The slugs seem to leave them alone 👍🏻
Dan I bought roscoff onions which cost a fortune and 80 percent have bolted.which is gutting considering all the time and effort put in.slugs have ravished my potatoes which has never happened and the wind has blown loads of leaves off my runners.looks like were all going through the mill this year.Stay strong
You should consider putting some kind of mesh wire or other type of cover on your water barrels so small animals like birds, squirrels or even cats trying to have a drink or just by accident can't fall in and drown.
I’ve never seen a summer like this it’s horrific the weather my sweetcorn plants are flowering at the top but the plants are only 2 foot tall I transplanted seedlings to garden beds and pots in may and they have grown so slow the pots are taller but overall very slow growth never seen before the slugs are on a mission also.
I put used toilet rolls under lots of my plants and check them every morning as the slugs and snails hide in them.i throw them into a bucket of vinegar and water then put them in the compost bin. Cheer up and the garden is coming along ok.
All looking good Dan! 💪 I've been quite lucky with the slugs this year. But in recent years I've had a lot of success with using beer traps for the slugs. Might be worth a shot. All the best 🤞
reminding me of some of the cool wet summers we had mid to late 2000s I think we've been spoilt the last decade, next week is looking better 23C day / 15C night for us Monday, your potatoes looking great
😂😂😂😂 flamin June. I think we are all in that club 🤦♀️ maybe we should order shirts 😅. I’m not listing what went wrong I’d get writers cramp. Have a better July, Ali 🌧️🌞🇨🇦
Hey Dan, you could try and paint your raised beds with Schnexagon to protect them from the slugs. It's a german product so I don't know if you can get it in the UK, and it won't help against the slugs already IN the beds, but it's a non-toxic paint that stops slugs from climbing into raised beds. It works by neutralising the "glue-effect" of slug slime, so they literally just slide off of any surface painted with the stuff. Might give your raised beds a fighting chance!
Remember Slugs and Snails have a 250 meter/yard memory. So just throwing them over the fence won't do. They'll return in 12 hours. Some slugs are Carnivorous. They(brown)suck the life out of the Green type. Another worrying insect imported into Britain. In the 60's. Was the New Zealand *Flat Worm* its diet is Earth Worms. Recently they've been found in Ireland imported from Nurseries England. Northern Ireland and Louth Cavan. Retired Irish allotment holder. 🇮🇪🇪🇺
Here also in Denmark we have more slugs than I can remember seeing before, tragic. One strange thing, I have set 4 kinds of potatoes, 2 sorts are plagued with slugs but the French black spuds have no slugs at all. Maybe slugs only go for light green plants, bit like your dark lettuce. Ah well, maybe next year will be better.
As far as I can tell from personal experience, slugs are hard to predict in their tastes. Last year they ate a lot of my blackcurrant leaves, though I suspect that they could smell weakness after aphids had already done a lot of damage to it. On the same night (I was out with my head torch) there were a dozen or so slugs and snails going up the birch tree. For long periods onions and garlic can seem off the menu, then they'll start nibbling at those too. I had some bronze fennel that had overwintered nicely and was just getting going when it was hit by slugs this spring. It bounced back and I thought it was home free, but then this spate of frequent rain that we've had in England came along and the fennel looked as good as dead, so I dug out the root. Since you mentioned potatotes I'll mention the only one I had growing; I must have thrown out some manky ones last year because out of my tiny compost pile was growing a potato plant, quite nicely too. It got a bit of slug damage when it was already well established, but nothing more than that, which is odd because they left it alone until that point and that little compost pile was riddled with slugs.
@@danyoutube7491 one silver lining here is they have just got a taste for the ground ivy, seems they have gone off ot the lupins and red hot pokers. We really thought that the Iberian slugs were a thing of the past but this year is as bad as I heve ever known it.
Yep, there's a battle on to get crops growing. I see you've got the slug pellets out 👍 That had an effect on them for sure. My cobra beans are outside, and they're just starting to put runners on. Too cold. 5 degrees the other morning here. Sunflowers chomped, just stalks. Onions gone to seed but I didn't buy heat treated sets. What a difference a bit of fertiliser does on your beds. Keep up the good fight 😁👍🌱🌱🌱🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌Elaine
Slugs, slugs, slugs! Same problem here in the Midlands. First they ate all the tops off my potatoes and killed them. Ate about 70% of my Red onions, ate all my spring onions, all my french and runner beans, cabbages and kales, cucumbers. Had to re sow most things and just getting them in again. Someone told me about using porridge oats around the base of your plants, with the idea that mr slug comes along and eats it, swells up and dies. Well it maybe just luck, but i did this in my greenhouse around my cucumbers and they not touched them even though there is slime trails all over the place. Today i re planted my runner and french beans outside, sprinkled some oats around the base of them, so fingers crossed! Here is hoping for a long hot dry summer for us all!
