August 13, 2020 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
©
Shelton Mason County Journal. All rights reserved. Upgrade to access Premium Tools
PAGE 9 (9 of 40 available) PREVIOUS NEXT Jumbo Image Save To Scrapbook Set Notifiers PDF JPG
August 13, 2020 |
|
Website © 2025. All content copyrighted. Copyright Information Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Request Content Removal | About / FAQ | Get Acrobat Reader ![]() |
HABSTINE
In defense of slug tea
arstine Island
gardeners
have a com—
mon lament: slugs
are the scourge of the
land. Every one of us
has found a plant re-
duced to a lacquered
rebuilt her garden
on a foundation of
scratchy landscape
fabric, figuring the
slugs wouldn’t cross
its forbidding tex-
ture. It’s a lot pret-
tier than the card-
stump or stick figure board I use to sup—
shredded as if by a ‘ By ALEX press the weeds that
12-gauge snotgun FETHIERE give slugs cover.
blast. Without slugs, we
It’s small com—
fort that animals eat them,
because most would rather
not. Tthe banana slug’s slime
is numbing, and the black
slug’s slime is so thick that
Swedes have used itto grease
wooden wagon axles since the
18th century.
Slime aside, slugs are a
favorite food of garter snakes.
Many ducks gobble them up,
and one permaculture farmer
uses carrion to lure crows,
who then make dessert of his
slugs. Imagine, farmers luring
crows! ,
Organic farmers might
only use baits if they also use
nonchemical methods of slug
control. Often this means
roaming the gardens at dusk
with scissors, which not only
reduces slugs but feeds those
that remain. The next night
one might be able to return to
the same spot and kill the slug
feeding on last night’s sacri-
fice my record is four.
One Harstine gardener
How it Works:
PICKING UP ITEMS:
would be inundated
with wood. In addition to bac-
teria that break down tough
plant fibers, slug guts contain
over 3,000 enzymes that pro—
cess our abundant forest litter '
into waste that is much easier
for bacteria and fungi to use.
Replenishing microorganisms
is essential, since there are
more of them in a teaspoon
of healthy soil than there
are people on earth. Such is
the balance that our native
banana slug helped maintain
before the arrival of the Euro-
pean black slug, which exag-
gerates the process to distur-
bance. Soil health and texture,
or tilth, is partially dependent
on slugs.
If they’re so good for soil,
why not steward the process?
Just as composting aims to ac-
celerate the production of hu-
mus (the organic component
of soil), one should be able to
enhance the diversity of soil
life using slugs, right?
Fertilizing was not the
r. BRARY
Ta keout
original aim of Maria Thun
and Rudolf Steiner when they
brewed slug tea. Their intent
was to repel slugs from crops.
Steiner founded biodynamics,
the ancestor of regenerative
farming, in 1924. Among other
practices it directed agronomy
according to the astrological
calendar — for example, the
date of this publication is ide-
al for planting. Notwithstand-
ing its woo—woo trappings,
biodynamics has been adopted
by wine growers from the Wil-
lamette to Chile to Bordeaux.
Thun gathers 50 to 60 slugs
when the moon is in Cancer
and leaves them to rot in wa-
ter. When the moon is in Can-
cer again four weeks later, she
strains out the solids to spray
crops with the viscous liquid.
Then she catches more slugs
to repeat the process.
Slug tea sounds worse than
it is. After 30 days it smells no
worse than a nitrogen-rich fer-
tilizer, and if the buckets are
left in the sun they will grow a
bumper crop of algae that di-
minishes that fragrance, pre-
sumably by consuming some
of the nutrients. Strained, it
makes a spray that has notice-
ably diminished slug attacks
on my crops, but it' must be_
reapplied periodically and
works best in conjunction with
other measures like wood ash
and ground eggshells. Its con-
sistency lacquers other repel-
lents onto the leaves without
affecting growth. The rich
crimson color on the bucket
walls, though absent in the
Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020 Shelton-Mason County Journal - Page A—9
Slug tea partially
consumed by
algae looks
like a fertilizer
as well as a
repellent.
Journal photo by
Alex Fethiere
liquid, briefly appeared in the
stem of a pea plant after sev-
eral applications. Though you
have only a three—day window
before the moon moves into
Leo, in my experience appli-
cations in other phases seem
just as effective.
Spraying or “peppering”
unwanted lifeforms with ex-
tracts of themselves doesn’t
stop at slugs. Peppering is
a process of sprinkling an
area with the burnt remains
of whatever one wishes to
exclude. The production and
application of peppers is gov-
erned by the stars, whether I
it’s weeds (seeds), insects, or
mice (skin). The cat is far bet-
ter at mouse peppering than
I’ll ever be, and he actually
enjoys it.
Same Day
Emergency Appomtments'
Pain Free Dentistry
. . lxperts In Helping You
5 - Place Library materials on hold online or by phone Maximize Insurance
Benefits
- Wait for notificationyour holds are ready — email or phone
- Arrive at the Library (1 — 5 pm.) look for Library Takeout signs
' Call or text once you’ve arrived (numbers are on the signs)
- Follow directions on safely picking up your materials
RETURNING ITEMS: ' '
- Check the schedule - online or
by phone
' Please place your materials
directly in the bins
*- No bags in the bins
- No donations at this time
Easy Financing Options
Evening Appointments 'Avaiablo
New Patients Always We'loom .
Serving you
in two ,lorations:
Steven H. Bowers, DDS
7'17 W. Railroad Avenue
(360) 426-1664
NOW
AVAILABLE!
Bowers Dental
' Group is excited
to introduce
you to
Thomas Duffy, DDS
. ' .. . ~ \Ill i A ‘1 ‘
VISIt TRL.org/takeout for details Mar/In Meharry, DDS :zgfijfff
' l V V 1525 Olympic Hwy North our team,
Questions? Dr. Meharry.
AskLib@TRL.org or 426 9711
Live Chat on TRL.org
\i-‘ww. liowcrstl c n in] to" p. com
Library buildings are still closed to the public. No public access,
no meeting rooms, no restrooms, and no computer use at this time.