I sure wish we didn't have slugs, I have snails but only in the pond and they mostly clean up dead litter. I don't much like them anyway so I throw them out when I'm in there and it looks like they die when out of the water.

Here's a pic of the slugs I have, they are flatter than the ones I knew in the north. They hide in the daytime, often burying themselves under less than an inch of soil or litter. I have a hard time seeing them, they are much the same color as everything around them at night. They are called 'babosas' in spanish, it's one of those words that sounds like what it is.




Bandicoots eh? Are they like raccoons? Luckily my dogs keep the possums out of the yard along with the raccoons and the coatimundis. They would do a lot of damage, especially in the ponds.

I have grown that Stromanthe in full sun and it didn't blink....but looks better as an understory....

I sympathize with your battle with slugs...we have them here and they carry a potentially deady disease ... so all leafy vegies have to be cooked. I bait for them.

I also find that for plants growing in containers, putting a band of 'Tanglefoot' (a vasoline like gunk used to seal off pruned limbs from trees) keeps them down.

I've been drowning quite a few slugs this last week in beer traps. When I first tried a dish of beer, they didn't go for it. It might have been because all we generally have around is dark beer. I bought some cheap Guatemalan beer (Gallo) just for the slugs and they are definitely attracted to it. I've killed about 15 in the last 4 days, I need to get some more small containers so I can put more traps out. I go out every night to see how many I'm getting, tipped a big one over into the dish the other night as it was so long it was hanging off the top of the bowl and drinking the beer.

The Stromanthe is relatively expensive here, I think the large ones were $450 pesos (about $35us). I'm worried that by the time the rains start, the supply will be gone so I guess I'll have to buy at least one now and keep it going during the rest of the dry season. We have a saying here, if you see something and want it, buy it right then because it will likely be gone the next time you look for it. I'd really hate for there not to be any once the season changed.

The place I have in mind for them is under a couple of large fish tail palms. They shade the area most of the time, more like dappled sunlight. It's an easy spot to keep watered and the entire bed was taken down to the limestone bedrock and filled with pretty good soil. I just need to keep the dogs out of it while they get established.

Lin, I think you're right on the name. At least that plant looks like the one I bought earlier this year. Right now it is in the house, but will soon go outside under the trees for the summer.

Hope you find one, Jonna and it thrives for you. It is a beautiful plant.

I have had this plant for 3 years. I have it in a pot without drainage because it almost died because it has to be so moist. I think it is a bog plant. After I put it in a bog situation I have had to divide and share with friends. Because it started to grow like a weed.

Because of my climate I have to grow it in a pot and bring it inside in the Fall.

I give it morning Sun about 4 hrs no more or the leaves started to burn.

They multiply well....members of the Ginger family.....

Yum, that IS an attractive plant! Hmmm, I may have to look around for one of those. If it likes shade, it would probably do well over the winter upstairs next to my Maranta.

I'm getting close to getting a few of these. I wanted to kill as many slugs in that area as I could first and I want to plant it closer to the rainy season. I'm going back to that nursery next week with a friend so if there are fewer of them than when I was there before I may have to go ahead and get them. Our rainy season usually starts in the first few weeks of June.

My beer loving slugs are getting trapped every night, it's amazing how many there were and how huge some of them are. I also read about spraying the area with ammonia and water to kill the eggs, will do that too.

The bed I have in mind is over an old well, now used for drainage, and the fish tail palm there must have gotten its roots into the well, it has grown so fast. I shouldn't have much trouble keeping it moist in the dry season. Still, it would be better to start it out with daily rains.

Cinta, I missed your picture before, that is a beautiful specimen. I hope mine do as well.

I did go and buy 3 of them, I've planted them under a couple of fish tail palms and so far they are doing well. No direct sun but a lot of light. You can see my bowl of beer for the slugs in there too I haven't caught one in that bed for quite a while so hopefully I've got them under control. We'll see when the real rainy season starts.

Jonna, try a generous powdering of cinnamon on the ground, it is strong stuff, but doesn't seem to hurt plants. It REALLY got rid of a colony of fire ants that were using my okra for a bug farm, they left within an hour.

Remember those little heart candies that were made with cinnamon, burn like crazy!

And, hahahaha, a man asked me if that pot of okra was asparagus! hahahahaha! (no, I didn't laugh out loud at him)

I will definitely try it, anything that will work on fire ants should work on our smaller version. I'm sick of them carrying in their pests to my plants and then biting me when I'm out trying to get rid of the mealy bugs. Ant bites are the worst, I don't react much to mosquito bites but I get a huge lump and days of itching from those tiny red ants. Thanks

I agree on the ant bites; hate them!

Gee, wonder if the cinnamon would work on our crop of ants? May have to give that a test.

