If you are pretty sure it is birds, try some bird netting over the tomatoes. It worked very well when I had some magpies that were pretty persistent about getting into my seedlings that I was hardening off.

Betsy

Could be mice as well, since it is their style to sheer off small plants. However, it's been my experience that they will drag the parts they take to "hiding places", such as underneath bushes or wood chips.

You generally don't find them in open areas, but they will run along the foundations of a house, for example, or along fence walls or along rows of bushes -- anywhere they are not too exposed to predators.

One way to tell is to set out some small (4 to 6-inch or smaller) marigold plants and see if something comes along and sheers off the flowers. They also seem to like to gnaw off new guinea impatiens.

Anyhow, when I was hardening off tomato and pepper seedlings, I put them in dappled shade near the foundation of the house and found many of them cut down. Looked like someone came through with scissors and clipped them all off.

A few years back they did the same with marigolds, and I kept accusing my kids of cutting off the flowers. Later we found the marigold flowers under the bushes. Once the mouse was dispatched the devastation stopped. But there are always more mice and they don't stay away forever. :-)

This is just a suggestion. I've never seen birds get destructive with tomato plants. I know they will sometimes go after fruit, but seedlings are a different story. Rodents, on the other hand, are pretty much everywhere and they seem to enjoy lopping off seedlings.

Have you encountered any snakes lately? If so, that might also indicate that there are wee rodents about. Even the ubiquitous garter snake will go after young rodents.

Just a suggestion as to what the problem might be. Sorry about the loss of your plants. It is disappointing to lose plants after you put so much time and thought into them.

Yes, birds will do this. I have had starlings do this to my plants and they always snipped the stems of several inches above the dirt. Not sure what they are doing with them. I have either used something to cover the plants or I have hung reflective ribbon, foil, old cd's etc. on fishing line near the plants. The idea is anything shiny that spins in the wind.

Thanks, everyone. Since it could be cutworms, I'll be replacing the cutoff plants with new ones (larger and (sigh) more expensive) and immediately put cutworm collars on. Then since it could be birds, I'll be laying down bird netting over the bed - holding it up with a few tomato cages? When can I remove the netting?

I suspect it's not mice since this bed is in the middle line of the potager and far from the hiding places and protected runs that mice like. Too bad it's a fenced potager because if it were open, the local feral cats would make short work of the mice.

I tell ya, it's a jungle out there.

Carol

The bites are maybe 3-4" above the ground.

Not cutworms, they chomp them at soil level. But if you have had cutworms, by all means put a collar on them or a couple of toothpicks on each side of the plant.

Mice usually chomp them closer to the ground in my experience. So, I tend to think birds. You can put the bird netting over the cages, then remove it when the tomatoes get close to it. They are harder than hades to get out of the netting if they grow into it.

Once the plants get over a foot tall, the birds in my area leave them alone until the fruit starts to ripen, so you may want to keep the netting handy along with some way to suspend it over the tomatoes.

Good luck!

Betsy

Could be rabbits too...I think I have them and they bit off the okra plants too...but its a guess.

I have started using nylon netting from a fabric store--great stuff because the plants can't grow into it & it's tough for the rodents that tore holes in row covers. I also surrounded the plants with ground cayenne and put out whole dried hot peppers. Fierce rodent population this year!

I've had cutworm do it about 2 inches above ground. After replacing same area 2 times with same result.

Dug down about 8 inches, put a bunch of soil in a flat, and searched for him !

And there he was ! Enjoyed stepping on him......put in 4th plant, and that was that !

More than likely BIRDS! Along side my driveway, I planted 2 rows of peppers inter-spaced with marigolds and watched the birds, both Starlings & English Sparrows, cut off the pepper plant tops & pull the marigolds apart, leaving the remains scattered nearby. (setup hidden security cameras). A local farmer suggested whirly-gigs, I found some reflective mylar pinwheels at the grocery store, put out a few and that works OK long as the wind blows.
However, they ate down to a stem the ornamental dwarf purple variegated leaf peppers & still return to eat the buds when the wind dies down, but the others are now to large for them.

Had to use hidden cameras, eh?