[Arid_gardener] Jerry - disappearing baby plants and seedgermination

[Dick Gross]

Genie, thanks for sharing your intelligent and novel approach. The paper tubes is a great idea. Remay paper clothe available from most nurseries is a good light but effective row cover. Grackle birds in my yard raise havoc scattering soil all over while totally destroying anything planted. Remay is the only method I've found to thwart them.

Dick Gross, MGV
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Genie 
  To: arid_gardener at CALS.arizona.edu ; jharter at cox.net 
  Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 3:46 AM
  Subject: [Arid_gardener] Jerry - disappearing baby plants and seedgermination



  Hi Jerry, 

  If you are certain that the seed is viable AND you have NOT planted them too deeply... 
  then here are a couple of possibilities: 

  1)  With all of that fresh compost and manure, you may have cutworms.  These nefarious little *&%$#@ chew up the emerging 
  seedling roots, and the baby plant dies.  To prevent this, save a few (spent) toilet paper/paper towel tubes. Wrap them in aluminum foil 
  inside and out, then cut them -- so they are approx 3" - 4".  Plant the seed, then push the toilet paper tube down approx 2" - 3" into 
  the soil -- essentially placing a barrier around your newly planted seed, so the cutworms cannot get at them.  Repeat this in several 
  sections of the raised bed, to see if cutworms are the problem. 

  2)  Another culprit could be birds.  Birds LOVE to eat seed.  I secretly suspect they use GPS technology - they know exactly where 
  gardeners plant seeds!  And, birds also LOVE to eat fresh baby sprouts.  Prevent these thieves from chewing up your seeds and/or 
  baby plants by loosely placing Reemay fabric (also known as "row cover") or cheesecloth (sold at Wal-Mart by the yard, cheap) 
  over the soil. Use rocks, 2X4 lengths of wood, or garden "staples" to keep the cloth from blowing away. 
  Keep everything covered for at least 7 days.  You can take a peek, if you wish.  Remember to lay the cloth loosely -- or the babies 
  will not have room to grow up.  

  (PS: This also works well in summer.  Hot, dry, days make germination tough -- because the top inch of soil dries out quickly -- 
  ruining the seed/germination.  Covering the newly planted area helps to conserve moisture as well as discouraging thieving birds.) 
    
  If these suggestions prove to be worthless, then there's likely a problem with the manure.  If manure is not composted properly, 
  it can contain pathogens and/or worms that kill baby seedlings.  It may also contain too much nitrogen or too much salt... both of which  
  will choke baby seedlings.  Let's NOT worry about this yet, Jerry.  First... try the suggestions above.  Feel free to write via email 
  if you have any questions. 

  Best Wishes and Kindest Regards,   Genie -- bug, bird, and worm warrior -- in Tucson  :-) 


Message: 1
Date: Sat, 4 Nov 2006 08:10:15 -0700 (MST)
From: jharter at cox.net
Subject: [Arid_gardener] Question from Home-Hort WWW page
To: <arid_gardener at Ag.arizona.edu>
Message-ID: <200611041510.kA4FAFHx014649 at Ag.arizona.edu>

Jerry Harter
85249
jharter at cox.net

Still looking for help!!  Tried replanting, got same results, either the plants came up and then disappeared overnight, or they didn't come up at all.  I have new seed, again, I added both compost and manure to my raised garden this fall, at least 6 inches worth, tried to work it in with the older material.  Have tried to add fertilizer, ammonium sulfate and ammonium phosphate.  Have tried to keep the soil moist, not real wet.  Same garden produced very well last year, wish now I had never added anything to it!!!!!


  

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