Sprout grazers
 

Hi group,
How I love my home grown sprouts, yet every year I spend hours keeping the
caterpillars at bay, and come to this time of year when I start harvesting,
(just enough for a meal each time) I find that the best of the sprouts have
been grazed.

I assumed that is was being done by slugs, yet I never see them on the
plants, I've put down slug pellets and there is little sign of dead slugs,
and the grazing continues, just enough to make the sprouts un-appetising.
and I end up dumping more that I get.

Is this a common occurrence? do all sprout growers suffer? Has anyone a
cure?

My thanks to all those that take the time to reply.

David

Sprout grazers
 

"tenchman" wrote in message
...
Hi group,
How I love my home grown sprouts, yet every year I spend hours keeping the
caterpillars at bay, and come to this time of year when I start
harvesting,
(just enough for a meal each time) I find that the best of the sprouts
have
been grazed.

I assumed that is was being done by slugs, yet I never see them on the
plants, I've put down slug pellets and there is little sign of dead
slugs,
and the grazing continues, just enough to make the sprouts un-appetising.
and I end up dumping more that I get.

Is this a common occurrence? do all sprout growers suffer? Has anyone a
cure?

My thanks to all those that take the time to reply.

David



Well, I picked my first sprouts yesterday and found that many of them had
been nibbled. I noticed that it is worse at the bottom of the plant and gets
less of a problem higher up. When I was preparing the sprouts I found a few
slugs actually inside little cavities that they had eaten out. Thankfully,
most of the sprouts had developed enough to salvage a decent few meals out
of them even after throwing away the outer layers. The slugs were the tiny
creamy/white ones that I'm convinced do not eat pellets!!

Anyway, any control suggestions would be appreciated here as well.

Kase



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Sprout grazers
 

In ,
Kase typed:
:: "tenchman" wrote in message
:: ...
::: Hi group,
::: How I love my home grown sprouts, yet every year I spend hours
::: keeping the caterpillars at bay, and come to this time of year when
::: I start harvesting, (just enough for a meal each time) I find that
::: the best of the sprouts have been grazed.
:::
::: I assumed that is was being done by slugs, yet I never see them on
::: the plants, I've put down slug pellets and there is little sign of
::: dead slugs, and the grazing continues, just enough to make the
::: sprouts un-appetising. and I end up dumping more that I get.
:::
::: Is this a common occurrence? do all sprout growers suffer? Has
::: anyone a cure?
:::
::: My thanks to all those that take the time to reply.
:::
::: David
:::
::
::
:: Well, I picked my first sprouts yesterday and found that many of
:: them had been nibbled. I noticed that it is worse at the bottom of
:: the plant and gets less of a problem higher up. When I was preparing
:: the sprouts I found a few slugs actually inside little cavities that
:: they had eaten out. Thankfully, most of the sprouts had developed
:: enough to salvage a decent few meals out of them even after throwing
:: away the outer layers. The slugs were the tiny creamy/white ones
:: that I'm convinced do not eat pellets!!
::
:: Anyway, any control suggestions would be appreciated here as well.
::
:: Kase

Share and share alike!
Seriously, you can't stop slugs and snails from chewing the sprouts so I've
found the best way is to leave them until they get a bit bigger (after a
frost), then pick them and remove a few outer leaves from each one, then
place in cold sal****er for an hour to get rid of any lurkers, rinse and
cook.

Sprout grazers
 

"Phil L" wrote in message
o.uk...
In ,
Kase typed:
:: "tenchman" wrote in message
:: ...
Share and share alike!
Seriously, you can't stop slugs and snails from chewing the sprouts so
I've
found the best way is to leave them until they get a bit bigger (after a
frost), then pick them and remove a few outer leaves from each one, then
place in cold sal****er for an hour to get rid of any lurkers, rinse and
cook.


Well, I usually would wait for a frost to get the sweeter sprouts, but this
year it seems like Christmas will come first!! My outdoor toms (Gardeners
Delight) are still setting and ripening fruit quite happily up here in
Stockport, and the busy lizzies are 3 foot tall and thick with flowers!!
Don't want to see the sprouts blow and go to waste now do I ;-) It's a
shame as well because the frost would decrease the slug activity.

Cheers

Kase



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