Slugs and Snails And Pokeberry Jails
Originally published 2024-04-26.
Applied Biodynamics Issue no. 15, Spring 1996
The following piece is a new release of a resurrected article from Applied Biodynamics. We will be publishing more of these articles over time in The Vault for all our paid subscribers to enjoy.
Slugs and Snails And Pokeberry Jails
by Hugh J. Courtney
Applied Biodynamics Issue no. 15, Spring 1996
Sara Tufts (Pokeberry and Pine Seed Sprays) mentions two avenues for combating snails and slugs, one being the pokeberry juice spray and the other the pine seed tea suggested by Rudolf Steiner. I would like to examine each of these and will start first with the pokeberry juice spray and how it came about that I suggested it to counter the slugs and snails decimating her daylilies. I will examine as well those qualities and characteristics of the pokeweed plant (Phytolacca americana or Phytolacca decandra) that suggest why it might be suitable for use against snails and slugs.
The possibility that pokeberries might be useful to counter the invasion of slugs or snails was brought to my attention by Walter Goldstein of Michael Fields Institute in East Troy, Wisconsin, in March 1992. JPI was hosting a Board of Directors meeting for the Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association (BDF&G), since a major portion of that meeting was concerned with the future of the preparations work (that meeting culminated in the decision to place preparation production and distribution entirely under JPI). Walter happened to ask me if I had any pokeweed around the farm, since he had recently heard that pokeberry juice might be a deterrent for slugs and snails. His interest in pokeweed had been stimulated by the research of Lawrence Hills of the Henry Doubleday Research organization in England. For some time, Mr. Hills had been using pokeweed to control slugs. I have not yet had the opportunity to examine the pokeweed research done at the Henry Doubleday Research organization, but intend to look into it.
As a result of serendipity or coincidence, I not only furnished Walter Goldstein with some poke root for transplanting, but also with some pokeberry juice for his experimentation. The year before, because of my own personal fascination with this plant, I had harvested quite a few of the berries and extracted the juice as a potential future biodynamic preparation. The pokeberry plant and Joe Pye Weed or Queen of the Meadow had occupied my attention for some time as possible replacement plants for one or more of the biodynamic preparations. I had for some time been concerned about the difficulty I had experienced growing valerian in the hot and humid summer climate of southern Virginia where Woolwine is located. The valerian plant (Valeriana officianalis), used for making BD 507, is much more susceptible to fungal and crown rot problems in areas south of the Mason-Dixon line than it is in such regions as New England where it has attained the stature of an invasive weed in some places.
At this point, it appeared that what had become over the years a favorite plant of mine was worth paying more attention to, so that Spring and Summer of 1992 I made sure that a serious harvest of pokeberries for extracting juice became a priority. In the Spring 1993 issue of Applied Biodynamics, we published a brief note announcing the availability of pokeberry juice as a possible antidote for snails and slugs. During the 1993 season, several individuals, including Sara Tufts, contacted JPI to try out this potential remedy. Only Sara wrote with a positive response to its use. Two or three different people reported no effects of pokeberry juice on snails or slugs. Interestingly, all of these individuals came from the West Coast, specifically from California and Oregon.
My thought was that the snail and slug population on the West Coast might be much more robust than those vanquished by poke juice elsewhere. I did hear from Sara that the juice inhibited slug damage to her daylilies. Since her success, I have heard from two other West Coast growers, who have noticed reduced slug and snail damage. Paul Sansone, a very competent flower grower in Oregon, reported that spraying the juice early in the season on the soil seemed to inhibit the reproductive cycle of slugs and snails. He observed that while there were not lots of dead snails and slugs, they did seem to be far fewer in number. Also, the plants treated, including achillea and hostas, revealed a reduction in damage from slugs and snails on the order of 90 percent or more. Considerably less success was experienced with delphiniums, where the young plants showed greater susceptibility to slug damage. Repeat sprayings with pokeberry juice on the order of once a month were made whenever an increase in damage was observed. An abatement in damage resulted during the usual night foraging of the slugs and snails, which seemed to be curtailed by the juice.
Charlotte Kangas of Rain Dance Gardens in Hubbard, Oregon, another grower from whom I heard this year, also reported that the juice seemed to deter the slugs and snails.In fact its performance in that regard was good enough that she wanted to order more when her original supply had been used. She too advised that the juice remedy did not result in lots of dead snails, but that it kept them out of her garden and seemed to lower the population. It would seem that the juice sprayed on the soil erects a kind of “no-trespassing” barrier, as well as provides birth control to the population.
