Growing organically, my cabbage tends to have slugs and such, which I remove by soaking in salt water. However, what do I do about the cabbage I want to store? Won't the slugs eat the whole thing while in storage????
A friend of mine is a hosta collector and used to get slugs- this is his fix, I think it might work with cabbage too. Pour 1/2 can of beer on the ground. Cover with a 1" x 6" board or folded newspaper. Leave overnight. Slugs like beer and a nice hiding place, so you'll find them under the board in the morning. Then do what you like with them. Good luck!
Sue, since you are growing strictly organic, it's easier to avoid the slug problem by not having them. Solution may be at your nearest Starbuck's shop, coffee grounds! There's been an amazing discovery that slugs hate caffeine. Liberal use of coffee grounds in compost and mulch soon results in no more slugs. Didn't believe it myself until I started using a lot of grounds. Used to always have slugs everywhere. Don't have a one now despite one of the wettest years ever here. Instead, have earwigs crawling out of the cabbage instead! Don't know which is worse. Martin
Earwigs ? Ewww. Do you store your cabbage? I may have to resort to canning it all I guess. i just don't see the point in storing it in the pantry, just to have it disappear as the months go by. :waa: I'll try your coffee trick next year . Too late at this point. Do the earwigs eat cabbage or just take refuge there??
I would use kitchen waste in different areas around my planting beds to help attract slugs to that and away from my vegetables. The best response was from carrot skins and pieces, slugs really seem to mostly gravitate to those.
For the most part, I think that the earwigs only hide in the cabbages since that's a nice dark and damp place. However, they will chew a bit to make a nice snug home. I could probaby live with them if I were not in the middle of grating a head for slaw and later seeing half of an earwig crawling away! I don't store cabbage since I normally only plant enough for fresh slaws, fresh cooking, and a bit of kraut. However, mother-in-law used to grow a real late variety and simply stack them on shelves, cut end down, in an unheated basement. Once the outer leaves dried, it seemed as if they lasted all winter. I've never tried it but may do it with a few this fall. I felt sorry for all of the seedlings and planted twice as many as we can use! Martin
