Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Growing => Grow Your Own => Topic started by: Pony Girl on April 02, 2014, 18:01
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Help what beast is doing this to my beetroot babies?! Slug pellets don't seem to be working.
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If they are uncovered I would say pigeons, they will recover well mine do. ;)
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I can't see any slug trails. I have never known pigeons eat beetroot, but I would not trust them. They ate our kale this year for the first time. Squirrels eat our beetroots.
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Are they in the GH? Looks like meece damage to me.
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I would say pigeons too!
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Our pigeons eat everything. So many times they come down and have a go when your stood really close
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Mice or rats or indeed squirrel. By the way, ou are putting too much of these slug pellets around. Less is more. ;)
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I had a problem with sparrows once - they ate my beetroot seedlings .....
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every thing that flys crawls and slithers ewwww I recon :ohmy:
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I had a problem with sparrows once - they ate my beetroot seedlings .....
That is my guess too !
Slugs tend to decimate one plant at a time.
I have watched a hen spadger go down a line of veg seedlings , a peck out of the lettuce, then beet then broc when i was standing four feet away. ::)
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I thought it was a bird - sparrows don't half attack my peas!
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I thought it was a bird - sparrows don't half attack my peas!
mine to yorkie - and broad beans - net both now
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I'd vote for sparrows too. I've watched them taking wadges of beetroot leaves, spinach and perpetual spinach. as well as the broadies while they are youngish. They like their greens!
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Aha! Well we've got a big colony of sparrows plus Bob the resident wood pigeon and his mates so I guess that's my answer! They are outside on bench during day and GH at night?
Will I need to net all my crops when I plant them out?
My dad said I use too many pellets but I didn't believe him! Thanks for the tip. :-)
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Sorry that was a statement not a question regarding the beets location!
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Once plants grow past the seedling stage sparrows (in my experiance) do not do too much damage to salad crops and beetroot.
I would net them at first then remove.
This all depends on the size of the sparrow colony , if you are feeding 100 plus Bob and his wife you may need better defences. :)
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Thank you - I hope the seedlings survive their attack but I'll sow some more anyway. Am hoping that Bob and the gang will stick to the bird feeders. :nowink:
Has anyone tried the cotton thread trick to any effect to ward off birds?
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You do use too many pellets. If you must use them you only need 1 or 2 per module to be effective. You applied these without proof of slug damage, which is naughty.
Your damage is definatley birds. The leaves are clipped, if you look closely you will probably see V beak shaped bruising. Probably sparrows or finches. Sparrows are real vandals. They will leave them alone when the crop gets bigger. This sort of damage is worse in a dry period.
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I use lots of slug pellets but in fairness they are a nightmare to sprinkle. I try not to handle them when florence is with me so I use the bottle to sprinkle.
I try to use minimal but its difficult, mine look like yours ( tbh) but I would rather use pellets and have a crop than have no crops and happy slugs.
;)
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The thing about using too many slug pellets is you draw in slugs from elsewhere , the smell (slugs nose?) may even draw them from your neighbours property ! :nowink:
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The thing about using too many slug pellets is you draw in slugs from elsewhere , the smell (slugs nose?) may even draw them from your neighbours property ! :nowink:
Eeek! Definitely don't want that, got enough of the wee beasts here as it is. They've already eaten most of my daffodils this year. Thanks for the tip about quantity, I will bear that in mind though like Beetroot Queen says it can be quite hard to sprinkle accurately.
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I tip a few slug pellets into the lid and fling them up in the air to scatter them as thinly as possible. It means I don't have to touch them and save waste and pollution.
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The thing about using too many slug pellets is you draw in slugs from elsewhere , the smell (slugs nose?) may even draw them from your neighbours property ! :nowink:
I am glad to read this as I had read about using too many but with no plausible explanation. Having been told recently by someone that his cabbages failed because he "didn't use enough pellets" I was sceptical but couldn't say anything.