If you can see the craters of pulled up plants, obviously it won't be slugs. At any rate, just going through the garden at 10pm with a flashlight will give you an exact count of your slugs (their mucus makes them shiny, and very easy to spot on the ground and in the foliage). Given the level of destruction, and lack of tracks, I vote for groundhogs. Remediation: 1) check around the perimeter for entry points at the base of the fence. My fence never really worked until I put down chainlink horizontally, 2 inches deep, and tied to the vertical fence. I was getting rabbits under the fence. 2) for those who try to go over the fence (including deer), electric fence a few inches below the top is the only solution. You only need to keep it up a few days. They will remember for the rest of their life. Search the site about electric fences.

Interesting setup. I do think you were a bit late and that your best bet is to carry on, covering the plants with row cover to get them through winter. Because the light supply is running short, growth will slow down a lot, and then the plants will start making progress again in Feb. Last winter a friend left some plants in his leaky unheated greenhouse and left town. They grew 4 feet tall and bore heavily in early spring.

I understand that leaving the egg-shells is meant to prevent disturbing the fine new roots of the seedlings, or damaging the stem while handling the seedling. In general a good idea, of course. If the egg-shells are cracked well before transplanting, the roots should have no trouble getting through, BUT: is the egg-membrane still in the shells? If you spoon the boiled egg out of its shell like I do for breakfast, or if you use the half of the shell that you crack in the middle for making an omelet, then the membrane will remain in the shell, if you don't clean it out carefully. Your seedlings might have trouble getting their roots through there. Did you ever check the dead seedlings for whether they managed to get their roots through the egg-shells? Having said all that, I never had a transplanted seedling die from root-damage when it is removed from its original pot, as long as I take care to leave all of the soil around the roots. So, I guess I agree with the previous posters: I think you should remove the shells when you transplant your seedlings, and then remove the newpaper pots for the next transplant. Best, Marcus

Was able to look at the link, great (yet discouraging) information. Will be checking out that site for other info, it's in my bookmarks, thanks carolb! Looks like even if I manage to keep the sprouts alive and bring them to harvest, the sprouts may not be great lol. If they struggle this much during the spring I can't imagine they will make it through the summer though. I'll stick with it until they keel over. I applied full shade for today, this morning everything seemed the same, no better no worse. Still haven't watered everything so as the soil dries we'll see if things improve. Silvia I am not big on collards but my wife is so I might give it a try. Trying to stay away from other crops that grow wide as I have a very small back yard and beds. However leaving it a dry wasteland is not helping anyone so might as well! :) I was at a farmers market last night and I was in a conversation with someone when I mentioned I lost half my garden in the last two days. Immediately at least 7 people turned towards us and said "Me too!!" so at least I'm not going crazy thinking it's me doing something wrong! The farmers said it's most certainly the heat, to apply shading and water frequently, same as suggested here on the forum. The shading is mostly done, holding off on watering until the soil gets back to normal from my overwatering. Even though I am not having much success I am having a blast experimenting and learning :) Today I'll be investigating some other stuff going on in my garden, will be posting separate forum threads on each rather than cluttering up this one. oldmangroot, carolb_w_fl, whgille and Silvia thank you for the feedback and making a rookie feel welcome :)