Answering Your Gardening Questions

How to deal with slugs and one of the easiest way to support tomatoes

Thank you for your questions this week! We’re going to address two situations: how to deal with slugs in the garden and a super simple and effective way to stake tomatoes.

My friend Renee said she’s having issues with slugs in her Montana garden. She’s used coffee grounds and slug bait (I’m not sure what kind) to no avail. The coffee grounds don’t surprise me, but the slug bait, especially if it’s the iron phosphate, typically works pretty well, as long as you use enough and replenish it as directed for that particular product. 

Iron phosphate naturally occurs in the soil and is approved for organic gardeners. It messes up the slugs’ digestive system, so they stop eating and die. The product is found in granules and pellets, and you sprinkle it around the plants as heavily as directed and replenish it as often as stated on the label. It can usually withstand several waterings or rains before adding more. 

Another option is using copper tape. With that said, you have to have a wider tape, and it cannot have a covering of any sort on top of it. One of the reasons copper tape reportedly works is that the natural moisture on the slug conducts a charge with the copper. So you are basically creating sparking slugs. Frame each plant with the tape set on the ground to create this charged barrier between the plant and the slugs. 

It might take several techniques to sort out the slug problem, but thankfully, it’s possible to gain a handle on them without resorting to heavy-duty chemicals. 

I delved into the slug subject more on this week’s “Pest Patrol” entry for PlantersPlace.com: Staying on Top of Slugs.

Keeping Those Tomatoes From Flopping All Over

Staking tomatoes is one of those projects that doesn’t seem important until they’re sprawling everywhere. Then you wish you did.

Tomato cages work well if the plants don’t grow too big. Yet, using a stake and tying up each plant is tedious. My remedy is the Florida weave.

To create this nifty support, add stakes 2.5 to 3 feet apart. Using sisal twine (in this case, I used an 8-pound line), tie onto one of the stakes, then pull it to the second stake. Wind it around and pull it to the next stake. Wrap it and take it back the other direction, crisscrossing from one side to another.

Here is a video I put together a few years ago: How to Stake Tomatoes: The Florida Weave. 

The concept is to sandwich the plants in between the lines. The nice part about this type of staking is you can tuck stems in between the string as they grow. And, as the plant really takes off, add more lines of the twine to keep them under control.

I hope answering these questions helps you on your gardening journey. Please send me your gardening questions so I can help you enjoy your best garden ever.