Bit of a sad tale, I'm afraid. A female customer came into the nursery
today to tell us of two mimosa trees she'd bought two weeks ago, planted and
watched die. Honestly, within two weeks, two perfect, thriving, healthy
trees - dead. She was a bit annoyed.
Naturally, she was asked how she'd planted them, how she'd treated them
after planting etc. And the tale was this....her 'friend who knows all
about gardening' had told her that when she bought anything from a nursery
or garden centre, she should wash off all the compost in which it had been
grown and plant it bare-rooted to be sure of ridding it of vine weevil.
So she followed this 'advice' without question and certainly without asking
us if it was good advice.
So - her bare root mimosas drooped and drooped and drooped, so *then* she
cut them back really hard, thinking this would encourage them to sprout. So
they died.
When Matthew heard this story he told her that firstly vine weevils and
their grubs are not active now so she wouldn't have seen them and secondly
that we spend over £1k per year on nematodes which we use against vine
weevil. If only she'd asked.......

Capping this, Ray told me the story of a couple who marched into the nursery
a few years ago in a state of righteous fury - seriously annoyed. They told
him that having bought some plants from us they'd spent an hour or more
picking out insect eggs from the compost in which the plants were potted.
Ray scooped up a handful of slow-release fertiliser pellets and said "did
they look like this?" Guess the answer.

I suppose the moral of these tales, I hope, is DO ask your nurseryman for
advice if you have a good nursery from which to get your plants. You may be
lucky and get really helpful information from friends and neighbours but you
might be like our unfortunate mimosa lady and spend money killing plants on
their say-so!
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

In article , Sacha
says...
Capping this, Ray told me the story of a couple who marched into the nursery
a few years ago in a state of righteous fury - seriously annoyed. They told
him that having bought some plants from us they'd spent an hour or more
picking out insect eggs from the compost in which the plants were potted.
Ray scooped up a handful of slow-release fertiliser pellets and said "did
they look like this?" Guess the answer.


Showing my ignorance here, but like they say better look a fool for five
minutes than remain a fool for ever! I've sometimes bought plants in
pots with clumps of little "beads" either down the edge of the pot or at
the bottom of the rootball. The Mrs and I can never agree if they are
slow release fertiliser or the eggs of slugs / snails? They are
typically around 1/8" diameter, perhaps slightly larger and usually in
clusters of around 20 or more. Their colour is usually white or creamy
through to brown. If I squash them they burst and are full of a watery
like substance. Are these eggs or fertiliser? Is there a clear way of
telling the difference?
--
David in Normandy

In article ,
says...
In article , Sacha
says...
Capping this, Ray told me the story of a couple who marched into the nursery
a few years ago in a state of righteous fury - seriously annoyed. They told
him that having bought some plants from us they'd spent an hour or more
picking out insect eggs from the compost in which the plants were potted.
Ray scooped up a handful of slow-release fertiliser pellets and said "did
they look like this?" Guess the answer.


Showing my ignorance here, but like they say better look a fool for five
minutes than remain a fool for ever! I've sometimes bought plants in
pots with clumps of little "beads" either down the edge of the pot or at
the bottom of the rootball. The Mrs and I can never agree if they are
slow release fertiliser or the eggs of slugs / snails? They are
typically around 1/8" diameter, perhaps slightly larger and usually in
clusters of around 20 or more. Their colour is usually white or creamy
through to brown. If I squash them they burst and are full of a watery
like substance. Are these eggs or fertiliser? Is there a clear way of
telling the difference?

Snail/slug eggs are white or nearly white and are in clumps, slow release
fertilizer is normally coloured (it varies as to which colour) blue or
straw yellow being the most common, and scattered through the compost.
Squashing will not tell you as both will squish
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

In article , Charlie
Pridham says...
In article ,
says...
In article , Sacha
says...
Capping this, Ray told me the story of a couple who marched into the nursery
a few years ago in a state of righteous fury - seriously annoyed. They told
him that having bought some plants from us they'd spent an hour or more
picking out insect eggs from the compost in which the plants were potted.
Ray scooped up a handful of slow-release fertiliser pellets and said "did
they look like this?" Guess the answer.


Showing my ignorance here, but like they say better look a fool for five
minutes than remain a fool for ever! I've sometimes bought plants in
pots with clumps of little "beads" either down the edge of the pot or at
the bottom of the rootball. The Mrs and I can never agree if they are
slow release fertiliser or the eggs of slugs / snails? They are
typically around 1/8" diameter, perhaps slightly larger and usually in
clusters of around 20 or more. Their colour is usually white or creamy
through to brown. If I squash them they burst and are full of a watery
like substance. Are these eggs or fertiliser? Is there a clear way of
telling the difference?

