Pennies for Tomatoes?

[canesisters]

I saw this yesterday and was wondering if it's true.
Pennies are good for tomatoes? Supposed to chase off some sort of pest???
Or just good for selling neat garden decoration?

Probably gonna make one anyway

 

[Nyboy]

Slugs don't cross copper.

 

[digitS']

I used to spray pyrethrin/rotenone on the ground between the bushes where the slugs hung out and my bed of lettuce.

It sure seemed to keep them out until I ran the sprinklers. With rotenone difficult (impossible) to buy, I am wondering if even a dishsoap solution sprayed around the perimeter of a slug-attractive bed of plants would keep them out.

Usually ground-dwellers, until they find a nice tomato to climb on.

Steve

 

[so lucky]

Steve, I have good luck sprinkling broken egg shells on the ground around slug-friendly plants.
If anyone tries to use pennies to repel slugs, make sure you get the older pennies, that still have copper in them.

 

[catjac1975]

Why is rotenone difficult to buy?

I used to spray pyrethrin/rotenone on the ground between the bushes where the slugs hung out and my bed of lettuce.

It sure seemed to keep them out until I ran the sprinklers. With rotenone difficult (impossible) to buy, I am wondering if even a dishsoap solution sprayed around the perimeter of a slug-attractive bed of plants would keep them out.

Usually ground-dwellers, until they find a nice tomato to climb on.

Steve

 

[bobm]

Digit ... try sprinkling pool grade diatomatous earth around plants . It slices and dices the pest critters which then dehydrates them, then they die.

 

[digitS']

I probably should take a more aggressive approach to stopping the slugs in the tomatoes.

Sluggo's bait works fine in the greenhouse during the spring. In my imagination, slugs are now "checking in" to the greenhouse like tourists arriving in hotels at Cancun during the winter! They will sleep awhile in their rooms then, come out hungry!!

I hate to use the bait in the garden because it will melt as soon as the sprinklers come on. And, it's expensive!

I used Bonide's pyrethrin/rotenone until it was no longer on the shelves at the garden center. I ordered a bottle from an organic product source and just got the pyrethrin despite the description that stated it was a combo spray. I just looked on a couple of catalog sites doing a "rotenone" search and come up with the same bottles, sans rotenone. Taking a few moments, I still can't find rotenone as a spray.

There was a rumor I read several months ago that some states have been restricting rotenone's use and that has prompted the suppliers to stop offering it. I kept and used the pyrethrin but it is known to have "knock down" qualities but almost no residual effect. It is the rotenone that stays on the plant hopefully until the bug eats it. I don't think the slugs are eating rotenone, they just don't seem to want to slime their way across it.

Steve

 

[MontyJ]

Don't worry Cane, I get it While you're at it, make me one with silver dollars

 

[digitS']

You mean Cane' is thinking about something for the vegetable garden without practical application?

Wait until you see my armored Hummer! I figure a 50cal sticking thru the windshield should be enuf to stop those raccoons that are showing up in what's left of the sweet corn patch - in their tracks! (Or, maybe several hundred yards beyond their tracks!) Those bunnies that were so much trouble in the early part of the year - they are gonna get it! Probably scare the tails off of 'em just to see it parked out there!

Have you seen my Mr. McGregor hat, Cane'??

Steve

 

[canesisters]

I was just wondering if anyone had heard of pennies being useful in the garden - and with tomatoes specifically.
If the point of them is to keep slugs from crawling (would that be crawling or slithering or what????) onto tomatoes - then a pretty ball in the middle would not be a very effective tool. I suppose that if you laid a line of them around the edge of the tomato patch ... then only the jumping slugs would be able to get in...

However, it IS kinda pretty an 'different' and I might just make one so that I can tell people that it keeps slugs out of the tomatoes.