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Vegetable Gardening

Someone's Eating my Corn Seeds!

16 years ago

Noticed this evening that my 2nd batch of corn seeds are sticking out of the ground and looks like they have been eaten. I planted some corn at the end of April and was dismayed to see only 3 stalks coming up.

So I planted some more yesterday. Well, we had two heavy quick rainstorms yesterday and today and I found the corn sticking on top of the ground. This evening I even found them broken into pieces. What does this mean? Is it the birds digging then picking them up? Or are the squirrels getting into the garden? Pls advise. Thanks!

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Comments (3)

organica
16 years ago
Whichever it is, the main thing is to prevent it - cover up your corn until the seedlings are up and growing and you will protect them. Floating row cover is probably the simplest way. I often do this when starting seeds that I know are attractive to birds or other garden visitors - I've had birds thin my beet seedlings for me in the past.
-O
Karen Pease
16 years ago
Around here, it's the squirrels and chipmunks who eat the corn. They love the stuff.

Never tried it, but if it's a real concern, I've heard about this to stop squirrels from eating edible bulbs: plant, then put down chicken wire. Squirrels can't dig through it, but the plants can grow up through it. When they're big enough, you can remove it.
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we put a ton of fertilizer as we tilled, we have sprinklers and in NY we have had good amount of rain. It appears sporadic. The past 5 years that we have been planting here the first year growing indian corn worked great. The second year indian corn chipmunks destroyed it. The 3rd sweet corn grew well some dead spots which we used as actor scare areas, the 4th was a hybrid sweet corn and it grew well last year Goliath silo corn grew well and this year so far looks a bit weak. The latest we planted was after the fourth of July and it was fine for October. I don't think we are late but just need to reseed open areas. Do you think more compacted dirt over the corn will work?
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Hey everyone, Something appears to be eating seeds in the greenhouse. Most of these seeds are in flats that are for microgreens. The only pests I've seen are some fungus gnats (trying to rid them with fly trap tape,some bonide organic spray, and reduction of watering) and ants (little tiny black ones, would these be doing it? They're crawling all over the soil). Someone suggested it might be birds... but it looks like whatever is eating it is shelling the poor seeds. Not sure a bird would/could do that... Here are some pics. Thanks in advance for any advice! shelled cilantro seed
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kubotabx2200
16 years ago
Lay rat traps baited with peanut butter.

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