Strawberries full of holes and covered in slime? Forget the poisonous pellets! Ground mustard creates an impenetrable barrier around the strawberries thanks to the burning oils that slugs hate. If we wanted another bonus, here it is: it also works as a natural protection against fungi and turns into a valuable fertilizer after the rain.
The June sun finally turns the first strawberries of the year into tempting red shades, which for every gardener means only one thing: the beginning of the sweetest harvest. But the joy of a rich harvest can be ruined in a single moment by the night invasion of uninvited guests in the form of voracious slugs who love ripe fruit just like us. All it takes is one humid, warm morning and the laboriously grown strawberries are full of unsightly holes, covered in shiny slime, and moreover, due to the breaking of the skin, they begin to rot in a flash. What about that?
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You have a comrade at home
If we don’t want to “feed” our beds with dangerous chemical granules that can poison pets or contaminate the soil, we have to act smart and ecologically. Luckily, there’s a crafty weapon that you probably have stashed away in your pantry right now. The surprising protector of fragile strawberries is ordinary ground mustard, i.e. finely crushed mustard seeds. This yellow kitchen powder contains concentrated and specific chemical compounds that act as an absolutely impenetrable barrier on snails.
Slugs like to avoid mustard
Mustard, as we may know, contains so-called glucosinolates, which on contact with moisture are transformed into pungent mustard oils, which are then extremely irritating to the sensitive body of snails. Once a slug tries to crawl over this yellow carpet, the powder immediately disrupts its protective mucus and forces it to quickly retreat away from your strawberries. This is exactly what we need.
Do the right thing and be considerate
The use of this method is so easy that it will not take more than a few minutes of free time between ordinary work in the garden. Just take the package and sprinkle it evenly in a continuous circle around the base of each strawberry plant, or create a defensive line along the entire bed. When applying, we must be very careful that the fine powder does not get directly on ripening fruits or sensitive flowers, as its strong burning could cause the delicate plant tissues to be sunburned. It is ideal to sprinkle mustard directly on dry straw, wood chips or black fabric, which we usually mulch the beds with. That way, we won’t even touch the strawberries, and what’s more, the effectiveness of the whole trick will be even longer.
It’s not just slugs
In addition to reliably repelling voracious molluscs, this aromatic ingredient has another huge benefit in the June garden that is rarely talked about among regular growers. Mustard seed has demonstrable antiseptic, antibacterial and strong antifungal properties that help plants fight diseases. This yellow powder sprinkled on the ground around the plants can reliably prevent the spread of spores of the dreaded gray mold, which in rainy June weather can easily destroy the entire strawberry crop within a few days. In this way, the strawberries will receive comprehensive protection that will keep them in perfect condition for the entire period of fertility.
Great yellow fertilizer
As with any purely natural product, it is important to remember that mustard defense does not have an infinite shelf life and requires regular maintenance. As soon as a heavy summer storm comes or we water the beds more, the powder is washed deep into the ground and its surface repellency effect for slugs immediately disappears. However, even after the rain, our efforts do not go in vain, because the mustard washed into the ground acts as a great green fertilizer that enriches the ground with valuable organic substances. After the bed has dried, it is enough to simply restore the protective yellow circles and you can calmly look for other ripe fruits.
