Out, damned slug! Agrohomeopathy Trials

As part of the Mountain Districts Permaculture Group (http://www.mdpg.org.au/About_MDPG.php), I'll be trialling some homeopathic snail & slug repelling preparations; provided by my good friend & fellow permie, Sinead Fine of the Fine Health Clinic (her website - http://removingthemasks.com/about)

The Zone 1 seedling greenhouse has suffered some losses of late due to slugs and snails - bean and zuch seedlings are especially munchworthy apparently.

Slug and Snail scribble on the inside of the greenhouse

 Having hand-picked half a dozen slugs off beans by torchlight last night, I treated the whole lot this afternoon with a preparation of Helix tosta 30c. 5 pillules succussed in 1 litre of water, then added to 9 litres and hand-stirred in a vortex. The original suggested dose was 10 pillules in 20 litres of solution, but I didn't have that much to treat & wasn't sure of how long the mixture would be viable.

Helix tosta solution

 I decanted the solution into 2 spray bottles and applied to the greenhouse with the help of my Junior Research Assistant. Thanks to his co-operation, not only my seedlings, but also the garden furniture, my left gumboot and at least one of our two cats should be spared from marauding molluscs.

Junior Research Assistant at large

 All up, probably around 2 litres (if that) was applied to the seedlings and greenhouse framework. The remaining mixture I used to water 2 of the 7 x Zone 2 vegetable beds (bed 5: currently a hodgepodge of brassicas & legumes; and bed 6: strawberries interplanted with spinach, rocket & forget-me-not as bee forage). The other 5 beds are still waiting for me to be bothered to dig in the green manure, so they don't really have a lot to attract snails & slugs at the moment, but it will be interesting to see if the slimy population explodes there.

I made another torchlight visit to the greenhouse tonight and couldn't find any unwelcome guests :)