Amateur Needs Advice

[musicmummy]

Hiya, from someone who has never successfully grown anything in my life. I started off a sunflower seed in my house on the kitchen window and was amazed how tall it got so quickly. When it was about 4ft I repotted and put it out into the garden supported with a cane against a fence. Within 12 hours either caterpillars or moths put 100s of holes in it. Yet the one I gave my daughter( she lives about 30 miles away) survived. I’ve since grown another indoors that has a beautiful head on it. I won’t put it outdoors incase the same happens. What did I do wrong?

[tiggerblue10]

I did something similar with a sunflower plant I bought in a pot. I planted it and the next day, when I went to water it, the flowers and leaves had been eaten. My neighbour has sunflowers in his front garden and they are around 7ft tall.

[Atheist]

I found a self-sown sunflower growing in a strip of soil next to the extenxsion my neighbour built early this year. I think it enjoyed being next to the concrete foundations, as it grew like lightning - faster than the slugs could crawl! It's now about thirteen feet tall.

[Atheist]

I should have said Hollyhock, not sunflower.

[Atheist]

I doubt if you did anything wrong, unless you count not using slug pellets as wrong. I think it's just a fact of life we have to live with. Some years it's a big problem, others it's not too bad. Moths eat clothes, not sunflowers.
Did you see any caterpillars? You could pick them off and pickle them like capers (baby slugs, too) and that would help a bit. Slugs are more active at night in wet weather.
Good luck.

[musicmummy]

Ah, slugs, right, never thought of them. ( told you I was an amateur) so next year I will get a slug repellent and treat the area and try again. Thanks.

[tiggerblue10]

Pickled caterpillars? And baby slugs??

[Atheist]

tigger: Mmmmmm.

Diner: "Waiter, there's a slug in my salad!"
Waiter: (Popping slug into his mouth) "Aaaah - the most delicious caper I ever tasted!"

What dedication to the waiter's calling!

[tiggerblue10]

Think I'm gonna be sick.........

[Atheist]

Sorry, Tigger. :-(

[tiggerblue10]

Anyhooooooo........getting back to the question, Atheist, are slug pellets still sold? I heard or read that they had been banned. Or am I confusing that with something else?

[Atheist]

tigger; I think you can still buy slug pellets, but they are formulated differently now: I think they cause the slugs to lose their appetite and so they crawl off and starve themselves to death. I may be wrong.

[tiggerblue10]

What about caterpillars? Anything to deter them?

I have a phobia of both and go rigid and shudder when I see them. Same with worms.

[Chipchopper]