Me too. Never seen anything like it. But Winter didn't happen so no slug eggs frozen to death and then just relentless rain for what feels like an eternity. But what we do salvage will be more the merrier. Cheers Dan 🍻
Yes disappearing to buy something like in this case onion sets, you could let it seed and collect them they may grow better directly from the seed. Experimentation.
Most pellets seem to be rubbish now, Sluggo is the only one that’s worked well for us this season. It is reassuring to see even some of the most experienced growers having issues though.
Just harvested my garlic. Thick necked varieties did OK but the bulbs were quite 'open' if that makes sense. Not concentrated and tight. what did I do wrong?
Yep really annoying. Going to contact the suppliers and tell them they are selling stuff that doesn't grow as they say it does. Might as well have just bought cheap sets if they're gonna go to seed. Watch this space. Cheers Dan 😊
never tried it but i am told , go to your local coffee shop and get a few buckets of coffee grounds , maybe put a band of around each bed and between some rows , slugs cant stand the stuff and you get the nitro boost in your to as a bonus .
After the Sunday roast and the oven switched of place on a baking tray crushed egg shells. Leave until oven grows cold sprinkle around plants. Replenish weekly Retired Irish allotment holder
Eyup Dan. I've looked at meteorological explanations of the weather and arguments about our perception of the currently slightly below average temperatures and increased precipitation of late. Arse you said though and arse it is. Arse. Your arse, my arse and all our blighted and slug infested arses. It's being cheerful what keeps us going by all accounts. I'll sithi after!
Almost an exact repeat of 2023 weather for us here in Scotland, June has been pretty much a write off... constant grey, cold, wet. Unfortunately if this continues I think we'll see the worst year ever, again... never saw anything like it until last year but worrying signs of this becoming normal.
I have used them in the past but they are only effective with the sub soil living keel slugs. Mine are all above ground big horrible ones so it won't work on them. Cheers Dan 😊
Yes its hard to call it summer! Still wearing a wool jumper and sick of slug damage. Now theyre getting to my ripening strawberries, we have to get picking fast!
I empathise with you strongly, I've emptied my veg bed of productive strawberry plants because the slugs were nibbling at every strawberry that was getting close to ripe. In one area I found a few strawberry 'skins' with a slug inside finishing off the rest of the juicy innards. It's a shame because it was going to be a bumper harvest. I think doing them in pots with copper tape around (perhaps hanging baskets or fence/wall mounted containers would be even better) is the way for me to go in future, if I bother. The slugs have been a pest every year since we moved to this house 5 years ago but this year has been worse than ever and it's making me miserable.
Your allotment is very well laid out, you must have spent a lot of time planting those neat rows, very impressive. I also have lots of slugs and snails.
I'm in the states and have the same slug problems! They defoliated so many flowers including my lemon gem marigolds! I didn't think anything ate marigolds! I hope it upset their stomachs! It's been cooler and rainy also, so many of my plants just are not growing, they are waiting for some warm sunny days. I'm trying to grow walla walla onions. Tonight it's raining again! Better luck in July!
Hi Dan. Absolutely devastated for you mate and all the other growers as well. My allotment friend has nicknamed this month, 'June-uary'. Little behind you on the onions planting wise, also got ours from Marshalls', so I'll let you know how they get on. Best of luck for the rest of the season Dan. Takes summat to beat us Northerners mate!!💪Catch up soon, Andy and Karen 👍😎
Unbelievable temperatures as we approach Midsummers Day 🤣🤣🤣. Had cucumbers and squash die due to cold. For lettuce… take a look at Oakleaf varieties Navara and Smile…. The slugs seem to leave them alone 👍🏻
Dan I bought roscoff onions which cost a fortune and 80 percent have bolted.which is gutting considering all the time and effort put in.slugs have ravished my potatoes which has never happened and the wind has blown loads of leaves off my runners.looks like were all going through the mill this year.Stay strong
You should consider putting some kind of mesh wire or other type of cover on your water barrels so small animals like birds, squirrels or even cats trying to have a drink or just by accident can't fall in and drown.
I’ve never seen a summer like this it’s horrific the weather my sweetcorn plants are flowering at the top but the plants are only 2 foot tall I transplanted seedlings to garden beds and pots in may and they have grown so slow the pots are taller but overall very slow growth never seen before the slugs are on a mission also.
