Has that happened to anyone else? That is the first time this happened to me. I am dissapointed but I won't give up. Should I just buy the plants at this point??
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Brandywinegirl
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Cucumber Seedlings - Now You See Them, Now You Don't
I planted my cuke seeds and was so happy to see them come up out of the ground. Then, the next day - nothing! I thought I was hallucinating!! Has that happened to anyone else? That is the first time this happened to me. I am dissapointed but I won't give up. Should I just buy the plants at this point??
Has that happened to anyone else? That is the first time this happened to me. I am dissapointed but I won't give up. Should I just buy the plants at this point??
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Brandywinegirl
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That happened to me today, Brandywinegirl.
We had some unseasonably cold weather about 7 days ago. I got the plants in after it warmed a little and today - some of them are gone! I suppose, I might be able to find a root or something. I don't remember rabbits eating cucumbers!
I'm pretty sure it was the rabbit. He has been cleaning us out of kale and cabbage plants.
Cukes are probably the Cucurbitaceae where I gain the least by setting out plants. Still, all of the melons and squash, even the pumpkins were started in the greenhouse and set out. It gives just a little head-start to the season. I suppose that I get about 2 weeks jump with a 3 week old plant. Transplanting probably sets them back several days.
If you have a rabbit in the neighborhood, you might want to figure that it was him disappearing your cucumbers. Buying plants will only give you a little head start and it might be that Benjamin Bunny is just waiting for you to do that. No guarantee that he won't be around when seeds germinate again too but it would be a few days off.
Can you provide some protection for your cucumber hills? I grow quite a few plants and it would be a pain to "cage" them. There are still several plants out there and ~ I won't even follow my own advice ~ there are a few extras still in containers so I may as well see if he might miss those. Here is Wishing us both Luck!
Steve
We had some unseasonably cold weather about 7 days ago. I got the plants in after it warmed a little and today - some of them are gone! I suppose, I might be able to find a root or something. I don't remember rabbits eating cucumbers!
I'm pretty sure it was the rabbit. He has been cleaning us out of kale and cabbage plants.
Cukes are probably the Cucurbitaceae where I gain the least by setting out plants. Still, all of the melons and squash, even the pumpkins were started in the greenhouse and set out. It gives just a little head-start to the season. I suppose that I get about 2 weeks jump with a 3 week old plant. Transplanting probably sets them back several days.
If you have a rabbit in the neighborhood, you might want to figure that it was him disappearing your cucumbers. Buying plants will only give you a little head start and it might be that Benjamin Bunny is just waiting for you to do that. No guarantee that he won't be around when seeds germinate again too but it would be a few days off.
Can you provide some protection for your cucumber hills? I grow quite a few plants and it would be a pain to "cage" them. There are still several plants out there and ~ I won't even follow my own advice ~ there are a few extras still in containers so I may as well see if he might miss those. Here is Wishing us both Luck!
Steve
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Brandywinegirl
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I had a row of carrot sprouts disappear like that, and it was katydids. Bright green, leaf shaped bugs, and when they find something they like they eat ALL of it just like that. I was a preschool teacher at the time, and my students were so disappointed. So if you are going to replant, and protect them from rabbits and such, you may try guarding against bugs too.
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PunkRotten
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Kill em all!
Is your garden fenced in? If so then you can do the process of elimination...
My main garden is all fenced in so the main thing I need to watch for is birds and bugs, but. I do have raised beds outside my garden that's free Pickens to any rabbit or deer that wants to laugh at me and eat my vegetables...
If you do suspect its a rabbit you could always put it down or a non lethal method would be to live trap it and move it far away from your land, hopefully Mr rabbit doesn't have a wife and kids!
Is your garden fenced in? If so then you can do the process of elimination...
My main garden is all fenced in so the main thing I need to watch for is birds and bugs, but. I do have raised beds outside my garden that's free Pickens to any rabbit or deer that wants to laugh at me and eat my vegetables...
If you do suspect its a rabbit you could always put it down or a non lethal method would be to live trap it and move it far away from your land, hopefully Mr rabbit doesn't have a wife and kids!
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Brandywinegirl
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rainbowgardener
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I think rabbits, woodchucks, etc leave some traces when they eat stuff.