When one turns to the pine seed tea spray suggested by Rudolf Steiner, the information is very sparse. It consists mostly of the suggestion reported by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer as a further agricultural indication by Steiner. That indication is quoted in its entirety as follows:
In Dornach and Arlesheim we suffer from an awful plague of snails, which eat up all the leaves. To counteract them, Dr. Steiner advised spraying a .3% dilution of pine seeds. This is to be understood as referring to the soluble content of these seeds–presumably extracted by pressure–which should be dissolved in water to a dilution of 3-in-1000 and then sprayed over the affected beds. Dr. Steiner said we should try this and that it would be very interesting if parallel experiments were made on other beds.1
One can find no evidence in published works by Pfeiffer that he did any work with pine seed tea as a slug or snail remedy. Even The Pfeiffer Garden Book, published in 1967, which, although not written by Pfeiffer, relied heavily on his advice, fails to mention this tea as an agent to counter the activity of slugs or snails. While slugs and snails are mentioned, the recommendations are merely the usual organic methods of establishing traps and relying on hand picking.
An extensive examination of a large number of biodynamic titles reveals only one other brief reference to pine seed tea. This reference is found in Agriculture of Tomorrow by E. and L. Kolisko. Since it is brief, it, too, will be quoted in its entirety:
If young leaves in vegetable gardens are eaten by slugs, we make them unpalatable for them by spraying the plants with an extract of the seeds of Picea excelsa.
Three grams of the seeds are crushed to a fine powder in a mortar, then we add slowly lukewarm water, stirring incessantly at first to a thick pulp, then to a thin pulp; we then put it into a bottle and add lukewarm rainwater until we have 1 litre - 1000 cc. Shake the bottle vigorously for about five minutes and then place in the sunshine. From time to time we shake again. This emulsion is sprayed over the plants and soon the slugs will disappear.2
The fact that apparently so little work has been done on pine seed tea as a slug deterrent in more than 70 years can only be regarded with amazement. Given the significant damage that these creatures inflict on certain crops, it would definitely seem that there would have been more interest, at least in biodynamic circles, in examining pine seed tea as a possible solution to reducing or eliminating that damage. One can also recognize a further instance wherein a seemingly brief remark by Rudolf Steiner would serve as the impetus for an enormous amount of research.
Now, I would like to return to the pokeweed plant, in order to examine the herbal literature and lore for any clues as to its use vis-a-vis slugs and snails. It is most evident in such an examination that there is an incredible divergence of opinion on pokeweed. While an enormously high opinion is held by some herbal experts, an equally low opinion is expressed by others, focusing especially on the toxic or outright lethal poisonous properties of pokeweed. From one source we learn that “Pokeweed is a strong-smelling perennial herb. The plant is from 3 to 12 feet tall, bears smooth, entire leaves and long racemes of small berries which ripen in the fall. The young shoots and seedlings are often harmful. The root is very poisonous. The deep crimson juice, formerly used to tint wine or preserves, also has poisonous qualities… The use of pokeweed as rural medicine has been wholly abandoned because of many poisonings.”3 As an aside, I note that ripe berries can be found on the pokeberry plant much earlier than the fall season, as they have been harvested in Woolwine as early as June.
On the other hand, another reference makes no mention of any poisonous properties in an entry covering more than a page, and says, “The root is the part used as a medicine, but the tender leaves are excellent for greens for the dinner table. Especially in the early spring, they are eaten by many people for the purpose of toning up the whole system.”4 Needless to say, one needs to be careful not to believe everything one reads when it comes to herbs. From the comprehensive Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, the toxicity is described as follows: “The FDA classifies this as an herb of undefined safety, adding that it ‘contains an acidic steroid saponin. Emetic action is slow but of long duration. Narcotic effects have been observed.’ It has been employed internally in chronic rheumatism but is not therapeutically useful and is no longer prescribed. Overdoses have sometimes been fatal, Because poke is mitogenic, handlers should wear gloves. The proteinaceous mitogen PWM may produce blood cell abnormalities when absorbed. Dust of the dried root irritates the eye and induces sneezing. The roots and seeds are especially toxic, due to triterpene saponins (especially phytolaccigenin).”5
It should be apparent that use of any part of the pokeweed plant for any purpose should be approached with caution. The botanical name, Phytolacca, is based on the Greek words, phyton (plant) and lacca (crimson lake, a dye color).6 The reference states: “Pokeweed is indigenous to most of this continent (i.e., North America), growing in fairly rich soils in fence rows and the like, where it can remain undisturbed.”
In my own personal observations, pokeweed is one of the first plants to show up on disturbed soil, no doubt planted by birds, which seem to consume its fruit in substantial quantities as anyone who has cleaned pokeberry juice from the windshield of a vehicle can confirm. One of its common names is pigeonberry, and another is inkberry.7 Less well known names are garget, scoke, coakum, pocan, cancer jalap, American nightshade, red weed, and red ink plant.8 Some of these names no doubt derive from the various languages of the many natives who placed great reliance on the plant in their medical practices.
