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What pest is uprooting my peas?
Several pea rows - in different areas of raised beds - have suffered massively from this kind of uprooting. Does it look familiar to anyone; any idea what's the culprit?
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Thanks Applestar. Birds seem likely - good thought about mistaking the shoots for worms - although I wonder why they would have suddenly "discovered " our address . Been growing peas for years and never till now had this problem. Maybe I'll try a new trial row, with protection. But the planting was cunningly timed - haha - so they wouldn't mature while we're away on holiday.
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On further thought, maybe a lot of the sprouts had been eaten - very few plants came up (or were left?) in the rows and most of the visible ones looked to have been pulled up as in the photo.
In any case I've seeded a couple of new rows under plexiglass covers, raised a bit for ventilation. Hope it doesn't get too hot in there.
In any case I've seeded a couple of new rows under plexiglass covers, raised a bit for ventilation. Hope it doesn't get too hot in there.
I looked at the picture for a few minutes and everything kinda seems to be laying to the left. Has there been excessive winds? I know it's been really windy here the past week or so. Soil looks a bit loose and crumbly, so maybe a strong wind pulled them out....
Maybe small vermin too, squirrels or something.
Maybe small vermin too, squirrels or something.
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Thanks butterfly & kweb;
kweb, are you a detective in real life? "All laying to the left ...." Good suggestion but we only very occasionally have significant wind here and not recently. Critters? There are cats around but would they do this? Rabbits here too and they can do great damage but I don't think they can get onto my raised beds; I have netting that almost certainly stops them, otherwise more than the peas would have suffered. No squirrels I think - probably because of the cats. Thanks for the suggestions meantime.
kweb, are you a detective in real life? "All laying to the left ...." Good suggestion but we only very occasionally have significant wind here and not recently. Critters? There are cats around but would they do this? Rabbits here too and they can do great damage but I don't think they can get onto my raised beds; I have netting that almost certainly stops them, otherwise more than the peas would have suffered. No squirrels I think - probably because of the cats. Thanks for the suggestions meantime.