Grrrr is right.

I was so good this year and kept my sunflower pots covered until my sprouts were literally knocking the covers off. In previous years the robins would come eat the seeds out of the soil. I finally planted the seedlings in the ground this week - and the woodchuck came out of hiding and ate them all. The darn bugger.

With me it's chickens eating seedlings in cups on the porch and taking dust baths in my zinnia bed ... I've planted the zinnias three times ... might not have any this year, though I can't imagine summer without zinnias ...

PV you should be fine starting seeds now and have a good bloom time before winter sets in.

Did you know that 4 o'clocks make a tuber that you can take out of the pot and store for the winter? Gives you a heads up on growth for next year. Just pot them up in the spring, cover them as if they where WS seeds, and outside with them. Presto. leaves on the tuber and blooms earlier than with seeds and a lot harder for those starlings to ruin too.

Pixie lou, you should be able to start more sunflower seeds now and get them to bloom. just don't know how to help you with the darn woodchuck. Have had my share of problems with them too as well as the darn chipmunks and they do a number on the plants as well.

Fran

Doggone something here too, I think it's the Robins! I planted about a dozen nice winter-sown Sunflowers, Mammoth Grey stripe, Mammath Russian, and Lemon Queen. I know Sunflowers are critter magnets, so I sprinkled some Slug Magic and some Critter Ridder around the seedlings. Go out 2 days later - all but 2 are pulled out and laying on the soil! Huh? So I immediately sowed some seeds. Well, all seedlings have been chopped off (cutworms?) or pulled out.

Ack, I had visions of big lush sunflower heads with lots of birds eating seeds. Guess I won't be able to grow Sunflowers unless I put a fortress around them like Fort Knox.

At least they left the Tithonia alone, so I transplanted those around a bit to fill the empty space.

"all but 2 are pulled out and laying on the soil".

If the entire seedling is pulled out, roots and all but no real damage to the seedling itself, it sounds more like skunks than any other critter.

Skunks are known for pulling out new or fairly newly planted seedlings. They are looking for insects in the ground, especially in your garden beds and they dig in the soil for them. They appreciate the loosened soil that you created when you planted your seedlings and will go there first looking for their food.

You should be able to replant those pulled out seedlings and they will do fine, if the other critters leave them alone.

"So I immediately sowed some seeds. Well, all seedlings have been chopped off (cutworms?) or pulled out."

That sounds classic damage from chipmunks who just love fresh new seedlings to "feast on" and will chomp off the tops of sunflowers as soon as they find them. They are full of sap and a favorite of them.
When the sunflowers make it to about 3 feet, and have a much thicker stem, then they are the preferred choice of the groundhog/chipmunk, who will obtain liquid from the stems.

Been there, done that for almost 30 years now, and have yet to be able to successfully grow very many sunflowers because of the groundhogs and chipmunks.

Again the pulled out seedlings are no doubt the work of your resident skunks.

Fran

Grrrrr is right. I am sorry, PV. I thought I was the only one with bird problems.
My lettuce & baby Chinese Broccoli got pecked to the stump before I got wise and put netting over the veg. bed.

Whoaa... if it's chipmunks! They gang up on you and get hostile!

Thanks Fran - skunks and chipmunks sounds quite feasible! I haven't seen a skunk lately, but there are chipmunks running around everywhere. Unfortunately I didn't discover the seedlings until they were toast. :( I am going to cage the sunflower seedlings next year.

Then there's the squirrel/chipmunk that dug up one of the Hazelnut seedlings, to eat the nut which was still attached! That was toast too.

Then a deer tromped through the back garden the other night and stepped on my brand new Cimicifuga 'Hillside Black Beauty'!

Guess the critters are doing a little damage, but it could be worse.

Something has been digging up my at Aremeria seedlings and leaving them on top of the soil. I blame birds too, though it could be something else. We've never seen skunks around here, but we do have plenty of squirrels, voles, and chipmunks. I've stuck some of the armeria back in the soil 2 or 3 times, but they keep being plucked out. I think it's birds.

Those seedlings aren't looking too good now...

Karen

A feral cat got under my mobile home, under the belly cloth and into the insulation to have her babies. Now the kittens are getting into everything, but the funniest darn thing was the one who decided to make a hiding spot out of the middle of my veronica. I only have one plant in a tub but it is huge, so I had to chase the kitten today and tie up the veronica in the hopes of discouraging her/him. They are the only potential plant destroyers around here. I'm trying to socialize them and also the mother so I can get them a home and have her spayed.

Oh, and the bird who built a nest in my crabapple tree is a Catbird...they all just love me.

I don't mind having a neutered feral cat around, in fact she can live on my enclosed porch in the winter, just because she is keeping my house protected from the field mice which I despise.

New York birds aren't afraid of Gracie?

Mary

I often find seedlings in my garden and pots that have been dug up by those blankety, blank squirrels. To deter them in pots or some seedlings in the garden I place plastic knives around the seedlings. They need to be close enough that the squirrels can't dig around them. Once the plants are bigger I pull out the knives. The plastic knives don't hurt the squirrels, just make it inconvenient to dig.

Birds will also pull out and eat bean seedlings.

I bet the birds think your balcony is a picnic in the sky, pv.

fran - i started a few more seeds and they are up! plus - i found two reseeds in one of my clematis pots - putting out true leaves now. from famine to feast!

mary - gracie chitters at them and runs from window to window, but those birds know she can't get to them. these city birds are slick.

mnwsgal - i really don't mind the birds, if they leave my plants alone. but those darned starlings seem to think i grow just for their use .....

all's well that ends well - i'll have my 4 o'clocks again this year. they were the stars last year, even back in the corner where i shoved them.

PV

Okay, my last 2 holdouts, some WS Sunflower 'Lemon Queen' seedlings, have been pulled out. :(

Upon further thought, it is definitely not skunks, there is no sign of digging and they are just pulling up my Helianthus annuus, NOT the Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower) which is in the same bed. Something targeted the Sunflowers! I think it's a dang Robin, for some reason those crazy birds don't want seed Sunflowers growing in the garden. Maybe it's because they attract a lot of competitors when the seed is ripe?

Apparently the Robins are lording over the back garden this year. They are nesting here, and constantly hopping around picking worms and bugs. They LOVE it when I turn the soil, mulch, dig in the wood chip pile, etc. and expose a bunch of fat juicy worms.