Tips on Spring Garden Planting
A good time to control slugs is when they are mating, before eggs are laid. Each slug can lay up to 300 eggs in a season, as clusters or a single egg. The life cycle is: clear eggs, milky eggs, white eggs, tiny slugs, tiny slugs, bigger slugs, more eggs and more slugs. When clusters of slug eggs are found dispose of them in the garbage and let them grow up to eat at the landfill, where they can be useful. The only benefit of slugs in the home landscape is enrichment of soil with their excrement. A handful of worms is preferred for that function. Keep grass mowed to reduce moisture and increase light at ground level. Slugs and snails are territorial, returning to their winter space and egg sites after feeding on your plants. Look for them where they have been seen before. Follow their trails, like Japanese ground beetles, snakes and frogs do when they seek to eat slugs and slug eggs. Slugs will range 100 feet or more from their home base.
Hand picking is effective for slug control when we have the time. Actually, using tongs and gloves is better than fingers. To remove slug slime from skin, wipe with vinegar on a paper towel; soap and water are ineffective. Some people pour salt on slugs or spray them with vinegar. The salt and vinegar will also burn nearby plants, though. Throwing slugs and snails over the fence does not help because they will find their way home. Egg shells and coffee grounds irritate the tender foot of a slug, so they just go around. Make a simple slug trap from a plastic (cottage cheese type) container. Cut holes in the top big enough for the slug to get into. Put sugar water, yeasty water, chopped cucumbers, aromatic fruits or cat food into the container. Canned salmon cat food is a preferred flavor, but will attract other critters. Save your beer for a party. Research at OSU shows that sugar water or cucumbers attract more slugs than yeasty beverages. Bury the container up to the lid so the slug can crawl in but cannot crawl out easily. Check the trap regularly and dispose of the captives. – Diane Hyde
To plant a garden is to believe in the future. Believe those seeds will sprout and mature in reasonable time. Believe your effort will be rewarded. Believe, but be wise in helping it happen. The spring solstice signals time for new growth, time to plant for the growing season. The days will be getting longer, and hopefully warmer soon. It is unlikely, but not impossible, that we’ll see another hard freeze this season, so it is safe to plant most crops in a garden. Transplants already grown to a healthy stage are available in garden stores. Although more expensive than planting seeds, direct planting of healthy starts than have been acclimatized to current temperatures will almost guarantee success. Direct sowing of seeds is less expensive (a whole package for the price of a pack of transplants), and will take two to four weeks longer to mature. If we believe in saving money for the future what do a couple of weeks matter? © SHAKZU / 123RF.COM
As we pick up wind-blown debris and pull up weeds, clusters of slug eggs are found. Some species of slugs bury the eggs underground so they are not found until the little slime-makers emerge. Slugs live under or in nutrientpoor soil, bark, logs, pots, rocks or any dark, moist areas. Some, like the spotted slug, hang out in dry areas eating dead organic matter. Cleaning up debris and setting traps near their habitats can reduce their populations.
will sprout in soils as cool as 40F. Many perennial flower seeds are designed by nature to sit in cold damp soil for weeks or months before sprouting so if they are sown now their hormones will let them sprout when the soil temperature is right. Warm season vegetables that originate from closer to the Equator, and more exotic flowers grown as annuals will not sprout until soil temperatures are warmer so they are often started indoors at 65-70F in our short-season microclimate. Even transplants of tomatoes and peppers purchased at the garden store will not grow well until soil temperatures (and night air temperatures) are above 50F. Corn, cucumbers and melons will not thrive below 60F. So we usually wait until late May to plant them. Covering raised beds with row cover cloth, an old sheet, of a makeshift clear plastic tent will help raise the temperature of a patch of soil by capturing sunlight and blocking wind. Good drainage helps prevent drowning and rotting of seeds in cold soggy soil. Soil should feel like a wrung-out sponge. OSU Extension has great publications available to help gardeners. Growing Your Own (EM 9027) and Vegetable Gardening in Oregon (EC 871) are two basic sources of information available at Extension offices or https://catalog.extension. oregonstate.edu.
To germinate and grow seeds need moisture and warmth. Moisture is not a problem as (cold) spring rains continue. Soil temperature is the key to seed starting success. Cool season vegetables grown mostly in northern hemisphere and higher elevations, and most perennial flowers
Y’S FR E
DAHLIA
Believe in the future, but remember how to help garden PLANTs: Give them a good PLACE to grow, LIGHT at least six hours per day, AIR in the soil and a little wind, NUTRIENTS from compost and/or fertilizer, and TEMPERATURE of the soil.
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