Slugs, oh my!

I haven't experienced slug herbivory before, a bane of rainy climate gardeners. In the Piedmont, even in normal rainfall years, I don't think I've seen any slugs, much less experienced any damage to vegetables.

But, as the Ronde de Nice (Eight-Ball) and Zucchini 'Romanesco' squash seedlings started to disappear overnight, hmm, with curiously chewed edges left on the remnants, I started to think about slugs. The slime and a culprit caught in the act confirmed my suspicions.

Hmm, they love to eat seedlings, apparently.

I AM a wildlife gardener, but it's hard to warm up to slugs, and I started searching for organic controls. Beer in dishes was one possibility (but my gardening companion didn't want to waste his craft brews, and it's apparently not all that effective); salt, diatomaceous earth, and coffee grounds are other potential treatments. But the most promising seems to be iron phosphate laced with some sort of irresistable bait (for slugs). They ingest the iron, and succumb to iron overload. I can live with that.

Sold under brand names such as Sluggo and Escar-go, I ended up buying a similar product from a local garden center.

I sprinkled the granules liberally around the squash seedlings early this evening (slugs forage in late evening and at night). We'll see.

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Squash seedlings

I'm spending some time getting all my seedlings and young plants in pots tucked in the ground. They'll have the best situation for flourishing, if my gardening companion is away for a few days, or absent-mindedly forgets to water them everyday. My containers will be fine -- but seedlings in small pots-- hhmm, probably not.

I'm going to be traveling for a couple of weeks, leaving a week from now -- on a garden-visiting excursion, much anticipated during what passes for our few months of winter here in the Carolinas. I love traveling to different places, often natural gardens, always interesting cultural places, and usually travel with my gardening companion.

But, I'm traveling specifically to visit gardens this time, on a solo trip, echoing a remarkable trip I took a year and half ago. Traveling is always interesting, but I find that it's always prefaced with worries about leaving home and the garden, and wondering why in such a lovely time of the year here I'm trouping off somewhere else!

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