It's that time again, preparing the way for a slug free Summer - yeah, right! Well, we do what we can and we use Nemaslug. It's been reasonably successful over the last couple of years and has mostly gone in the patch where our potatoes will be going on Plot3. The ground is very wet on that plot - we're a bit concerned that our spuds will rot before they get a chance to grow. The area is covered with plastic at the moment so, even though it's going to be a rainy week, hopefully the ground won't get any wetter... (hmm, not sure it really works that way, but...)
This is the raised bed for salad and florence fennel. We watered in the nematodes and then watered some more, to help wash them further into the soil, and then covered the bed in black plastic. That should warm the earth up nicely and protect the nematodes from the sunlight.
And there's our beetroot - just peeping through! Only a few seeds have germinated so far, but (touch wood) I've never known beetroot to fail. If it does I'll sow some more; it's pretty fast growing.
We copied fellow plotholder, Vic's idea of putting pots in between the strawberry plants for watering. The plants get so bushy that we find the water (and plant food) often just runs down the outside of the weed suppressant. Each of our strawberry plants got a dose of GrowMore yesterday and a dose of nematodes today - what could be worse than sluggy strawberries?!
That's the plot that I weeded yesterday. The earth looks nice and dark because I've spread the remains of last year's grow bags and potato bags to the area. It hasn't been dug in yet as there are liable to be quite a few weeds and baby tomato plants growing in there before we're ready to plant.
Look at that healthy looking broad bean seedling. We've sowed 24 and we're just waiting for 3 slow ones to break through the surface now. When they're a little bigger we'll plant them out.
This is what we're waiting for now - lovely rhubarb. Nearly there, those stems just need to grow a bit more - a couple of weeks I reckon...
Never tried nematodes. I usually deal with slugs with a sharp pointy stick. But obviously a miss more than a few with that tactic.
ReplyDeleteI'm beginning to feel sorry for the slugs as I'm getting so many different killing methods and all of them sound very painful!!
DeleteLooks good. You've inspired me to have a go at beetroot. I will plant some seeds but I need to get my raised bed made ASAP!
ReplyDeleteoh yes! You've got to do beetroot - go for Boltardy, they're easy and lovely!
Deleteok. thanks
DeleteNematodes didn't work on the plot last year. This year we may just treat the cold frame area.
ReplyDeleteThe trouble with the nemaslug is that they take out the slugs under the ground, but the visitors from above ground aren't affected. We mostly use them to protect our potato tubers but figure they would help in the raised bed against egg layers and newly hatched slugs
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