I put used toilet rolls under lots of my plants and check them every morning as the slugs and snails hide in them.i throw them into a bucket of vinegar and water then put them in the compost bin. Cheer up and the garden is coming along ok.
All looking good Dan! 💪 I've been quite lucky with the slugs this year. But in recent years I've had a lot of success with using beer traps for the slugs. Might be worth a shot. All the best 🤞
Yeah, I have some 2% coop beer that I wouldn't drink in a million years.
Might give it a go.
Cheers Dan 😅
The odor can be horrendous. If you tend your allotment every other day or weekly
This works! Very well, too. With being in a drought, slugs are no worries ❤ from Southern Alberta, Canada
reminding me of some of the cool wet summers we had mid to late 2000s I think we've been spoilt the last decade, next week is looking better 23C day / 15C night for us Monday, your potatoes looking great
Red onions went to seed. White have thrived.
Solent Wight garlic had bad rust. However the Thermidiore are doing well.
😂😂😂😂 flamin June. I think we are all in that club 🤦♀️ maybe we should order shirts 😅. I’m not listing what went wrong I’d get writers cramp. Have a better July, Ali 🌧️🌞🇨🇦
Yep, rubbish year all round
Mild winter so no pests were killed off and then just never ending rain.
Cheers Dan 😊
Hey Dan, you could try and paint your raised beds with Schnexagon to protect them from the slugs. It's a german product so I don't know if you can get it in the UK, and it won't help against the slugs already IN the beds, but it's a non-toxic paint that stops slugs from climbing into raised beds. It works by neutralising the "glue-effect" of slug slime, so they literally just slide off of any surface painted with the stuff. Might give your raised beds a fighting chance!
Remember Slugs and Snails have a 250 meter/yard memory.
So just throwing them over the fence won't do. They'll return in 12 hours. Some slugs are Carnivorous. They(brown)suck the life out of the Green type. Another worrying insect imported into Britain. In the 60's. Was the New Zealand *Flat Worm* its diet is Earth Worms.
Recently they've been found in Ireland imported from Nurseries England.
Northern Ireland and Louth Cavan.
Retired Irish allotment holder.
🇮🇪🇪🇺
potatoes look good I have same problem Slug and Snail
Here also in Denmark we have more slugs than I can remember seeing before, tragic. One strange thing, I have set 4 kinds of potatoes, 2 sorts are plagued with slugs but the French black spuds have no slugs at all. Maybe slugs only go for light green plants, bit like your dark lettuce. Ah well, maybe next year will be better.
As far as I can tell from personal experience, slugs are hard to predict in their tastes. Last year they ate a lot of my blackcurrant leaves, though I suspect that they could smell weakness after aphids had already done a lot of damage to it. On the same night (I was out with my head torch) there were a dozen or so slugs and snails going up the birch tree. For long periods onions and garlic can seem off the menu, then they'll start nibbling at those too. I had some bronze fennel that had overwintered nicely and was just getting going when it was hit by slugs this spring. It bounced back and I thought it was home free, but then this spate of frequent rain that we've had in England came along and the fennel looked as good as dead, so I dug out the root. Since you mentioned potatotes I'll mention the only one I had growing; I must have thrown out some manky ones last year because out of my tiny compost pile was growing a potato plant, quite nicely too. It got a bit of slug damage when it was already well established, but nothing more than that, which is odd because they left it alone until that point and that little compost pile was riddled with slugs.
@@danyoutube7491 one silver lining here is they have just got a taste for the ground ivy, seems they have gone off ot the lupins and red hot pokers. We really thought that the Iberian slugs were a thing of the past but this year is as bad as I heve ever known it.
Yep, there's a battle on to get crops growing. I see you've got the slug pellets out 👍 That had an effect on them for sure. My cobra beans are outside, and they're just starting to put runners on. Too cold. 5 degrees the other morning here. Sunflowers chomped, just stalks. Onions gone to seed but I didn't buy heat treated sets. What a difference a bit of fertiliser does on your beds. Keep up the good fight 😁👍🌱🌱🌱🐌🐌🐌🐌🐌Elaine
Slugs, slugs, slugs! Same problem here in the Midlands. First they ate all the tops off my potatoes and killed them. Ate about 70% of my Red onions, ate all my spring onions, all my french and runner beans, cabbages and kales, cucumbers. Had to re sow most things and just getting them in again. Someone told me about using porridge oats around the base of your plants, with the idea that mr slug comes along and eats it, swells up and dies. Well it maybe just luck, but i did this in my greenhouse around my cucumbers and they not touched them even though there is slime trails all over the place. Today i re planted my runner and french beans outside, sprinkled some oats around the base of them, so fingers crossed!
