Bin them or keep them? lettuce

[Ryez]

My iceberg lettuce of course has been chewed, pierced through and generally annihilated by, possibly, slugs. Although it looks a lot like flea beetle damage but I doubt it as the bed and soil are all brand new.

I am new to growing so I would like to ask you, what do you usually do when this happens? The leaves do not look edible to me anymore, should I persist and grow them or bin them and start again?

Also what do you think about slug killing pellets such as slugoff that are safe for pets? Should I use those?

[muddled]

those lettuces are just babies!
Just leave them be because
a) those will be the outer leaves when the lettuce grows and you take them off at harvest anyway.
b) While the slugs are busy with those, more valuable crops are left alone.
c) thats really not a lot of damage...wait til you see what they do to strawberries!

You will find that homegrown crops rarely look pristine...well, mine don't anyway! The stuff in the shops has been sprayed, washed, ripened artificially, already had outer leaves removed and been generally tarted up so that it looks great and tastes of nothing at all.
Homegrown comes complete with mud, holes, slugs hitching a ride, satisfaction, pride and outstanding taste.

As for the pellets, you can and the 'petsafe' ones are better than the others but there are lots of other ways to beat them that cost less and work well too.
Try home made beer traps, slug hunts, copper tape, vaseline, copper slip, attracting birds, toads, hedgehogs or simply planting out double.

Becomes a hobby all of its own

[WendyC]

The heart of the lettuce looks sound and you'd discard the outer leaves anyway. Once they get going they'll shrug off pests much more readily. Whether you use slug pellets is purely a matter of personal choice. Personally I do once first planting out otherwise I can end up losing the lot.

[Martin H]

That's just normal wear and tear, they'll be fine.

I've taken to growing my lettuces under netting to keep the pigeons off. This also means I am more relaxed about using a few slug pellets because the larger wildlife can't reach them. Of course a dying slug might crawl out but no system is perfect.

[Snoop Puss]

Like everyone else says, the heart looks good, so they'll do OK. Muddled has got some good advice on dealing with slugs.

[Penellype]

I find around now is the time when butterflies and moths start laying eggs on leafy veg - I found a large cluster of yellow eggs on my spinach yesterday. Make sure that you haven't got tiny caterpillars eating the leaves as I agree some of the holes look a little small for slugs. Insect netting is a good idea for anything with edible leaves.

[Bren In Pots]

Homegrown comes complete with mud, holes, slugs hitching a ride, satisfaction, pride and outstanding taste.

Middled that just about sums up growing your own veg, i love it.

[Ryez]

Really thank you for the advice, it's confusing for new growers, especially when in various growing books and guides they show you pictures of very nice looking veg, but the reality is far from it! It's great to know that they are still edible!

I went out last night and collected the slugs directly from the leaves... but indeed the small holes worry me, will get some crop cover/netting and maybe a few slug pellets.

I have been using wool pellets because they are rough and deter slugs, but I find they are only ok for bigger plants and work, mainly, when the weather is dry... Keeping it organic is not as easy!

Thank you!

[Snoop Puss]

Really thank you for the advice, it's confusing for new growers, especially when in various growing books and guides they show you pictures of very nice looking veg, but the reality is far from it! It's great to know that they are still edible!

I used to get very envious looking at all the beautiful photos of potager gardens and the pictures of plants in seed catalogues. But they don't match the reality of my veg patch by any stretch of the imagination.