Now I’m Curious About: Diatomaceous Earth
I think the slugs and snails are already busy because something has been snacking on both my pea and brassica starts and it doesn’t make me happy. I’m gonna blame them until I have evidence to the contrary.
I think the solution (or at least, a solution) is sitting in the coop. Diatomaceous earth (or DE for short), along with being difficult to spell, is deadly for many bugs, especially my current slimy enemies who will feel some uncomfortable feelings if they slime across my snowy white and razor sharp defenses. Food grade DE is edible and used by some for health purposes but can rid your house, coop and garden of many bad bugs, so it’s safe for the garden.
We sprinkled some on and around our cabbage and pea plants hoping the effort will buy us some time so they can grow and not get eaten away. There may be another pest at play here on the pea plant babies since they have nearly been eaten away. The larger brassicas, as they get more vigorous with age and size, seem better able to put up with the increased attention - at least until the cabbage moths come along.
I’m not going to go into more details about DE here since I found plenty of resources discussing it and its many uses in the links below (can you believe there’s actually a diatomaceousearth.com?) but suffice it to say, I’m now armed and ready for a sluggish battle and hoping I can manage to fend off these offenders.
It’s been handy in the coop, I hope it’s effective in the garden, and I’ll keep it in mind if we have a particular need in the house.
This, How to Use Diatomaceous Earth, article gives a good general overview of DE.
A bit more detail is over at earthyeasy.com
Some industry specifics about gardening in particular are here.
I’ll be writing about my bees again next week but here is a convincing article allaying my concerns about DE and bees. Yay bees!
DE is currently available by the pound over at the Happy Farmer’s Store
More notes to come about this fascinating substance!