Just a few of the questions this month. Deterring blackfly, controlling slugs on brassicas and great tip on saving strawberries from slugs.
I can’t reply individually to everyone (although I try) or I’d get nothing done. A lot of questions are best asked on the forums, not only does it get a variety of answers from a range of gardeners but it also helps people with the same problem.
Feel free to jump in with a comment on these questions. Please don’t post more questions in the comments section – either post on the forums or email me.
Deterring Blackfly
I have been growing broad beans for a few years and am always troubled by blackfly. Then I remembered my uncle, who I got the gardening bug from, used to plant marigolds within his plot where he grew broad beans . I did that this year and although not fully developed yet , I have plenty of flowers and no blackfly .
Have you heard this before? I may be lucky this year because of rain but I am taking it that it works .
Planting French marigolds in the greenhouse does help repel whitefly which can be a problem with tomatoes and other crops. This is because the French marigolds release a chemical – limonene that the whitefly don’t like.
It’s not always successful, I imagine it depends on the chemical’s concentration. Too few marigolds or good ventilation dispersing the limonene defeats the deterrent effect.
As methods go, it’s worth a try at least though. It’s a method that is 100% safe and totally organic. Looks good too! Unlike pesticide sprays, whitefly can’t develop a resistance to marigolds – they just fly away to bother some other plant.
Blackfly on broad beans is a problem we all have. Usually it’s not too serious but it can become severe at times. The traditional remedies are to:
- Cut the tops off the plants. It’s that soft sappy growth the blackfly like best.
- Wash off with a spray from the hosepipe or to use some soap and syringe off.
- Leave them for the ladybirds. Often just leaving them be gives time for the ladybird population to increase and bring the blackfly problem under control.
- Plant nasturtiums as a sacrificial crop nearby. I don’t like this method as it just provides a breeding ground for the blackfly and I feel it makes the problem worse.
- Insecticide. I don’t think this is necessary or appropriate for the problem. I’m not a lover of using insecticides unless there is no practical alternative.
Marigolds outside versus blackfly on broad beans.
Blackfly are related to whitefly and may well be repelled by French marigolds but I can’t see the limonene being concentrated enough outside to be effective. So I reckon it’s the wet weather keeping their numbers down this year.
Slugs and Snails Eating Strawberries
Not a question, just a great method of saving strawberries from the slugs and snails.
Strawberries – this year I experimented to beat the slugs and it worked! Everything else has been wasted by them but the strawberries were very good!
Technique is simple. Take the berries as they are reddening before ripe and aromatic. Put them in a bowl, leave on a worktop in the kitchen and in a day or so they ripen and are as good as ever.
I actually lost fewer than usual and the berries tasted good. And they were not over-ripe. Do give it a go and see for yourself – hope it works for you.
Just two words to say – Thank You!
Slugs and Snails on the Brassicas
It is my second year of growing on an allotment and I am heart broken that this year. I managed to plant quite a few things only to find the slugs have destroyed them. What is the best method of growing cauliflower and cabbage to avoid, as much as possible, the slugs getting to them.
Someone has mentioned smulch – please help me as I am keen to grow my own veg etc and need some knowledge that will help. Would it help next year if I plant onions all around the raiser (raised bed?) and then plant cabbage etc. in the middle?
Slugs do like the leafy brassicas and stopping them completely is almost impossible. It’s annoying and distasteful to find slugs lurking between the leaves in your cabbage. On the plus side, they don’t do much damage to established healthy plants. After harvesting we usually soak our cabbages for half an hour in salty water. This usually gets any slugs off or kills them outright.
I start my leafy brassicas (cauliflowers etc.) in 9cm pots. Getting them to transplant size in a coldframe usually keeps them safe from slugs. I do pop some pellets in the coldframe to get the odd slug or snail that gets in.After planting out I scatter slug pellets around the plants and repeat once or twice if necessary during the growing season.
Modern ferrous phosphate based pellets, used correctly, are wildlife safe and effective. Another solution is to use nematodes which can be more effective in some circumstances.
By ‘smulch’ I think you mean Strulch. This mulching material is claimed to deter slugs but I’ve no experience using it. If it does work as Strulch say, it’s quite an expensive product. I really can’t see any benefit from planting onions around the cabbages.