Here is hoping for a long hot dry summer for us all!
Me too.
Never seen anything like it.
But Winter didn't happen so no slug eggs frozen to death and then just relentless rain for what feels like an eternity.
But what we do salvage will be more the merrier.
Cheers Dan 🍻
Can also put crushed eggshells around the base of the plants. Slices them when going in for a meal
I’ve known known on my allotment so many slugs as well. I have literally two plots completely devastated by slugs.😢
I have battled slugs and snails for years last year I started using Sluggo it works great not sure if you can get it over there works great
Someone else recommended that too.
I'll have a look.
Cheers Dan 😊
@@Allotment-diaryUk Sluggo and its kin kill earthworms
Polytunnels are the way to go. I'm putting a second one up for next season. Slugs have hammered me as well. Everything is tip top in the tunnel.
Yeah, I downsized mine from 24 ft long to just this little bit I have now.
But it's big enough to get some clean lettuce from.
Cheers Dan 😊
same thing has happened to my heat treated onion sets this year.
All looks good i wish to make me a garden I enjoyed my garden
Which Iris do you put in your pond? I’m looking for some for our pond. Thanks 👍
Yes disappearing to buy something like in this case onion sets, you could let it seed and collect them they may grow better directly from the seed. Experimentation.
Time for slug pellets. They have been going after my lettuce and the ear wigs have been going after my strawberries. Hopefully it gets warmer for you.
Most pellets seem to be rubbish now, Sluggo is the only one that’s worked well for us this season. It is reassuring to see even some of the most experienced growers having issues though.
I'll have a look at them, they say they are resistant to rain.
The ones I use disappear after a shower so are useless.
Cheers Dan 😊
Just harvested my garlic. Thick necked varieties did OK but the bulbs were quite 'open' if that makes sense. Not concentrated and tight. what did I do wrong?
Same here Dan and they attacking things they've never touched before my mint bed totally wiped out
Same Problem in middle germany. 180 slugs in just one houre.
Im in the States, and the slugs and snails have been out of control here.
Hi mate. Slugs and snails have been so bad this year by me too. Shame about those red onion sets. Take care. Nick
Yep really annoying.
Going to contact the suppliers and tell them they are selling stuff that doesn't grow as they say it does.
Might as well have just bought cheap sets if they're gonna go to seed.
Watch this space.
Cheers Dan 😊
Never had so many plants ate by slugs and snails than this year. My sister has hedgehogs in her garden and hasn't had any problems.
never tried it but i am told , go to your local coffee shop and get a few buckets of coffee grounds , maybe put a band of around each bed and between some rows , slugs cant stand the stuff and you get the nitro boost in your to as a bonus .
After the Sunday roast and the oven switched of place on a baking tray crushed egg shells. Leave until oven grows cold sprinkle around plants. Replenish weekly
Retired Irish allotment holder
Eyup Dan. I've looked at meteorological explanations of the weather and arguments about our perception of the currently slightly below average temperatures and increased precipitation of late. Arse you said though and arse it is. Arse. Your arse, my arse and all our blighted and slug infested arses. It's being cheerful what keeps us going by all accounts. I'll sithi after!
To be honest I think it's just complete arse personally 😕
Almost an exact repeat of 2023 weather for us here in Scotland, June has been pretty much a write off... constant grey, cold, wet. Unfortunately if this continues I think we'll see the worst year ever, again... never saw anything like it until last year but worrying signs of this becoming normal.
Could it be all the wetness that you all are having. The ground looks really wet.
It's a mixture of a mild Winter so no pests were frozen and as you say just non stop rain for about 6 months.
Ideal for slugs.
Cheers Dan 😊
What happens if you remove the seed head?
Nothing.
Once it goes to seed it will stop growing in the bulb.
Cheers Dan
Have you tried using nematodes to keep the slug population down, I find it works brilliantly 🤔😁
I have used them in the past but they are only effective with the sub soil living keel slugs.
Mine are all above ground big horrible ones so it won't work on them.
Cheers Dan 😊
👍👍
Try beer traps. Cheapest, nastiest beer is best!
Gonna do this.
Got 4 cans of 10 year old coop 2% beer that I always wondered what to do with coz I'm not drinking it.
Cheers Dan 😂
Had to resort to the blue slug pellets this year as they've decimated everything. The wet and cold long spring has made them thrive.
Buy the cheapest beer, pour in shallow trays around the plot
why are my comments getting deleted ...no links, nothing offensive