Snail/slug eggs are white or nearly white and are in clumps, slow release
fertilizer is normally coloured (it varies as to which colour) blue or
straw yellow being the most common, and scattered through the compost.
Squashing will not tell you as both will squish


I'd always assumed that if they could be squashed and burst releasing
liquid that they were eggs, but it sounds like that isn't necessarily
the case. I've been removing and discarding some slow release fertiliser
as well as slug/snail eggs then.

It would be so much simpler if the fertiliser was always blue. It sounds
like pale straw or creamy colour beads could be mistaken as either slug
eggs or fertiliser!

So, it seems a fair bet to remove clumps of beads or those which are
white, but to leave those which are darker or more evenly scattered.
--
David in Normandy

"David in Normandy" wrote in message
...
In article , Charlie
Pridham says...
In article ,
says...
In article , Sacha
says...
Capping this, Ray told me the story of a couple who marched into the
nursery
a few years ago in a state of righteous fury - seriously annoyed.
They told
him that having bought some plants from us they'd spent an hour or
more
picking out insect eggs from the compost in which the plants were
potted.
Ray scooped up a handful of slow-release fertiliser pellets and said
"did
they look like this?" Guess the answer.


Showing my ignorance here, but like they say better look a fool for
five
minutes than remain a fool for ever! I've sometimes bought plants in
pots with clumps of little "beads" either down the edge of the pot or
at
the bottom of the rootball. The Mrs and I can never agree if they are
slow release fertiliser or the eggs of slugs / snails? They are
typically around 1/8" diameter, perhaps slightly larger and usually in
clusters of around 20 or more. Their colour is usually white or creamy
through to brown. If I squash them they burst and are full of a watery
like substance. Are these eggs or fertiliser? Is there a clear way of
telling the difference?

Snail/slug eggs are white or nearly white and are in clumps, slow release
fertilizer is normally coloured (it varies as to which colour) blue or
straw yellow being the most common, and scattered through the compost.
Squashing will not tell you as both will squish


I'd always assumed that if they could be squashed and burst releasing
liquid that they were eggs, but it sounds like that isn't necessarily
the case. I've been removing and discarding some slow release fertiliser
as well as slug/snail eggs then.

It would be so much simpler if the fertiliser was always blue. It sounds
like pale straw or creamy colour beads could be mistaken as either slug
eggs or fertiliser!

So, it seems a fair bet to remove clumps of beads or those which are
white, but to leave those which are darker or more evenly scattered.
--
David in Normandy

We went to a different Garden Centre to our usual one, mainly because it was
nearer and we only wanted one specific plant. When we got home and Joan went
to plant it out, she too found these granules which she wasn't sure about.
Yes she does know all about water retaining granules, but these were in the
'iffy' area just as yours seem to be. She telephoned our usual Garden Centre
and spoke to them and their advice was "If in doubt, wash off all of the
existing compost and plant bare root"

Kind regards

Mike


--
www.rnshipmates.co.uk for ALL Royal Navy Association matters
www.rneba.org.uk. The Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association.
'THE' Association to find your ex-Greenie mess mates.
www.iowtours.com for all ex-Service Reunions. More being added regularly
"Navy Days" Portsmouth 25th - 27th July 2008. RN Shipmates will be there.

On 18/11/07 09:45, in article ,
"David in Normandy" wrote:

In article , Charlie
Pridham says...
In article ,
says...
In article , Sacha
says...
Capping this, Ray told me the story of a couple who marched into the
nursery
a few years ago in a state of righteous fury - seriously annoyed. They
told
him that having bought some plants from us they'd spent an hour or more
picking out insect eggs from the compost in which the plants were potted.
Ray scooped up a handful of slow-release fertiliser pellets and said "did
they look like this?" Guess the answer.


Showing my ignorance here, but like they say better look a fool for five
minutes than remain a fool for ever! I've sometimes bought plants in
pots with clumps of little "beads" either down the edge of the pot or at
the bottom of the rootball. The Mrs and I can never agree if they are
slow release fertiliser or the eggs of slugs / snails? They are
typically around 1/8" diameter, perhaps slightly larger and usually in
clusters of around 20 or more. Their colour is usually white or creamy
through to brown. If I squash them they burst and are full of a watery
like substance. Are these eggs or fertiliser? Is there a clear way of
telling the difference?

Snail/slug eggs are white or nearly white and are in clumps, slow release
fertilizer is normally coloured (it varies as to which colour) blue or
straw yellow being the most common, and scattered through the compost.
Squashing will not tell you as both will squish


I'd always assumed that if they could be squashed and burst releasing
liquid that they were eggs, but it sounds like that isn't necessarily
the case. I've been removing and discarding some slow release fertiliser
as well as slug/snail eggs then.

