Do you have rabbits, deer, even woodchucks by chance. i have planted some lupins and tiger lilies. The lupins are now a thing of the past and the tiger lilies have seen a lot better days.

Linda

Netwiz,
Maybe cutworms? I've seen a few of them in my neck of the woods. Even had one in my jugs!!
-B

I noticed the same thing in a couple of my plantings. The seedlings are so small! I think it's very very small animals having a nice fresh meal. Very annoying! I wonder if waiting until they're bigger would help at all. I do have some leftover seedlings I can replace them with. Hope you do too.

Pill bugs can wipe out seedlings in no time. Sorry to hear of your losses,I hope you have many more successes! :)

Animals could very well be the problem in my home gardens. We live in the woods and battle deer and squirrels every year. The sprouts I planted out in my mother's garden are another story. I'll have to check around for cutworms or maybe slugs? I don't have replacements for all of the sprouts but can replant some of them. Just very disappointing to have it happen 2 years in a row... in different settings no less.

Joanne

agirlsgirl - We must have posted at the same time. I've seen a lot of pill bugs while moving rocks around in my gardens. I had no idea they could eat the sprouts. Anyone know how to get rid of them?

Joanne

I haven't found anything that isn't chemical to get rid of them so far. I have been dumping water with a few drops of dish soap in it where they are most commonly found,I haven't seen too many,but than again it is still early. I have lost many seedlings to these little monsters! They leave no evidence behind. Deer and other mammals will leave some sort of clue that they were there, as well as slugs,but pill bugs they come like thieves in the night and can go undetected. I was shocked the first time I seen them going at my seedlings. I have decided to never use pesticides in my gardens again. So if I find something that works I will post it. Good Luck! :)

Birds can also destroy them. I have a lot of trouble with squirrels too. It is such a disappointment to lose them after babying them along.

I noticed that slugs got some of my babies. I just put out slugbait. The babies were little, but looked healthy. Now they're jus little stems.

(sigh) slugs & snails? The bane of my whole gardening existence. They've mowed through my morning glories this week... only 2 seedlings left so far. Another way that I lose seedlings is from the local cats using my beds as a litterbox... they scratch around and I lose lots. Slug bait is one thing to try if you think it's them, and for the cats I put big plastic netting over the beds to keep them off til the plants get established.

If I have anything treasured I put bird netting over it while plant establishing itself. Too many possibles- cats, rabbits, squirrels, etc

Menthol,like Icy hot on a cotton ball discourages Kitties,they dont like it and Gramma has had good luck keeping the strays off her porch using this method.

I've thought about using netting for my containers to keep the squirrels out but the gardens are just too big for that. I wonder if putting the 2 liter lids over them will help? I'm going to redo the memorial garden this weekend and just pray for the best.

Joanne

If you got rocks....like I do and/or garden ornaments and mulch that earwigs, slugs and pillbugs can camp out under during the day then you'll have them. Also if you dont have a nice population of ground beetles who prey on all 3 pests to keep them in check under those circumstances it's inevitable.
I have a few around too, but not as much as I did before I stopped laying down mulch too heavy before June 10th. I will lay a little down around stuff like greens, lettuce and tomatoes to keep the soil off, but that's it until the rest of the planted out stuff are big enough to survive attacks. The benefit too this is that the bigger part of the population are going to seek out better habitat elsewhere or get ate by birds or dry up in the sun and heat. The other benefit is warming the soil :D

You may have found the culprit Vera! My brother mulched the memorial garden heavily before I even had a chance to plant out. He is maintaining the gardens now that my mother has passed and wanted to get an early start. I should push all of the mulch aside for now and see if new sprouts do any better. Thanks!

Joanne