My immediate snail deterrent – salt sprinkled around the rim of a flowerpot!

You know how the margarita drink is served with salt lining the rim of the glass? Well, I decided to copy that idea to deter snails when I planted out my shark fin melon seedling.

Yes, it was a risk placing that little baby out in the garden even before it had properly grown any true leaves, but I had several seedlings then, and wanted to experiment with growing one plant directly in a big pot, rather than transfer it later in life.

The only problem was that I expected snails to be attracted to the big, succulent-looking seed leaves.

Snail pellets don’t have an immediate effect, so even though they can claim several victims, your plants will still be vulnerable before the poison kills the pests.

I had to keep my seedling protected, and I decided to make use of salt to achieve this.

You know how sprinkling salt on snails kills them, right? I figured that any snail that came across salt would be smart enough to avoid it. So, I wet the rim of the flower pot that the seedling was in, and sprinkled salt around the rim. The water held it in place, and some of the salt probably dissolved a bit, spreading it more.

Lo and behold, my anti-snail margarita worked! The little seedling was left undisturbed and has grown into a long vine. I know that salt can be harmful to plants, so I can’t do this too often, but now I wonder if I could spray a salt-water solution on the sides of my flowerpots to keep snails away…

© 2012 curiousgardener.com All rights reserved.