Look around for a big grocery, there are two here that sell huge containers of all kinds of spices and herbs, one pound. Wheeeee.

I've tried everything else to deter the ants here from moving into my pots and farming aphids and mealies. Never thought of cinnamon, but it couldn't hurt, and if it helps, it would be a lot less toxic to the environment. I get the huge containers because it's a natural antibiotic, and helps with arthritis, and is also a fungicide, so I use it to dust cuts or signs of rot on my orchids. One of those things we all have in the cupboard, but never think to use for anything beyond the purpose we bought it for.

I've seen a recipe for artsie-craftsie clay using cinnamon as a main ingredient. Check this out--- cinnamon plus applesauce!

A friend of mine has a house in the country down by Uxmal, we had a great time shopping for plants for it as she has quite a bit of land. One of the trees we bought was a cinnamon, I think it is the true cinnamon but I am not sure now. I know that most cinnamon here in Mexico is different than the type in the US, a bit stronger I think. I'm hoping that one of these years I'll get some home grown cinnamon bark.

I believe there's no commercially produced cinnamon in the USA--- from google--- S. America and the Caribbean.

"Cinnamon is the dried inner bark of an evergreen tree that is harvested during the rainy season when the bark is most flexible and easiest to work with. There are various evergreens belonging to the cinnamomum family that produce cinnamon, but the highest grade cinnamon is from the cinnamomum zeylanicum tree indigenous to Sri Lanka. In fact the name cinnamomum zeylanicum is derived from the former name of the island, Ceylon.

A wild cinnamon tree can grow to 65 feet (20 meters) high, but trees used for harvesting are pruned down at about 2 years of age to produce an abundance of finer bark-yielding growth called, tillering. Once the tree reaches 3 years of age it's harvested twice yearly following each rainy season.

At harvest time the shoots are cut and the leaves and twigs are removed with the rough outer bark. The shoots are then beaten to soften the tissues of the inner bark and make it easier to peel away in a complete strip. Once peeled, the bark is placed in overlapping, extended layers then rolled to form long canes or quills that are sun-dried. As the quills dry, the bark curls and becomes paper-like. These long canes are later cut into cinnamon sticks. Flakes left over from this process, called featherings are sold to make into ground cinnamon powder or to be distilled into cinnamon oil. Cinnamon trees can yield productive bark for about 45 years, after which they are replaced with a new seedling.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-e...

Hum, now we know!!

Oh, here's the rest of the article, they had an ad in the middle, ugh.

Today much of North America's cinnamon comes from Southeast Asia and the closely related cassia tree. Cassia is considered slightly inferior in taste to zeylanicum or true cinnamon that is a softer color with a milder, sweeter flavor. Cassia cinnamon is normally a darker reddish brown color and has a stronger, somewhat bittersweet flavor. Cassia cinnamon is also less expensive than zeylanicum cinnamon. Most cinnamon in the United States does not state its origin.

Cinnamon has a rich history dating back 5,000 years when Arabs controlled the spice trade bringing cinnamon, from what was known then as the Spice Islands, to sell in Nineveh, Babylon, Egypt and Rome. Egyptians used cinnamon in their embalming rituals, the Romans used it as a love potion and valued spices as highly as gold, and Nero burned a year's worth of cinnamon in tribute to his dead wife. Even Moses used cinnamon in a holy oil to anoint the ark. By the 11th century spices were used in place of currency in many instances and during the spice wars that followed, control of cinnamon played a vital role.

Cinnamon with its woody, mild yet exotic flavor is arguably the most popular spice in the world. Aside from its many uses in baking and cooking, it also provides a wonderful aroma to freshen the house. Just boil 5 cups of water with a teaspoon of added cinnamon, then let it simmer on the stove to enjoy the smell of a spice that has intoxicated people for over five millennia!

What a cool article. Yes, we bought the cinamomum zelanicum or Ceylon cinnamon tree for my friends land, the cassia is the other one that I have heard is used for most ground cinnamon sold in the US. There is a difference in the taste of cinnamon here and in the US, to me it is a noticeable difference. They also sell those long sticks of rolled cinnamon bark in the open markets here, they are about a meter in length (+/-3'). I've heard that it is grown commercially somewhere here on the peninsula but I'm not sure where. I use either cinnamon or cardamom in coffee, also usually some vanilla. When we were traveling in Guatemala I discovered that that country is the 2nd largest producer of cardamom in the world, after India, but almost none of it is sold in the country, it is all exported. I did find some to buy but I would love to have a more constant source.

Since we planted the cinnamon tree last spring, I guess it will be another year at least before we can harvest any. It was pretty small, only a couple of feet tall. I'll have to go out and find it the next time I'm down there and see how big it has gotten.