Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Jobs for spring
Watch out for visitors
Even though slug activity doesn't get really bad until the weather warms up towards
early May, beware of slugs hiding in bolting plants. They will go for the sappy
growth and extra cover, often before you are aware they are even active. 'Slug
patrol' (see page 44) relentlessly for two or three evenings at a time - a method
regarded as being so effective that organic producers use it in the field.
Tip
Removing slug slime from fingers
If you don't mind touching slugs, using an ungloved hand is the most effective way
of removing them from the plants and soil. Naturally this leaves your fingers coated
in sticky slug slime, but trying to wash it off is a big mistake as it just absorbs water
and becomes even harder to remove. If you're not ready to stop gardening to clean
your hands, just rub your fingers together with a pinch of soil to take the tackiness
away. Once indoors, use a little butter to loosen the slime before washing it off with
soap and water.
Make sure you deal promptly with ants too, or you will have aphid farms on your
crops once the weather is warm enough. Ants can sometimes be persuaded to
move by flooding the nest repeatedly with cold water, but they seldom go far.
Another option is to offer them bait of the mineral borax mixed with some diluted
honey (sold commercially as Nippon), which they should take back to the nest,
killing the whole colony. This trick works best in spring and early summer when
the colony is at its hungriest.
The seasonal rush
Spring is a very busy time for seed sowing, and the staging and propagators soon
fill up with trays of modules, pots and associated paraphernalia, all of which you
should have cleaned with fungicidal detergent during the winter. By early summer
you should be feeling justifiably proud of all the luscious young plants sitting
there, poised and ready for action, so pat yourself on the back - but remember
that the bench should be just as busy again in the early autumn if the tunnel is
going to feed you through the winter and hungry gap.
Nor is the activity limited to tunnel crops: at this time of the year the polytunnel
is an ideal place to give lots of outdoor plants an early start, and healthy young
plants in modules will put the outside garden weeks ahead of outdoor sowings.
 
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