Febs Harvest...What to Plant now....and snail/slugs and how to deal with them!

Well not quite sure what happened to our lovely summer weather....looks like we've gone headfirst into autumn. Both good and bad, i love seeing the leaves change colour but the onset of cold weather means that its time to the summer crops to end...and in with the winter veggies!

But before i get ahead of myself here are February's numbers!

41g Blueberries
113g Strawberries
2586g Tomatoes
33g Capsicum
252g Corn
78g Silver beet
467g Watermelon
170g Beans
166g Rhubarb
8g Herbs
327g Pepino
86g Fig

=4.327kg!


What to plant now

Temperate Climate

Asian veggies (bok choy, pak cho etc)
Beetroot
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrot
Cauliflower
Kohl Rabi
Leek
Lettuce
Onions
Peas
Snow Peas
Rhubarb
Shallots
Silver beet
Spinach
Spring Onion
Swede
Turnip
Zucchini

Snails and Slugs

Horrible things, and with the onset of colder weather they will be out in great numbers! So you may as well get a head start on them! Here are my top tips for dealing with snails and slugs

1. Beer Traps

These ones are fancy and i own a few of them. How they work is that you did a hole in the ground so that the base is level with the ground, Fill with some beer (they don't have a preference so stale beer or light beer should be fine!) Put the lid on and leave it. Check it every couple of days and scoop out the dead slugs and snails.

Turns out they love the smell and go get drunk and drown! If you aren't so keen on wasting your hard earned beer there are a couple of options. I did and experiment in may last year with a few different liquids. To see the results click on the link below.

http://pottedveggiegarden.blogspot.com.au/2011/09/spring-is-here.html

The beer traps i have are from a brand called 'slugga' and can be bought at bunnings warehouse for $6-$7 each

Otherwise make you own! Cut the bottom off a soft drink bottle and use that, just be sure to give it a cover of some sort.

2. Get out the torch, i would have to say this is the most effective way to get rid of snails (not so much slugs) When the season hits i am out every night for 10 minutes with my torch, a bucket filled with boiling hot water. I don't particularly like touching slugs and snails so i generally use an old pair of tweezers and go around picking them off my plants and dropping them in the bucket. This also helps you to notice how big the snail population is! Where do they hide?!?!?! Anyway, if you do this religiously for a week or two you can generally take some time off...

3. Copper tape. You can buy this from bunnings, it is from the brand 'slugga'. Its not cheap (because its copper) but the theory goes that if you put the tape down around the rim of your pot plants it will stop slugs and snails....bbbeeeecccaaauuussseeee....apparently it gives them something akin to an electric shock. I have had some success with this, unfortunately it doesn't work on earwigs which i had a problem with this year.

4. Iron phosphate Bait. If you feel the need to poison your slugs and snails then try this option instead of the usual metaldehyde bait. It is supposed to be non toxic and breaks down into the soil (where is doesn't do any damage to the soil as it actually occurs naturally there. I'm still not a big fan but......its an option

5. Sand Paper, this one i only just found out about the other day (from my daughters 'dirt girl world' dvd! So i have yet to test it. But its sounds pretty good, so what you do is cut out you own 'anti slug' rings from sheets of sandpaper (make it quite rough...maybe an 80 or so...you can pick up single sheets for under $1 from....you guessed it....bunnings lol). Make sure they are flush with the ground, the slugs and snails hate crawling over rough surfaces like this. They would prefer to avoid it, however if they are very determined and have a go they have to produce a lot more slime to do it safely, which dehydrates them :) win win...i think so!

6. Eggs shells, ash, Saw dust. These range in effectiveness. The crushed eggs shells essentially do the same job as the sandpaper...but you need alot of them. and have to replentish them regularly. The ash and saw dust dehydrate them...but some rain and they are smooshy or have washed away.

Thats all for today!
Happy Gardening