alina- Do not worry about those slug eaten daylilies. They will bounce back just fine and grow new leaves. I have lots of slugs around here and have had the same thing happen.

Good garden soil is always helpful to getting your daylilies to increase. I personally like to put in a fair amount of compost when I am planting. Or if I am making a completely new bed, I just put compost over the whole thing before I plant. The daylilies love it.

Best not to separate into single fans. It can take single fans longer to clump up.

Rita, thanks! That was helpful!
I do hope that the slug eaten babies will recover... Do DLs grow new leaves from the top of the crown or from sides? The crowns are completely bare right now.... They have kind of concave surfaces.

The growing point is roughly in the middle of the crown. If it is disabled, side shoots will usually occur.
I would probably dust the top of the crowns with an insecticidal/fungicidal powder to keep things away until they start growing again.
Ed

Thanks Ed,

That is what I needed to know. I think that's exactly what happened: the growing point was destroyed. The wounds are healed, I washed them with bleach solution. Hope the combination of the transplanting shock and killing that growing point will not kill the entire plant.
Well, lesson learned....

Thanks for your help guys!

I use Slug-O for slugs and it is very effective. It is a
pellet and one sprinkles them around and bye-bye slugs.
Good Luck.
Kay-phal

Rita; You mentioned compost for growing the daylilies.What do you think about Mushroon compost.I have never used it before,and I have used soil conditioner worked in my soil to improve it,but seen bags of Mushroon compost at Home Depot yesterday for the first time,and wondered how well it would work in my soil.My soil is a clay mess,so have to be adding stuff all the time to it.

Jean

I have heard great things about Mushroom compost but since no one carries it around here, I personally have never tried it.

Anything organic put on top of the soil thick enough should really improve your soil. Fallen fall leaves are a favorite of mine, if I run out I use straw. After Holloween one can usually snag free bales of straw put out on the curb for the trash. Of course one needs a mini van or truck or SUV to fit them in, plus you need to be strong enough to get them into the car.

I would not recommend using mushroom compost as a regular compost. It is rich in soluble salts and can kill germinating seeds and harm salt-sensitive plants. It is also low in nutrients and contains chemical residues.
It can kill plants like Azaleas, Rhododendrons, and Blueberries.
Read this article for example.

Slugs eating daylilies as well as Violas?? Gosh I'm lucky! The slugs & snails have not touched ONE of mine in all the years I've grown them (knock on wood, I guess)
although my hostas & amaryllis are just pitiful in the areas where I don't liberally sprinkle my pet safe "Worry Free" brand slug/snail killer (Iron Phosphate pellets).
marea

I also use Iron Phosphate based remedy - Sluggo. I just did not realize that DLs are such slug magnets. I just checked my babies and guess what? New sprout is showing up from the side of that crown! The second slug eaten DL was very small. It looks very pathetic now, but I'll try to pot it up and save it.

Sluggo is working, but not fast enough. A fat slug was sitting on Larry's Obsession's foliage and making fun of me (OK, this is just my imagination :o) I had no idea that I have a severe slug infestation in my garden until I planted a bunch of DLs.

Alina,

I swear I feel like I am the slug queen ..... I am in the Pacific Northwest, which touts some of the biggest slugs around. I swear I have removed slugs at least 10 inches long from my gardens. In addition, I have carved my world out of an undeveloped woodland, so all the little delicacies that I have planted are much tastier to the buggers than anything they can find in the surrounding woods.

Daylilies are some of my most slug-resistant flowers IF THEY GET BIG ENOUGH!!! The little fans and fresh growth are very tasty slug fodder, so you will have to watch small kids, especially seedlings, carefully if you have a slug problem. Once they get to be any size at all the slug trauma should be easy enough to recover from for the plants... then you just have to watch the flowers.

Like someone above mentioned... if you want to get the slugs out of your Dl's, just plant a Hosta, or better yet, a petunia!

Good luck!

Julie

Thanks Julie,
I do have many Hostas. I guess my slugs considered baby DL as a new tasty addition to their breakfast bar...
The thing is, once DL get bigger, they become very attractive for deer! The local deer family was as happy as slugs about DL planted in my garden. Darn it, there is no ideal plant in nature :o)

TEN INCHES??!!!!

Yes, the PNW native "banana slug" can grow to ten inches. The good news is that they don't eat our growing plants, they eat decaying matter.

It is the introduced smaller slugs from Europe that are the plant eaters. Though they get pretty dang big here.

Here is a link that might be useful: Banana Slugs

I don't care what they eat! Ten inches is WAAAAY too big for a slug!
kay

Thanks for the link BorS. Funny creatures... Very cheerful coloration.
I remember someone mentioned 1' PNW slugs...
Our "European" slugs reach 8-9" sometimes.

Kay,

IMHO any size is too big for a slug, and fortunately the 10 inchers are the exception rather than the rule. The big ones are hidden away for the winter now, or I would have gotten a picture that would really make everyone go EEWWW!

Like Buyorsell888 said, the banana slugs are the big guys, and they "SUPPOSEDLY" don't devestate garden plants like the european ones do. I say "SUPPOSEDLY" as I have killed a few of the bananas on my hostas and daylilies because they looked suspiciously like they were chewing... they may have just been crawling around, but I wasn't taking any chances! The european ones usually only average from 3 to 5 inches long, with only a few getting bigger than that.

Alina -- I have found it strange that people have had problems with the deer eating daylilies. I have deer issues too, but knock on wood so far they have left my DL's alone. I think that it's because they have been too content with the roses and the grapes!

Julie, lucky you! I am SICK of deer. They even ate some of my Irises which are suppose to be toxic. I was so devastated when they munched on my FIRST DL blooms... They ate most of my precious Lilies, Hostas, Hydrangeas, Dahlias... This is much more serious problem than slugs in my garden.

Alina,

I will tell you what has worked the very best for me with the deer... has kept them away from my good roses and quite a few other things. The "scarecrow" motion activated sprinkler work wonders! Even the most persistant deer will not stand and chew things when he is being blasted with a sprinkler, and so easy to use... and most gardens have a hose or water source close by. The only downfall is that you have to remember to turn it off before you take a garden walk, as being hit with the water is not any more fun for you than it is for the deer. I was devestated myself when they ate my new rose garden down to nubs, but they have left it alone for several years now after the scarecrow was set up. I don't even run it in that area any more.

Good luck!

Julie

Thanks for your advice Julie! I was thinking about using scarecrow for repelling deer. The problem is that we have a cat who likes to walk among my plants and jump over the fence. Do you think using the scarecrow would be safe for the cat? Also, I've heard mixed feedback on using it against deer. These critters are so smart, they figure out how to avoid being hit by water.
I am using DeerOff now, but it is very expensive, leaves nasty white residue and gets washed off after every rain.
I thought about electric shock posts. It is safe for deer, but very unpleasant, so it is supposed to deter them effectively. As usual, it's expensive :o)

I placed several potted DLs into a gazebo with screens to protect them from deer and slugs. And 'Answering Angels' is blooming today! I am so happy to know that deer can not get her! We will have 38 F tonight, so that would probably be my last DL bloom of the season.