Gardens Ablaze |
||
|
Reader's Questions
- Onions |
|
Site Map
Home |
Question: What animal would be
eating my onions in the garden? I have some that I wintered over and
something has broken down the tops and chewed almost all of them off.
I didn't think onions would be popular with raccoons or anything....HELP
!!!
Answer: I know what it's not. It's not a squirrel, rabbit, raccoon, dog, cat, groundhog, mole, bird, deer, snake or even a rat - all of whom even in desperation would likely walk away from an onion dinner. I'm betting my dollar on slugs. I have seen slug damage on onions, and it looks very much like you describe - the tops are all chewed up and some even look bitten in half. It will fool you into thinking a much bigger animal has gotten into the onion patch. One way to tell for sure - go out there with a flashlight in the dead of night and take a look. Slugs feed at night and that's why you are missing all the action. The good news is that slugs are fairly easy to stop. I'm not one for banishing every pest in the garden so I'm not going to detail ways of killing all the slugs in your area here, but there are plenty of other ways to minimize the damage they do to plants you want to keep healthy. Slugs have soft bellies and even though they are slugs and not known for their brilliance, they know enough to stay off sharp, uncomfortable surfaces. So put a sharp, uncomfortable surface around your onions and your problems will be few. A few suggestions are surround the plants with crushed eggshells, gravel chips, nut shells, or even roofing shingles or sandpaper. Anything with a rough surface will do. I have also heard that slugs don't like copper - something about the ions that copper gives off. You could surround the plants with pennies and see how that works. Another suggestion is to surround the plants with lint from your clothes dryer. Apparently they get tangled up in it and they don't find that fun. So verify that it is indeed slugs, and then be imaginative in ways to divert them without destroying the whole population - the birds who think they are tasty treats will very much appreciate that!
Question:
Are onion stems OK to eat? The part that is out of ground? Are these called
scallions? If yes what are some other plants stems, leaves ,and etc are
OK to eat. I have various plants and they look good to eat.
Custom Search
|
|
Gardens Ablaze |