Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat

Growing => General Gardening => Topic started by: chickchick on June 07, 2008, 21:33

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: chickchick on June 07, 2008, 21:33

hi all
ive planted up 72 petunias today and some other plants and im worn out, so do slugs eat petunias? have i got to go back outside and put the pellets down? our garden is like slug city!
thanks
 a very weary chickchick!!
Zzzzzzzzz

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: Trillium on June 07, 2008, 21:37

Petunias aren't their first choice, but if you know you have that many slugs, it wouldn't hurt to put some pellets down and keep an eye open on possible damage.

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: chickchick on June 07, 2008, 21:57

thank you, they do like tomatoes ont they? unless I have something else nibbling at them!

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: Welsh Girls Allotment on June 07, 2008, 21:59

I found slugs in my hanging baskets :shock:  and they seemed to be having a nice picnic .... until I threw them on the road in front of a bus :twisted:

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: Big Jen on June 07, 2008, 22:15

Quote from: "Welsh Girls Allotment"

I found slugs in my hanging baskets :shock:  and they seemed to be having a nice picnic .... until I threw them on the road in front of a bus :twisted:

Amazing how high they can climb isnt it :shock:  Clever little devils :lol:

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: chickchick on June 07, 2008, 22:17

:?  how did they get in there?

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: Welsh Girls Allotment on June 07, 2008, 22:40

I have no idea - I checked all of the plants before I potted them up so I am sure I didn't transplant the slugs but when I checked them this evening there they were slithering about :evil:

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: love-my-plot on June 07, 2008, 23:52

Probably eggs in the compost that have now hatched and grown?  :shock:  :tongue2:

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: Welsh Girls Allotment on June 08, 2008, 00:04

brand new bag purchased for the baskets, opened yesterday - and these were fat squidgy slugs certainly not newborns !! - the mystery deepens :lol:

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: chickchick on June 08, 2008, 09:30

dropped by a passing bird??!! :lol: weird ild say

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: Trillium on June 08, 2008, 17:34

Like petunias, tomatoes aren't a preference due to their more spiney-like stems and leaves, but with few other plants to choose from and an invasion like yours, they'll eat anything.
As for how the slugs got into a hanging basket, it had to be something in the compost, even new bags. Slugs won't crawl up brick walls as its like sandpaper to them unless your walls are smooth wood or siding.

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: sawnee on June 08, 2008, 19:53

The snails on my allotment have taken to eating my onion leaves  :shock:

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: weeeed on June 09, 2008, 21:25

Check out all the edges inside the hanging baskets and you will find a few snails in there with their best dj's on about to feast. They love the moist conditions in hangers and they love petunias! If you have a lot of planters look on the outside under the rims. Sneaky beggers these slime balls you know. :wink:

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: chickchick on June 09, 2008, 22:43

have found some snails trails on my petunia tubs but luckily you kind folk warned me and :salut:

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: peapod on June 10, 2008, 18:49

The blooming things have just eaten my best sweet pea

I'd even bought a lovely trellis for it right next to my back door all ready for friends to ooh and ahhh over at BBQs
(modest moi?)

Im gutted

 :cry:  :cry:

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: amberleaf on June 13, 2008, 17:24

I have found slugs and snails up trees, chewing on the rhubarb leaves even.

If the plant is big enough to hold it's own, they wont do a lot of damage. But there seems to be no limit to what they will eat as seedlings.

I just wish they would stop chewing holes in my spuds!

Before you ask, it is slugs, I have even pulled them out, alive, before now.

Title: Slugs won't climb brick walls?
Post by: wheelyjon on June 18, 2008, 12:51

You're joking!
We have slug trails right to the top of the outside brick wall of our house, you can see slugs on the wall at night doing an excursion.  We now have a conservatory where we find slugs every night, inside, at the top of the walls, there are slug trails up the walls, inside and out, but we cannot find where they are coming in, it has been there for three years and this is the first time we have had a problem. it is sealed to the walls, but they get in somehow.  Any suggestions gratfully received :evil:

Title: do slugs eat petunias?
Post by: Maryann on June 18, 2008, 17:21

They do get everywhere don't they? This year they have decimated the leaves on a giant hollyhock in my front border and have huge colony of them in the foxgloves. I turfed out at least 6 of them to every plant.

Trouble is (and please don't all yell at me) I hate killing them, it really makes me feel sick. So I put them in a bucket and leave them for my poor hubby to dispose of when he gets home  :roll:

I have kept them off the hosta's this year - first time ever, yippeeee.

Put copper bands around the pots and gravel around the plants and inspected daily for slugs when shoots first popped up and so far only had one of two little nibbles but remarkably 5 pots all looking excellent.

So time consuming tho, but I have to admire their resilience and how fast they can move when they want to  :evil: