Sunflowers being eaten?

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pegpie Davis, CA Apr 13, 2008

I started some sunflowers from seed for the first time indoors and then planted them outdoors after they grew a few inches and had a couple leaves on them. The next day I checked on them and something had eaten off the leaves and left just a stem! One of them is growing new leaves but it seems something is eating whatever new leaf growth is on the other plant. Any ideas what's happening?

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) Apr 13, 2008

There are a number of possibilities, but my first suspect would be rabbits, try putting a wire cage over the seedlings and see if that helps. The other critter that likes to chew off small leaves are slugs/snails, but I've never had problems with them except in shady garden beds, and I'm assuming your sunflowers are in the sun. But if there's a shady patch nearby then they'd be a possibility too (they won't crawl over copper barriers, so if you can buy a strip of copper and make a barrier around your seedlings they won't cross it). There are some insects that could probably do that level of damage too, but I'd investigate the rabbits and snails first.

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pegpie Davis, CA Apr 27, 2008

Thanks! I think snails may have been the culprit. They are near some of my veggies and I have seen snails around there.

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WeeNel Ayrshire Scotland, United Kingdom Apr 27, 2008

It might help to cut the bottom off a large plastic juice bottle, remove the cap and place a bottle over each seedling till it grows enough to be able to stand the odd nibble or so, this idea acts as a mini greenhouse and also a slug/snail barrier , you need to water the plants around the root area but try avoid watering into the up turned bottle or you may cause rot/fungus etc to take hold, depending on the type of sunflowers you have, the larger ones are normally left alone once they grow firmer tougher leaves as the leave have hard hairs growing naturally on the underside as has the stems, and the slugs are incline to give up eating those. good luck. WeeNel.

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Dulcigarden Lowell, MA(Zone 6a) May 01, 2008

Do you happen to see squirrels around? I'm giving up on Sunflowers this year, because once they flower the squirrels have a feast on them in one single day. They leave the stalk but chew about all the leaves and flowers. At that point i have no other choice but to cut the whole plant.

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