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Talkback: Hostas, slugs and snails

I thank my lucky stars that we really don't have a slug or snail problem so my hosta's always put on a fab display. I think encouraging the birds into the garden helps us.
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  • I have grown great hostas in pots for four years now with no slug problems. But, can you tell me if I need to change the soil or add feed or something. I just leave the pots alone, let them stay out all winter and they just seem to grow very well.
  • I have 4 hostas slugs don,t really bother with them maybe an odd nibble but if i were to put delphiniums or dahlia,s in the gardens they wouldn't last 5 mins
  • Just went through my flickr stats and noticed bbc.co.uk/gardening is linking to some of my hosta pictures, so let me tell you their story as well. They are my first attempt at "growing stuff" myself after receiving them as a gift last year. I've never been much of a gardener, and living in an apartment isn't much of an incentive to become one either. But they just sit in their pot in their little corner of my balcony and do their growing all by themselves, with the occasional helping of water in very dry periods. That way they liven up the concrete jungle and make me feel like the gardener I'm really not. Priceless!
  • I put a really thick mulch of builders sand around the spikes as they appear and have found this keeps damage to a minimum.
  • Physical barriers, whether copper or gel are fine on pots and containers, but the only thing I found to be really effective in the borders are nematodes. They are non-chemical and really solved my problems last year. This year I'm going to treat the area around my hosta bed as soon as there's a sign of real growth and the soil's above (I think it's)6 degrees C. However, I'm not so certain that they're quite so effective on snails.
  • I have heard crushed egg shells are meant to help also coffee grounds. Not that I have tried them as I haven't any hostas yet.
  • It makes a change for someone to give such praise to Hostas. I think that they are a wonderful plant and I have been growing them in pots for years. As far as Slugs and Snails are concerned, I use Copper Tape, fixed just below the rim of my pots and have not seen any damage to my Hostas from the "BEASTS".
  • I will be trying the method of crushed sea shells around my hostas this year and will let you know the results.
  • I too use nematodes very successfully on a Hosta bed but they do NOT work on snails at all. Certainly encouraging wildlife helps protect Hostas, frogs, toads, hedgehogs as well as birds love devouring slugs and snails.
  • Egg shells didn't work for me last year.slugs 4'' long and snails as big as golf balls it was a all year battle. I had hostas in pots large and small with the sheeps wool pellets surounding them, I've got organic pellets this year ready and waiting. They also ate my lupins and hollyhock. I have a good frog population and hopeing with all my tadpoles i'll triple that, you never know. I will give the copper a go.
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