sunflower problem

lookitsme

HI I am having problems with my sunflowers. I sowed them indoors and put them outside when i thought they were strong enough. I planted them next to bamboo sticks expecting large plants but now my crop is down by 50%. something is eating them. I sprayed them with a fly and bug killer but it said on the bottle not to use often. what can I do

macraignil

Slugs and snails love to eat sunflowers and are the most likely pests to have killed your plants. They usually leave a shinny slime trail behind them so it should be possible to see if it was them that have attacked your plants. It is possible to hunt out the slugs and snails that are in your garden as they will hide under anything left near the ground. One way of trapping them is to use a role of DPC (Damp Proof Course plastic) which they will hide under until you want to dispose of them.
I like to use slug traps which can be made from any type of bowl that you can sit in the ground near your plants. They need to be set at a depth that allows the slugs and snails to crawl over the edge, but it is best for the edge not to be completely level with the ground as then you will also trap innocent spiders and other insects. Left over beer is the best bait as the fermented liquid smell is similar to rotting vegetation that the slugs and snails also like to eat. I have read that fruit juice can also be used as bait but be careful not to fill the bowl too close to the top and allow the slugs and snails climb out again.

Degsy

Earwigs love them too for some reason.

Graces7

Slugs adore sunflowers.. Any sweet stuff works in a trap. I use old jam jars or even food tins and any jam that has fermented or not... Maybe get a cheap caron of juice and leave the top off so it will ferment..

And a more effectiv way, the slug pellets work well and on flowers.

You can also make collars with the top half of plastic milk cartons...

Next favourite after runne r beans are chrsyanth seedlings....maddening

johndoe99

been growing them for well over a decade, and ive eliminated slugs completely. Apply Vaseline to the stem, from the soil level up to about a foot, no more slugs.

iLikeWaffles

johndoe99 wrote: »

been growing them for well over a decade, and ive eliminated slugs completely. Apply Vaseline to the stem, from the soil level up to about a foot, no more slugs.

Was thinking that nice1 john

lookitsme

I will try some vasaline on it sounds like a good idea. For smaller plants what would you recommend? I planted some busy lizzys last year and I checked them two days later and they were gone. Would like to try them again this year. maybe just pellets?

lookitsme

macraignil wrote: »

Left over beer is the best bait

What are you doing with left over beer.

johndoe99

lookitsme wrote: »

For smaller plants what would you recommend?

Crushed Egg Shells, don't crush them too small. Snails will not cross them. It' like us standing on razor blades.

muckyhands

One word.

Copper tape.

OOps thats four words... and counting. :pac::pac::pac::pac:

lookitsme

oh yes copper, i was once told to line up a load of pennies around the flower bed although i don,t like the look of my new neighbour. Is it bad to use pellets and kill the slugs as revenge for sunflower murder? maybe to send out a sign to any hungry slug onlookers. Do slugs have any good use in the garden?

macraignil

Left over beer I have is out of date Heineken some one gave me. If it was another beer I would probably have drank it by now, because I don't really believe beer in a can is likely to go out of date.

I don't trust pellets myself as they are basically poisons (something I do not want to add to my garden). We were told in school that birds eat the slugs which have eaten the pellets and then die from the poison themselves which is unfortunate as when hungry many (especially thrushes) will spend hours removing slugs and snails from your garden.

I'm not sure a dead slug would be a great warning to other slugs as the remains never last long and something is certainly going to eat what is left when they die.

There are people who claim slugs provide a service to the ecosystem in helping to breakdown material and so releasing nutrients back into the soil to help plants grow. I reckon there are plenty of other garden dwellers that will fill this role and no matter how many slugs you kill there always seems to be more to replace them.

I saw a video years ago about a gardener who produced wonderful flowers. His key tool for preventing slug problems was not leaving the soil become smooth and always break up the surface to allow the crumbs of soil to form a barrier to the slugs particularly when these dry out and I suppose work in the same way as eggshells.

muckyhands

lookitsme wrote: »

oh yes copper, i was once told to line up a load of pennies around the flower bed although i don,t like the look of my new neighbour. Is it bad to use pellets and kill the slugs as revenge for sunflower murder? maybe to send out a sign to any hungry slug onlookers. Do slugs have any good use in the garden?

Everything we want to get rid of, understandably as gardeners, because they damage our plants-

Has a role/purpose and is needed in the grander scheme of things.

Ecosystems/ foodchains/ lifecycles anyone???