New plants destroyed

cpl100 wrote:So buy something called blood meal, correct?  Thanks.  Top dress with it?

Very light sprinkle of it. Not much.
I recommend you do some research before using.

Gwaaaaahhhhhaaaa ! Sob , Sob , sniffle .

 A tray of 30 x6 seeds per tube pot of vibrant red Pompom Dahlia seedlings 1 " tall was put in the glasshouse yesterday morning to start getting them read for tub planting up time . Went in there this afternoon every sodding one of them gone.

  I had a poke around in the fine horticultural  vermiculite toping over MM that they were growing in and found the roots... and the culprits ... 1/16 of an  inch long black slugs .

 Had a quick council of war and Alison , she  said go for , it so I did.

Three 1/3 pint bottles of a dilute-able slug killer that soaks in the soil and has a four or more week residual killing time.

 I'm a bit more than miffed I can tell you ... last year we spent nearly $ 60 USD on the nematode control ..it really hammered the slugs but as it's too cold to use it at present the slugs have either  thrived in the MM inside the heated UV lit growing cabinet or I didn't clean out & sterilize the glass house well enough .

 I think it is slugs  laying eggs in the cooler parts of the composters and that's the source of the baby slugs in my MM.

Now I have a fiendish plan .. I have a four year old  unused 750 watt microwave sitting in the blog cabin.

 I'm going to dampen to almost sloppy my plant pot MM , put it in a large lidded glass Pyrex dish and microwave it for a few minutes to get the internal temp up to 140 oF , & keep doing that till I have a steel bucked of the 140 oF cooked MM  .... that should kill off the blessed creatures  & give me a safe potting /sowing medium. once it's cooled .

Or I'm going to make up a bucket of 180 o F hot water & pour it on a bucket of MM in a big mixing tub  & stir it in well .

 If that works I might risk filling my bottomless plastic tube pots with untreated  wet mix and see If they stand up to being microwaved in trays of  30 .  I'm thinking that as the tubing is plastic kitchen sink waste pipe it should handle the 140 oF temp without any problems .

Oh David...how disheartening.

Let us know if your microwave plan works.
CC

Nooooo! Such a huge bummer! I like your superheating plan!

I just went out to my early plants and covered them with old towels. Cold cold cold tonight. A few peas up, but the spinach and lettuce look stressed. Fingers (in gloves) crossed!

Plantoid, Total Bummer. You can do larger batches of MM in a roasting pan in the oven. Add a little water so that steam can be created, cover tight and bake until center is 140*F. I tried it against fungus gnats for this spring's seed pots and only one fungus gnat showed up.

Oh, David, I'm so sorry!! How frustrating!

Let us know how your sterilizing goes...

oh bummer David!! we know the feeling as well....between the slugs, bugs and rats  we are fortunate if we get any left overs to eat from our garden beds....they just seem to out wit us!!.....blah.....

hugs
rose

Be careful with the microwave.  I tried this in Japan and the soil caught on fire.  I didn't get it wet though, so that might have prevented the flames.

Good thing I was watching.  No damage to the microwave.  Killed the grubs though.

Kay

Has anybody though about solar ovens to sterilize the soil

I think it would work just fine. Bake a cake, bake the mix.