The time I had a whole crop of newly planted stuff just disappear it was cutworms.
https://organicgardening.about.com/od/pe ... tworms.htm
If it is cutworms, if you dig around in the soil near where your plants were, you may find some curled up waiting for you to plant more stuff to feed them.
The time I had a whole crop of newly planted stuff just disappear it was cutworms.
https://organicgardening.about.com/od/pe ... tworms.htm
If it is cutworms, if you dig around in the soil near where your plants were, you may find some curled up waiting for you to plant more stuff to feed them.
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applestar
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you may find some curled up waiting for you to plant more stuff to feed them.
I haven't seen many this year -- mostly finding one or two when I pull up overgrown weeds wholesale to prep a bed. I put them in the birdbath and by the time I go back to out more in, they've disappeared.
-- I should out up a sign "A Meal and A Bath"
Community garden? Ground hogs?
We have marmots (Marmota caligata), the cousin to the ground hog (Marmota monax) and I had a community garden on park land for 6 years. A marmot seems content to eat lawn grass but then learns to eat other things
.
I arrived at the community garden its 3rd year and stayed thru its final season. We had generous plots and each of us put up chicken fencing to keep the marmots out. If you leave the top of the fencing unattached to the post, it is "floppy" and the marmot has problems climbing in. Burying the fencing helps to keep them from digging in. Still, I had seen a marmot in every garden by the end of most seasons.
One gardener put up a nasty little sign accusing the marmots of stealing things. I doubt that it caused any embarrassment to the thief
.
Early on, I seemed to be able to grow most anything there. Once some of the plants matured a little, the marmot didn't seem interested in them. Slowly, however, the marmots learned that any and all the garden plants were tasty! When they began eating the onions, I knew I had reached the end. The parks department had no takers for their community garden after that year. We had all learned that a policy that didn't allow us to even "harass" the wildlife had made guarding out gardens impossible.
Steve
We have marmots (Marmota caligata), the cousin to the ground hog (Marmota monax) and I had a community garden on park land for 6 years. A marmot seems content to eat lawn grass but then learns to eat other things
.I arrived at the community garden its 3rd year and stayed thru its final season. We had generous plots and each of us put up chicken fencing to keep the marmots out. If you leave the top of the fencing unattached to the post, it is "floppy" and the marmot has problems climbing in. Burying the fencing helps to keep them from digging in. Still, I had seen a marmot in every garden by the end of most seasons.
One gardener put up a nasty little sign accusing the marmots of stealing things. I doubt that it caused any embarrassment to the thief
.Early on, I seemed to be able to grow most anything there. Once some of the plants matured a little, the marmot didn't seem interested in them. Slowly, however, the marmots learned that any and all the garden plants were tasty! When they began eating the onions, I knew I had reached the end. The parks department had no takers for their community garden after that year. We had all learned that a policy that didn't allow us to even "harass" the wildlife had made guarding out gardens impossible.
Steve
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mattie g
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I feel your pain!
I had a bunch of cucmber seedlings cut off at the knees this year - they were both in the ground and in planters. I haven't seen cutworms around, but the damage looked very typical of the description of cutworm damange. I replanted about 10 days ago and everything seems to be doing OK now (knock on wood). By the time the first true leaves starting growing well I feel like I'm out of the woods.
Like jal said - cuckes grow quickly in the warm weather, so you shouldn't miss out too much if you go ahead and replant now.
I had a bunch of cucmber seedlings cut off at the knees this year - they were both in the ground and in planters. I haven't seen cutworms around, but the damage looked very typical of the description of cutworm damange. I replanted about 10 days ago and everything seems to be doing OK now (knock on wood). By the time the first true leaves starting growing well I feel like I'm out of the woods.
Like jal said - cuckes grow quickly in the warm weather, so you shouldn't miss out too much if you go ahead and replant now.
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TheWaterbug
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I lost a bunch of squash and melon seedlings as well. I put a cage around them, but that didn't help. From that I sorta concluded that it was probably a flying insect. So I put a sheet of Agribon (row cover) over the cage and just buried the edges with soil so it was completely enclosed.
After two weeks of that, they'd grown large enough that I could take the Agribon off, and now they just grow faster than the bugs can eat 'em.
After two weeks of that, they'd grown large enough that I could take the Agribon off, and now they just grow faster than the bugs can eat 'em.