[Goosegirl]

Someone told me recently that an old gardener used to put a layer of salt and soot in his potato trench before planting. Has anyone heard of or tried this - it is supposed to work.

[madcat]

Wouldn't have thought salt would be good for the spuds.....   

[compostqueen]

not heard that.  Our folks chuck a few slug pellets under each spud at planting time. They're planted deep so shouldn't bother hedgehogs and birds. 

I'm not a slug pellet fan so don't bother. I grow Desiree which is rock hard so slugs don't seem to bother    I grew Edzell Blue this year and found them free of slug damage too

Mind you this year was dry so there were generally fewer slugs about

[arugula]

Hi Goosegirl,

soot/ash was discussed recently here:

http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?topic=47168.0

and it was mentioned that you can put it in with potato tubers to deter slugs. Not sure about the salt bit though  .

hth  .

[hillbilly]

Ready salted chips??

[diggerjoe]

This may sound daft but, I let some nastursions grow mad on the plot this year when I came to clear them not a slug underneath the greenery anywhere. Its where my spuds will be next year and I gave up collecting all the seeds heads so next year I reckon my spuds will have nastursions growing bewteen and hopefully less slugs???

[arugula]

This may sound daft but, I let some nastursions grow mad on the plot this year when I came to clear them not a slug underneath the greenery anywhere. Its where my spuds will be next year and I gave up collecting all the seeds heads so next year I reckon my spuds will have nastursions growing bewteen and hopefully less slugs???

That would be great if its true joe, I planted nasturtiums a couple of years ago with a view to having edible flowers and they are slowly spreading all over  . I don't actually mind that at the moment, and if they repel slugs too, then  :happy:.

[diggerjoe]

I know what you mean Argullie I think they may rival bindwed on the plot next season - sems such a shame to get rid of them when they are tasty. It will be intersting to see if they have any effect.

[hillbilly]

 :blink: I know I'm a bit late with this post (just like poor old RM at the moment!) but last year I planted my spuds through landscape fabric. The idea was that I use so much space to earth up I thought I could plant a little closer (about 20") if I didn't have to mound the soil over them.
That bit worked OK and they were lovely and moist but the SLUGS!! I've never seen so many. The foliage was like lace doilies long before blight had a chance to do for them so it was an early, and rather poor, harvest.Because of the cover my usual slug control (frogs and toads) couldn't operate.
Having said that I discovered that Nicola and Ratte were pretty untouched by the slugs. Anya and Premiere were both a bit holey.