Hi everyone! I have my seedlings in a large room that is used to raise angelfish. There are scads of tanks, the temp is an even 70 degrees and it's nice and humid. I started most of my tomato seeds in flats that I put in a DIY greenhouse in the back of the room - they are doing great. Some others are on racks on top of tanks with no fish (just water) and they are doing great too. The flats at the front of the room near the window are the problem.
Before I started planting, I discovered that one of the pothos houseplants I was growing out was missing ALL of its leaves. The leaves were simply gone. I removed the plant (which was now just stems) from the room. Subsequently, I planted seeds for a number of things (collards, lettuce, broccoli, tomatoes, etc.) and about 98% of the seedlings are now devoid of leaves. Just pathetic little stems with no tops.
My first thought was "this looks like what a hornworm does to a tomato plant!". I searched high and low for the caterpillar culprit, but there was none. The ONLY bug I've seen in that area is a wasp. I can't fathom that a wasp is doing this. It's too cold for me to plant these things outdoors and I'm out of room in the rest of the room. Besides which, I'm afraid to move the 2% that DO have leaves to another place in the room.
It really doesn't seem to be some kind of disease, it's GOT to be that something is eating them. Any ideas? I'm so frustrated that I have to re-seed, especially since some of my seeds were from trades and I don't have any more. Any help or suggestions will be much appreciated.
Eileen
What's Eating my Seedlings?
Are they all planted in the same tray? Flat? Or? Is it just happening in 1 flat or whatever? Are the windows open? Did you have a frog in one of your fish tanks?
Have you tried moving them to a different location in the room? Try next to some of the containers that are doing good?
I've heard that mice will eat seedlings...is there any chance that you have a mouse in the house?
David
My first thought was Mice/Voles. I killed two Voles in my house this Winter. They were living off Soybean seeds I had saved, and dry dog food!
Set some mouse traps on the windowsill and see if that works. I purchased mouse traps from the local supermarket. I couldn't find them, but an employee knew where they were. Don't be squeemish about killing mice - they are destructive pests! One of the mice that I killed, chewed through the collars of two expensive jackets I had stored in my bedroom closet. I never did find where the other one hung out, but it was somewhere in my hubby's den because it knocked off a book end one night.
Do you think that a rodent would eat all the leaves off a pothos plant? Like eat them gone? No chewed up leaves, no nothing. I can move them to another location, but I'm worried that the flats might carry something over with them. There are about 6 flats that have been eaten. All side by side. There are no open windows. No frogs. It's really confounding me.
mevnmart - hungry mice will eat ANYTHING! Try putting some crackers or cereal on the windowsill to see if they disappear. Mice especially like things that contain grain.
You need one of those trail cameras to put on that area at night. Do you have one or know someone who does? They are infra-red so they show up at night and they are motion sensitive so they will come on when something shows up. The cheapest one is around $40 which is kind of expensive just to watch some seeds but if you had more uses for one- - - - - -However, 6 flats of plants isn't cheap either.
My first thought was mice as well. Look around for mouse droppings, usually along the bottom of a wall where it meets the floor. Even one mouse has to go sometime......And just one mouse could easily do all that. Traps are better than poison, IMHO, and I usally use peanut butter or cashues for bait. I've also tried those gadgets one plugs into an outlet and they are supposed to send some sort of frequency through the wires in the house (I'm not really sure how they work). I got a couple at Farm and Fleet years ago for our shop. They did seem to work, but only for a short while. I haven't tried the gadgets on southern mice.
Mice ate my entire flat of tomato seedlings last year. Watered them in the evening, then when I went to turn the lights on in the AM, they wer GONE. The whole entire plant - roots and all. I also think they would travel to the rest of the room FAST, not just eat the leaves off plants in one area.
The stems are still sticking up, so it's just the leaves that are gone. And plants about 4 feet away on a different rack are unaffected.