It would be so much simpler if the fertiliser was always blue. It sounds
like pale straw or creamy colour beads could be mistaken as either slug
eggs or fertiliser!

So, it seems a fair bet to remove clumps of beads or those which are
white, but to leave those which are darker or more evenly scattered.

We use mainly yellow pellets and they would be hard to mistake for white.
Next time you go to a gc or nursery, either look for some on sale or ask the
nurseryman to show them to you. But as Charlie says, they're scattered
throughout the compost, eggs are in clumps. You just have to imagine the
insect sitting in one spot while it lays its eggs. It's not going to move
about through the soil scattering eggs as it goes. Your query is by no
means unusual BTW. I should say urg receives two or three questions about
this every year.
But the distribution of the pellets should be a helpful clue. When we make
up a compost mix here, it's like making a cake on a giant scale! The bag of
compost is emptied onto a potting bench, a bit to one side. Pellets are
scattered on top and then the whole thing is turned over and over to the
other side and then back again.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

In article , Sacha
says...
We use mainly yellow pellets and they would be hard to mistake for white.
Next time you go to a gc or nursery, either look for some on sale or ask the
nurseryman to show them to you. But as Charlie says, they're scattered
throughout the compost, eggs are in clumps. You just have to imagine the
insect sitting in one spot while it lays its eggs. It's not going to move
about through the soil scattering eggs as it goes. Your query is by no
means unusual BTW. I should say urg receives two or three questions about
this every year.
But the distribution of the pellets should be a helpful clue. When we make
up a compost mix here, it's like making a cake on a giant scale! The bag of
compost is emptied onto a potting bench, a bit to one side. Pellets are
scattered on top and then the whole thing is turned over and over to the
other side and then back again.


Last week while wandering through a local GC a lovely little shrub
caught my eye - it had shed all its leaves and it just had sweet
smelling pink blossom, so I bought it - a Viburnum bodnantense "Charles
Lamont". On removing it from the pot, the bottom centre of the rootball
had a large clump of around 40 creamy/yellow coloured "beads", which
penetrated partly into the rootball, so I removed (squashed) all those.
As it was a clump they must have been eggs.

Nice plant. It is now in a big tub next to the front door.
--
David in Normandy

On 18/11/07 11:31, in article ,
"David in Normandy" wrote:

In article , Sacha
says...
We use mainly yellow pellets and they would be hard to mistake for white.
Next time you go to a gc or nursery, either look for some on sale or ask the
nurseryman to show them to you. But as Charlie says, they're scattered
throughout the compost, eggs are in clumps. You just have to imagine the
insect sitting in one spot while it lays its eggs. It's not going to move
about through the soil scattering eggs as it goes. Your query is by no
means unusual BTW. I should say urg receives two or three questions about
this every year.
But the distribution of the pellets should be a helpful clue. When we make
up a compost mix here, it's like making a cake on a giant scale! The bag of
compost is emptied onto a potting bench, a bit to one side. Pellets are
scattered on top and then the whole thing is turned over and over to the
other side and then back again.


Last week while wandering through a local GC a lovely little shrub
caught my eye - it had shed all its leaves and it just had sweet
smelling pink blossom, so I bought it - a Viburnum bodnantense "Charles
Lamont". On removing it from the pot, the bottom centre of the rootball
had a large clump of around 40 creamy/yellow coloured "beads", which
penetrated partly into the rootball, so I removed (squashed) all those.
As it was a clump they must have been eggs.

Nice plant. It is now in a big tub next to the front door.

Sounds very like it. Apparently, the eggs start off white but turn brown
near hatching. But do tell the gc next time you go - not in the spirit of
complaint but of information.
Did they look like these:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl...G=Search+Image
s&gbv=2
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

"David in Normandy" wrote in message
...

I'd always assumed that if they could be squashed and burst releasing
liquid that they were eggs, but it sounds like that isn't necessarily
the case. I've been removing and discarding some slow release fertiliser
as well as slug/snail eggs then.

But if you squashed fertiliser granules you'd simply have released the
contents into the compost so no problem.

