[Paulinlaois]

hi all,
looking for a bit more info please, my veg patch is totaly infested with leatherjackets. I uprooted everything ive planted over the past 3 weeks and hand picked out these veg distroying little sh*&s. i have also ordered a packet of these super nemos to put down. is this enough for now or is there something else i could do?
Thanks.

[My Potatoes]

It's a bumper year for leatherjackets.

[pollen jim]

i find hand searching soil before planting the best, if theyre was grass there last year you have more, i say the others yokes will be great if meant for them.

[Paulinlaois]

[tunnelsofhens10]

Hi P, Don"t know whether this will help or not, Came across a thing called "Bio Sterlilant Mustard Seed" Seems you plant it, and when it grows, you rotavate into the ground. Supposed to kill all the little nasties including vine weavels, leatherjackets ect, and leaves the ground sterile. Not much use for this years crop I"m afraid. I think you can plant it in the Autumn to rotavate in the spring. Maybe Michael or someone with more knowledge than me might enlighten you further.

[pollen jim]

sounds interesting this, need to know more, anyone?

[medieval knievel]

quick google:

http://www.victoriananursery.co.uk/Bio_Sterilant_Mustard_Seed_Trial_Pack__50_Square_Metres/

[Paulinlaois]

[tunnelsofhens10]

Anyone know of any other garden centre doing this, (Bio Mustard) Postage can be quite expensive from above.

[pollen jim]

does it kill good things like worms, dont rush, more research needed, also looks like growing seasons, colliding. be careful, garden centres not selling this stuff for a reason, think 1st, act 2nd, my advice on the subject. is slow your horse's

[Blowin]

If all else fails, leatherjackets are excellent bait for trout. Go fishing?

[Margo]

My chickens love them as well

[sirpsycho]

I've been wetting the veg patches and putting down planks of wood directly onto the soil. Leave it a couple of days and come back and lift the wood. The first day I did this, the soils actually started moving there was so many of the little bast&ards! Picked loads out and dispatched by rock! Still doing it and getting the odd one here and there.

[Blowin]

During an early morning bit of downtime I've tried to follow up on the Bio Sterilant Mustard thread but have come to the conclusion that,as the saying goes, 'If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.' If someone is trying to sell you something, it's best to look for what they're NOT saying, as well as what they are, e.g. what does it do to earthworms, as someone has said?

My initial misgivings were based on most of the browse results ending up in Victoriana Nursery's site? If others haven't jumped on the bandwagon, there may be a reason.

I then found a UK 'Grow Your Own' forum that explored the idea. There were quite a few 'I'm going to try this' posts but no rave reviews and it seemed to peter out in 2011.

Another site, 'Open.salon' from the USA, raised the subject in relation to large scale growing in the area that supplies MacDonalds but uses chemical sterilants. A lengthy article suggested that these high powered growers wouldn't risk a year's crop, or part of one, to experiment with BSM and yet, if it was going to be a step towards a disease/bug free crop, one would have thought that someone, somewhere would have done a trial. This thread, too, seems to have expired a year or two ago without any sort of conclusion so, as someof you have cautioned, whatever it DOES do, the side effects may not be so good?

[tunnelsofhens10]

That makes sense to me, plenty to chew on there, blowin.