Help me keep my winecaps slug-free

Hi all,

I grow most of my vegetables in a 0.25 acre plot using raised, no-dig beds (compost on cardboard on topsoil - former pasture). The paths between the beds are woodchipped (on cardboard as a weed suppressant) to hold moisture, keep away the mud and prevent weed growth. Some weeds do come in but they are way more manageable like this than any other method I have tried.

I've sowed some winecap spawn into the path in various places and, after some heavy rains, they have fruited. It has only been about 6 weeks, much faster than my last attempts at other sites. Unfortunately, as always, the slugs got to my mushrooms first and decimated them. I still took home a yield by simply cutting off the worst areas: most of the caps and some of the stipe/stems. This always seems to happen and I never get pristine mushrooms.

I searched around and found this thread about maggots infesting winecaps. Thankfully I don't seem to have that problem. The slugs really seem to love them, however, even in preference to the vegetables which seem relatively unscathed at the minute.

I have recently added a small pond (half a whiskey barrel) to the center of my growing area and I will soon be planting this up with natives (frogbit, hornweed - aren't the names wondeful?) for frog habitat. I actually saw a frog nearby over the weekend so perhaps it is already having an effect.

My question to you is: do you have any tips for keeping the slugs off the mushrooms?

EDIT: I just found another relevant thread. This one suggests using lettuce leaves (or perhaps beer traps) as bait. I will give this a go if I can spot the mushrooms pinning.

Thanks for any suggestions

I have a similar garden setup as you describe with footpaths of chip (and fall leaves) that I have inoculated with mushroom spawn.

Let the mycelium establish, add to the chips, and before you know it you will have a lot more winecaps popping up than you might know what to do with. Some will suffer slug damage but a growing slug population will draw in predators and create a 'balance'.

I'm a lazy gardener, wanting to keep my man hours low but still get good returns. Some people use beer traps for their slugs with good results but I'm pleased after a full year establishing my mycelium empire beneath my feet.

i also have massive slug and snail problems, have tried pretty much everything but the only thing that really makes a difference (in the absence of ducks, which my space is too small for) is getting out on a wet/rainy night with a flashlight and picking all the little monsters off by hand and sending them off to a bucket full of soapy water. Traps/bait (lettuce, cardboard, etc) can make this easier.

Tereza, I have done as you say a few times in my life. We used to live in a damp city (Bristol, for those who know it!) and in order to get any veggies big enough to survive the slug onslaught we had to go out, nightly, with a pair of scissors. It was disgusting but effective. Snails were sent onto a big, flat, corrugated roof next door for the gulls to pick off.

I have now added plants to the pond (and its own snails, a native species known as Ramshorn Snails to keep down the algae) and I'm hoping the amphibians it will (hopefully!) bring will help with the slugs.

Our brassica seedlings have been demolished due to the wet weather we have been having for the past 6 weeks. Slugs, as I recently learnt, have a hierarchy of preference plants - and they much prefer seedlings - so young brassicas must be high on this list!

I spotted a clump of wine cap pins the other day and immediately harvested them. They are tiny for wine caps (which are also known as garden giants as they will get enormous, given the opportunity) but better to obtain a yield than feed a pest!

Can you use copper as a barrier to the beds? I thought slugs hated copper...

The winecaps are growing on the woodchip that makes up our paths - there isn't any way to ring this with copper, unfortunately.

I have tried ringing pots with copper tape in the aforementioned damp city and, honestly, I didn't find it to be very effective. The community garden that I am part of uses it for protecting young squash plants (they plant them out in a pot, ringed with tape, with the bottom cut out to allow roots to spread) and I trust them to know what they are doing - we plant ours out directly on our site, a mile or so away, without any issue though.

Have you used copper tape successfully? I'd like to do a side by side trial

This is really interesting. The slugs have actually eaten the mushroom plugs out of the logs. I am going to try wood ash around the base of the logs. Also learned from Parkrose Permaculture to use hair trimmings around seedlings- not sure if that could work as a sprinkle on mulch paths? Family haircut day and slug prevention in one.

Luke Mitchell wrote:Tereza, I have done as you say a few times in my life. We used to live in a damp city (Bristol, for those who know it!) and in order to get any veggies big enough to survive the slug onslaught we had to go out, nightly, with a pair of scissors. It was disgusting but effective. Snails were sent onto a big, flat, corrugated roof next door for the gulls to pick off.

I have now added plants to the pond (and its own snails, a native species known as Ramshorn Snails to keep down the algae) and I'm hoping the amphibians it will (hopefully!) bring will help with the slugs.

Our brassica seedlings have been demolished due to the wet weather we have been having for the past 6 weeks. Slugs, as I recently learnt, have a hierarchy of preference plants - and they much prefer seedlings - so young brassicas must be high on this list!

I spotted a clump of wine cap pins the other day and immediately harvested them. They are tiny for wine caps (which are also known as garden giants as they will get enormous, given the opportunity) but better to obtain a yield than feed a pest!

That is such a beautiful bowl of mushrooms! Congratulations. I hope that your pond has elevated your ecosystem!