Mary

In article ,
says...
We went to a different Garden Centre to our usual one, mainly because it was
nearer and we only wanted one specific plant. When we got home and Joan went
to plant it out, she too found these granules which she wasn't sure about.
Yes she does know all about water retaining granules, but these were in the
'iffy' area just as yours seem to be. She telephoned our usual Garden Centre
and spoke to them and their advice was "If in doubt, wash off all of the
existing compost and plant bare root"

Kind regards

Mike


Not in my opinion very good advice, since a few snail eggs are hardly
likely to do the plant much harm, you can not see vine weavil eggs they
are too small and translucent, but planting bare root except in the
dormant period is not likely to do the plant any favours, and with some
plants could prove fatal.
Would suggest anyone who is in doubt or confused goes on a hunt in their
greenhouse or cold frame lifting pots, stones, matting etc, shouldn't
take long to find some snail eggs and once seen you will never confuse
the two again.
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall
www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of national collections of Clematis viticella cultivars and
Lapageria rosea

In article , Sacha
says...
Sounds very like it. Apparently, the eggs start off white but turn brown
near hatching. But do tell the gc next time you go - not in the spirit of
complaint but of information.
Did they look like these:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl...G=Search+Image
s&gbv=2


The eggs were too big to be vine weevil. They were around 1/4" diameter.
Based on the size of the clump they must have been laid by quite a big
slug.
--
David in Normandy

"Charlie Pridham" wrote in message
T...
In article ,
says...
We went to a different Garden Centre to our usual one, mainly because it
was
nearer and we only wanted one specific plant. When we got home and Joan
went
to plant it out, she too found these granules which she wasn't sure
about.
Yes she does know all about water retaining granules, but these were in
the
'iffy' area just as yours seem to be. She telephoned our usual Garden
Centre
and spoke to them and their advice was "If in doubt, wash off all of the
existing compost and plant bare root"

Kind regards

Mike


Not in my opinion very good advice, since a few snail eggs are hardly
likely to do the plant much harm, you can not see vine weavil eggs they
are too small and translucent, but planting bare root except in the
dormant period is not likely to do the plant any favours, and with some
plants could prove fatal.
Would suggest anyone who is in doubt or confused goes on a hunt in their
greenhouse or cold frame lifting pots, stones, matting etc, shouldn't
take long to find some snail eggs and once seen you will never confuse
the two again.
--
Charlie Pridham, Gardening in Cornwall

Thanks Charlie. It did work because the chap we used to talk to in there was
a very knowledgeable fellow who had been something to go with the Rose
Society or something, (worked for the National Rose Collection? Not sure,
but he gave Joan some superb advice on a Rose for the fence outside the
kitchen window), anyway he was a hands on expert and we were only sorry that
we didn't take the extra mileage to visit him. we have since, and do you
know what? The place has been sold and he is not there :-((

Mike


--
www.rnshipmates.co.uk for ALL Royal Navy Association matters
www.rneba.org.uk. The Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association.
'THE' Association to find your ex-Greenie mess mates.
www.iowtours.com for all ex-Service Reunions. More being added regularly
"Navy Days" Portsmouth 25th - 27th July 2008. RN Shipmates will be there.

In article , Mary Fisher
says...

"David in Normandy" wrote in message
...

I'd always assumed that if they could be squashed and burst releasing
liquid that they were eggs, but it sounds like that isn't necessarily
the case. I've been removing and discarding some slow release fertiliser
as well as slug/snail eggs then.

But if you squashed fertiliser granules you'd simply have released the
contents into the compost so no problem.

Mary



Good thinking! If in doubt squish 'em anyway, nothing lost!
--
David in Normandy

On 18/11/07 12:12, in article ,
"David in Normandy" wrote:

In article , Sacha
says...
Sounds very like it. Apparently, the eggs start off white but turn brown
near hatching. But do tell the gc next time you go - not in the spirit of
complaint but of information.
Did they look like these:
http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl...G=Search+Image
s&gbv=2


The eggs were too big to be vine weevil. They were around 1/4" diameter.
Based on the size of the clump they must have been laid by quite a big
slug.

You've still done yourself a favour, then. I've never seen vine weevil eggs
myself. But in planting daffs the other day, I moved a stone and there was
a huge slug underneath - one of those with an orange bit on it. It is now
an ex-slug.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'

On 18/11/07 12:40, in article ,
"David in Normandy" wrote:

In article , Mary Fisher
says...

"David in Normandy" wrote in message
...

I'd always assumed that if they could be squashed and burst releasing
liquid that they were eggs, but it sounds like that isn't necessarily
the case. I've been removing and discarding some slow release fertiliser
as well as slug/snail eggs then.

But if you squashed fertiliser granules you'd simply have released the
contents into the compost so no problem.

Mary



Good thinking! If in doubt squish 'em anyway, nothing lost!

Well, yes and no. The whole idea is that they are *slow* release, so they
nourish the plant right through the season. ;-) We put them into hanging
baskets, too. Of course, the plant will still get the benefit of the
fertiliser but it will be at once. Personally, I don't find our fertiliser
pellets easily squishable but perhaps different makes vary.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'