Vitacress supports RHS Slug It! project

Salad and herb producer Vitacress is supporting the Royal Horticultural Society with its Slug It! project for schools, helping tackle one of the nation’s most persistent garden pests – the slug!

This is the first year the Slug It! initiative has taken place, aiming to discover the best way to tackle the age-old problem for gardeners, whilst building student’s skills to think and work more scientifically.

The project involves an experiment to see which strategies are most effective against slugs and snails. Packs are provided to each participating primary and secondary school outlining what they need to do to test how effective a variety of strategies are against slugs, including mulch, grit, copper, tape, wool pellets and egg shells.

As part of the experiment, schools will be growing their own lettuce to measure leaf damage from slugs and snails, and will be given a recording form to log the results.

Vitacress has supported Slug It! by giving expert advice, and by working with the RHS and Madestein, who specialise in glasshouse grown lettuce, to grow the lettuce plants, package them and send the plants out to the schools for the experiment.

Laura Marner, Assistant Growing Manager at Vitacress, who has been working with the RHS on the project commented: “Slugs and snails have been a persistent problem for gardeners for many years and have been on the RHS UK Top Ten Pests list every year since records began, so we are very supportive of the work the RHS are doing to tackle the problem. It has been great to see so many schools getting involved in the experiment, encouraging children to get involved in horticulture and inspiring the next generation of horticulturalists. We are looking forward to seeing the results when they are announced.”

For more information on the RHS Campaign for School Gardening visit https://schoolgardening.rhs.org.uk/home