My Treacherous Cat is Eating my Peas; also, some worries.

[Lucius_Junius]

I was weeding my chard today when my cat appeared next to me purring. A minute later I caught a sudden movement from the corner of my eye; turning, I saw my cat had swiped an entire pea sprout from the ground, was holding it up to his mouth with his paw, and chowing down. I chased him away and re-planted the little guy, but it's probably too late. I had a momentary impulse to plant the cat as well. I've had a devil of a time with peas going missing lately, and now I know my culprit.

On another note, I'm beginning to worry I cut my seed potatoes too small. It's been three weeks since I planted and I've only had a few plants come up. Mind, I planted them quite deep, maybe eight inches, but I still expected to see them coming up by now.

And one more thing. I'm having a re-occuring issue with plants sprouting very well, growing a couple weeks, and then falling over, the stem having grown week and atrophied where it enters the ground. It seems like this spot simply wilts away. Last year I lost about half of my brocolli to this. This year it doesn't seem as bad, but I've certainly had several turnip plants just keel over. Any ideas?

[mscratch]

how about introducing some store bought sugar peas to the cats diet? the only way I have found so far other than a fence is to put out small cups of household ammonia to deter the roaming cats and dogs but I don't have small kids etc that think its a drink! you may have not cut enough eyes in each section of potato which is a possibility. I see your location is quite northern which may account for the lack of of growth you see so far but not to worry they will come along.. I was wondering by reading one of the other posts that perhaps you have a mole tunneling through your various plant roots? or maybe you are watering a bit too much? or setting out the plants to early? kinda hard to determine what is going on without a pic... have you checked to see if the plants were snipped off at about ground level which would say cutworm to me..

[rainbowgardener]

No the issue with the pinched in stem at ground level and keeling over is probably "damping off," a fungal condition.

These threads:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=253641#253641

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39404

have pictures of what damping off looks like in seedlings. After that they end up flat on the ground.

Seedlings are most vulnerable to damping off when they are very young and in conditions of too much moisture and not enough air circulation. It is quite common in indoor growing seedlings, not very common outdoors, where there is usually plenty of air circulation. One person wrote in earlier this year with damped off seedlings that he was growing outdoors, but under row cover with constant drip irrigation.

Do yours look like the pictures? What kind of situation are they growing in?

[Lucius_Junius]

Those pictures of "damping off" show exactly what has been happening in my garden. We have a lot of fog this time of year, which may account for the excessive moisture. We've also had several days of rain at a time. I don't believe I've over-watered, since I can only remember watering twice since I planted a month ago; once when planting, and once after a week with no rain and lots of sun, when I found the earth around the plants dry when I stuck my finger in. This would explain why I lost so much brocolli last year, when I was almost certainly over-watering. I'm glad I've only lost a couple of turnips. I wish I would have started posting here when I screwed up my first attempts at gardening.

I'm probably concerned over nothing when it comes to the potatoes. I did make sure that every piece had several eyes, but some of those pieces may have been smaller than the recommended weight per piece. Also, I'll try using the cayenne pepper trip to keep the cat away. Marlingardener, thanks for the warning; one cat is enough

[Tonio]

Ammonia for cat/dog deterent- hmm I'll give that a try.

I use caynne powder, and the neighborhood cats don't even mind.

[Lucius_Junius]

A follow up; I'm seeing more potato plants pushing their way through now, which makes me feel better. Patience is a virtue.

[lorax]

On the kitty issue: mine are beet fiends, and I've found that by designating them their own little patch of chompables they'll leave the rest of the garden alone. Yes, you heard me right: my cats have their own garden.

[Nancydobs]

Two years ago I found all my bean plants (full of small beans and flowers) lying on their side one morning -- victims of cutworms I later learned. Last year I cut toilet paper rolls in half (into two equal rings) and put a ring over each tiny bean seedling, pushing it into the ground and leaving about 1/4 to 1/2 inch extending out of the ground. Just to add extra insurance, I sprinkled crushed egg shells into the collars. Did not lose even ONE bean plant and plan to do it again this year.

Regarding the potatoes, you may have just planted the pieces a little too deep. You can dig an 8" trench and cover the potatoes with just 4" of soil, wait til they have grown plants 8 to 12 inches tall, then cover those halfway up with the extra soil. Glad they're peeking out! I cut my pieces VERY small (one eye on each, some pieces as small as 1/2" by 1") and I get nice big potatoes. Bigger cut pieces yield more potatoes per plant, but of a smaller size. Either one seems good to me when I'm hungry!

I don't have a kitty, but my sweet Belgian Malenois buried a bone between my raised beds a week ago, digging right through the bark mulch and weed barrier and leaving a big ugly mess. The worst part? She had already dug it back up and was happily munching on the dirt-encrusted bone when I noticed the situation.