Beheaded!

Tuesday, 26 Aug 08 (posted about 4 months ago) Overcast 23°C / 73°F

I was outside picking tomatoes a bit ago, and noticed that my red orach transplant is gone! I looked more closely, and it’s not gone, but it was cut off just below the first leaves. A tiny naked stem is still poking up out of the dirt. I’m going to leave it there to see if something will regrow from it.

What could have done this? Slugs maybe? It might be time for me to buy copper wire to put around my bed.

Want to comment?

Nax wrote:
Eek! For some reason, I’ve been really into tracking this plant of yours, no idea why as I have never heard of a red orach before. Something about the name just struck me. Hope it comes back! Maybe upend a sieve over it to protect the sprout?

Posted on 27 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)
Janietta wrote:
That sounds like it could be rabbits or groundhogs or the Red Queen. Does it look like it has been broken or snipped off?

Botheration! I hate when that happens.

Posted on 27 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)
Srats56 wrote:
Sounds like cutworms, they got to my radishes very early on.

Dipple dust is what worked for me, they feed at night by wrapping around the stem and cutting it off. If ya look after dark with a flaslight you can see them, during the day they stay an inch or so below soil level.

Dipple dust is cheap and effective kills them all in one or two days.

Posted on 27 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)
Katxena wrote:
@nax: That’s a good idea, I’ll try it. I do have several additional seeds planted around this little transplant that have sprouted, and they appeared unharmed by whatever happened to the transplant. So I’m hoping that they will be ok, or at least that I can save them.

I was attracted to it by the name. I like things with odd or unusual names.

Posted on 27 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)
Katxena wrote:
@Strats56, I’m not sure that it’s cutworms. The little stump of stem that’s left is about 1/4 inch tall, which seems kinda’ high for a cutworm. But I’m going out in the dark right now to look.

Posted on 27 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)
Katxena wrote:
You know, I think it’s very likely a rabbit. I chased a baby rabbit out of the yard over the weekend. It seems odd that only this little plant would have been damaged, because it’s planted in the midst of several other little sprouts. But who can predict what a rabbit’s going to eat?!

Posted on 27 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)
Cmagnus wrote:
Baby rabbits are attracted to bright colours. It couldn’t resist the shiny red plant. ;)

I doubt anything will grow from the stem if the first leaves are gone. I think that for most plants, they have particular spots where leaves are prone to develop from, and they can’t just make new ones. So, along stems higher up you often have stretches of smooth skin that might have the capacity to become leaves/branches, sort of like some plant analog of stem cells. They haven’t differentiated into upright stem so they could still turn into leaves or sideways stems. But I wouldn’t think there’d be anything like that below the first leaves. Of course, that is just conjecture.

That said, I don’t know why you’d bother to take it out. It will be pretty small and even if it can’t grow new leaves it should eventually decompose without interfering with other plants. You could just stick another seed in the soil a cm or two from the first stem and ignore it. If they both turn into plants, you can thin them.

Posted on 27 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)
Katxena wrote:
I went outside with a flashlight and didn’t see any cutworms. I did find a beheaded corn salad plant though. It was cut the same way, although one pair of leaves was left.

I’ve seen rabbits around my development a lot, but I’ve never had a problem with them. Looks like that’s over. If this continues I’ll have to put up some kind of barrier. Sadly, I know that my neighbor who also has a veggie garden has had rabbit problems and that he kills them. I have no idea how because I ended the conversation fairly quickly after he told me that.

Posted on 28 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)
Wenjomatic wrote:
Well you’re growing all those delicious leafys now… they are going to like you more and more I bet. ;) I hope you can find a solution, and yes, one better than your neighbor’s.

Posted on 28 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)
Vera Marie wrote:
The problem with wildlife is they’re so untameable. I love to watch the deer, rabbits and squirrels in my neighborhood. If only they would leave my stuff alone. I know some of my habits actually encourage them, but they are just so darned cute. So I struggle with enjoyment of nature and cursing them for doing what comes naturally.

BTW, am I the only one who pictured Farmer MacGregor with a hoe and a rabbit slipping out of a blue jacket when Katxena mentioned her neighbor?

Posted on 28 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)
Cmagnus wrote:
Have you tried the pepper spray on the seedlings? Unfortunately it will need to take a bite to realize it shouldn’t be eating them, but if everything in your garden burns his mouth, maybe he’ll move on.

Posted on 28 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)
Nax wrote:
We had terrible problems with rabbits last year. They seemed particularly attracted to sprouts of peppers, tomatoes and beans. My solution was to put the toms and peppers in containers, up off the ground, and netting over the bean sprouts (which creates its own problems). This seemed to work, although now we haven’t seen nearly as many rabbits as over the past 2-3 years. Have you had rabbit destruction in the past? Here in Chicago West Nile killed all the crows about 4-5 years ago; we were speculating that the rabbit population exploded because the crows weren’t there to eat the baby bunnies anymore. Now we’ve got coyotes (!) filling the crow niche, and the rabbit population went back down. So maybe this problem will solve itself?

Posted on 28 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)
Katxena wrote:
@cmagus, I haven’t tried the pepper/garlic spray, but I will do that. I have the last of the peppers in the fridge right now.

@Nax, my previous backyard gardens have all been in containers, and I didn’t have rabbit problems. But I have had rabbit issues in the front – they eat my flower bulbs when they sprout in the spring. I usually have so many bulbs that the bit of loss isn’t a problem, but it’s still a loss.

I don’t get along well with the neighbor that killed the rabbits. We’ve had property line encroachment issues with him, as well as disagreements about how tall to let our grass get between mowings (him: 1/4 inch, me: 5 inches – I don’t complain about him, but he keeps turning me into the home owners association. We’re allowed 12 inches for crying out loud), his occasional and unsolicited applications of miracle grow to my plants (dumped on their leaves no less!), and so on. And the rabbit thing. Thank god my cats don’t go outside!

Posted on 28 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)
Cmagnus wrote:
Wow, that’s out of line.

Posted on 28 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)
Srats56 wrote:
If it were cutworms the rest of the stem would be on the ground as well, cutworms do climb the plant, when they got my onion and radish, the stems were cut a 1/2 inch or so above the ground but the cut portion was left. It looked like a mini chainsaw had gone thru with limbs on the ground next to the stumps.So in your case prob is not cutworms I don’t think.

Your neighbor sounds like a real nice guy, seems every neighborhood has one though.

Posted on 30 Aug 08 (about 4 months ago)