Raddish eaten by slugs, runner bans only jut flowering, onions gone to seed, sweetcorn about a foot high, courgettes, chives and spring onions didn’t even sprout. Shallots about half of them doing ok. My worst season ever.
John posted a tip on slugs earlier this year which we followed. We have a large garden and was plagued with slugs. John suggested pieces of wood which the slugs would hide under. We got so many that we started counting them and caught over eleven thousand!! It only works in wet weather but we have had plenty of that this year. The cabbages still have slugs but goodness knows what they would have been like if all these had been left.
I seem to be fighting a losing battle this year with black army.
In the past I have used soapy water in a garden sprayer, but no joy this year I’m afraid to say. I have now used Provado Ultimate bug killer without any success either.
Plants that are affected are in my front and rear gardens and several metres apart, which include broad & runner beans,and dahlias.
Any ideas to beat these bugs
Ref white and black fly, when I plant my brassica out I always spray them with insect repellent and I do this now and again afterwards it has worked for me it doesn’t stop them completely but it certainly slows them down,
Have you tried neem oil? I had a lupin covered in lupin aphids earlier this year. I sprayed it with neem oil a few times and although the plant took a while to recover it eventually flowered. Totally organic, but check when you spray as it could kill beneficial insects like ladybird larvae etc.
Hello can you please help, we have a apple tree and every year we get black spots on our fruit.
Many thanks
Clive
Can I ask a question for the membership? Normally, the greenhouse cantaloupe melons produce a lot of male flowers early on. I suspect this is to assure there is pollen once the female flowers develop. And I’ve had good fruit set in previous years.
But this year I’ve not had any female flowers, only male. Any ideas why this could be? I’m up in Manchester and it’s been a pretty dull year so far. I was hoping for a melon or two but it’s getting late in the season.
Did you start off with a nitrogen feed before going onto nitrogen/potash feed that’s what i did and had plenty of both male and female flowers.hope this helps.
Feel free to jump in with a comment on these questions. Please don’t post more questions in the comments section – either post on the forums or email me.
I can’t reply individually to everyone (although I try) or I’d get nothing done. A lot of questions are best asked on the forums, not only does it get a variety of answers from a range of gardeners but it also helps people with the same problem.
Love your hints and tips for growing veg. Been a great help. I live the other side of the country to you in East Anglia, but the weather and conditions for growing have been the worst I have seen, this year! Even lettuce do not want to germinate!!
I agree with the other folk, it has been my worst vegetable growing season in over 50 years!
Most of the brassicas have just gone to seed presumably because of the constant rain but is there anything I could have done to prevent this? I have pinched out some of the seed tops before they fully took hold. Greenhouse tomatoes and cucumbers have flowered with few fruit developing, courgettes are the same and other stuff just hasn’t kicked on.
Hi John, I interplant garlic in the broad beans and runner beans. This was a tip I found in something called ‘Companion Planting’ years ago. Seems to work as the beans are free from pests!
Everything is out of kilter, the slugs and snails are here too in huge numbers!
I don’t expect this is a new tip but I can say it’s worth repeating. I decided to mince up a garlic glove and spread around the base of a chewed up dahlia where garlic drench hadn’t helped keep snails away.
I now have 3 promising flower buds!
Based on that I bought the biggest pot of GARLIC GRANULES from the supermarket; I sprinkle about a quarter teaspoonful around a plant I want left off the snails’ menu and it’s working for several days in a row before replenishing depending on the rain.
Kale, broccoli and chard have all been left alone!
Garlic granules from the supermarket have definitely been my friend so far!
Happy growing everyone
Planted a new passiflora, it was doing fantastically then over night, for no obvious reason, it wilted, flowers were curled. It looked thirsty but nothing revived it. Any help please.
This year, I and my fellow plot holders on a Worcester site have had exceptional beans – broad, runner, French – we think because we’ve seen little if any blackfly. And little greenfly on roses. We have no idea why, though most of us planted the beans out a bit late, thanks to the wet spring. Consequently, I suppose, few ants or ladybirds. Slugs and snails, on the other hand . . . control is tricky. I do have slug-munching violet ground beetles (nocturnal, but I occasionally disturb them), and have seen slow worms, years ago. The other day, I watched a blackbird tucking into a snail with enormous relish. (Our soil is alluvial and sandy, and dries out rapidly.)