Posts Tagged ‘rootrainers’

Slugs the size of pigs!

Saturday, May 2nd, 2009

I suppose there a bit like Marmite, not that I ever eaten a slug! You either love them or hate them. These are the size of pigs, I found them hanging around my rootrainers , whilst I was sorting out my flowering plants for the borders. I grow most of my plants exclusively in rootrainers. This year I’ve had very poor germination from Nasturtium majus Milkmaid, the Nasturtium majus Black Velvet I’ve planted I’ve had 100% germinate, but the  Nasturtium majus Milkmaid have been very poor, I think I would be lucky if I’ve got 32 plants out  of 256 seeds planted. I thought it could be because I’ve switched from a peat based seed compost, to non-peat based, to save the peat bogs, but then the Nasturtium majus Black Velvet have been planted in the same conditions. So my mix of black and white plants my struggle again this year in the border, last year Nasturtium majus Milkmaid germinated but turned out to be red and orange Nasturtium majus. I may report the batch numbers to the commercial grower, just to check they’ve not had a major failure!

Tiger or Leopard spotted slugs (Limax maximus)

Tiger or Leopard spotted slugs (Limax maximus)

 I did think it could be these slugs I found…Slugs the size of pigs!

Tiger or Leopard spotted slug (Limax maximus)

Tiger or Leopard spotted slug (Limax maximus)

but I found no seed stalks, where they’d been eaten, and I’ve just not seen any seeds germinate.

Tiger or Leopard spotted slug (Limax maximus)

Tiger or Leopard spotted slug (Limax maximus)

I quite enjoyed photographing and watching these slugs, that I didn’t have the heart to murder them! I’ll probably regret it, as they’ll be back eating me vegetables. So I left them out for the birds!

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