When examining the medicinal properties, actions, or uses of pokeweed, it seems to have been assigned a full range of attributes. One source, after describing it as “alternative, resolvent, deobstruent, detergent, antisyphilitic and antiscorbutic,” goes on to state, “best alterative known.”9 John Lust refers to it as “anodyne, cathartic”10, while Hoffman adds, “antirheumatic, stimulant, anti-catarrhal, purgative and emetic.”11
It has been used to treat a variety of ailments and diseases. One or more of the references listed at the end of this article lists the following for treatment by one part or another of the plant: rheumatism, hemorrhoids, gonorrhea, syphilis, renitis, arthritis, cancer, nervous fever, sores, swelling, boils, blood diseases, cramps, worms, sore breasts, stomach ulcers, dysentery, hard liver, biliousness, goitre, scrofula, eczema, growths and enlargements of the bone from injury, infections of the upper respiratory tract, cleansing of the lymphatic glands, tonsillitis, laryngitis, swollen glands, mumps, mastitis, scabies, erysipelas, burns, scalds, sciatica, pain in the lumbar area and who knows what else. The juice of the berries is particularly mentioned for liver problems rheumatism, and sciatica.
The purple fruit of the pokeberry and the reddish coloring of the stalk and stem would seem to give the plant a strong connection to the planets Mars and Saturn, while the white color of the flowers suggests a relationship to Jupiter.12 In other words, this plant appears to have a very strong connection to the outer planets of the solar system. The grape-like clusters of the fruit, as well as the massive root, suggest a strong cosmic influence in the plants, although the large leaves and succulent stems exhibit a very earthy appearance.
The hollow stalks and stems, exhibiting a tendency to invagination, point to a connection to the organ forming process in animals and humans. Although I have been unable to find the reference again, I seem to recall reading somewhere, possibly in Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’s work, that pokeweed was regarded as a particularly dynamic plant because it was one of the few herbaceous plants that bore flower, fruit, and seed simultaneously. The stalk so closely approaches the strength and size of a woody shrub that one wonders if somehow it sacrificed the possibility of becoming a shrub in order to hold back something elsewhere in the plant. Given the unusual size of the root structure, I would choose that area of the plant as the part that holds this formative force that would otherwise put the pokeweed into the category of woody shrub. As the reader can see, pokeweed definitely holds a certain fascination for me, and I will continue to contemplate the secrets it contains in hope of discovery.
If one looks at the snail and the slug, one almost inevitably connects them to the watery forces and to the Moon, and thus to the limestone forces. Given that arthritis and rheumatism are associated with calcium deposits in the body where they should not be, it is possible that the outer planetary, silica forces suggested above for pokeberry, act to counter or dissolve these deposits. In the same manner, perhaps the strong cosmic, silica forces of the pokeberry juice act to counter the watery, limestone manifestation one can see for the snails and the slugs. While all this is merely speculative thought on my part, I do believe that it offers a pathway to examine the operative energy that seems to make pokeberry juice a deterrent for slugs and snails.
If pokeberry juice and pine seed tea can be revealed to have safe and effective properties for controlling snails and slugs, it will probably depend on amateurs to discover this. The mainstream agricultural solution depends on chemical poisons, while the organic solution is mostly tedious and ineffective. Here at JPI, we offer what help we can to anyone who wishes to look into the possibility further.
Rudolf Steiner. Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture, trans. Creeger & Gardner, Kimberton, PA, Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening Assoc., Inc., 1993, p. 251.
E. and L. Kolisko. Agriculture of Tomorrow, 2nd edition, Bournemouth, England, Kolisko Archive Publications, 1978, p. 243.
B. Berglund and C. E. Bolsby. The Edible Wild, New York, NY, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1971, p. 180.
J. Kloss. Back to Eden, Santa Barbara, CA, Woodbridge Press, 1939, p. 298.
James A. Duke. Handbook of Medicinal Herbs, Boca Raton, FL, CRC Press, 1985 p. 367.
Nelson Cion. Using Plants for Healing, New ork, NY, Hearthside Press, 1963 p. 171.
John Lust. The Herb Book, Simi Valley, CA, Benedict Lust Publications, 1974 p. 317.
J. Kloss. Op cit.
May Bethel. The Healing Power of Herbs, North Hollywood, CA, Wilshire Book Company, 1977 p. 135.
Lust. Op cit.
David Hoffman, The Herbal Handbook: A User’s Guide to Medical Herbalism, Rochester, VT, Healing Arts Press, 1989 p.138.
Steiner. Ibid. pp. 37, 40.
