Squirrels and robins do the same thing to my newly planted sprouts. I dome them with the tops of my two liter bottles until the roots get established and the critters leave them alone.
I use a hole punch on the edge of the bottle and secure them with bamboo skewers.
Easy and cheap protection. There's something about fresh earth and tender seedlings that arouse curiousity...

From my understanding, not all seeds from a variegated parent will give variegated offspring. It's all random genetics. I've seen squirrels dig up and take the whole seedling.
I've been buying wire garbage cans from the dollar store, inverting them over my seedlings and putting a rock on top. I also find throwing a bit of debris (twigs etc.) around the planting are helps to not make the seedlings so evident (they seem to only dig up nice leveled soil)

Regarding the plant-out/leave-in-jug thing, I have had a similar experience. I was so excited to get things in the ground earlier, mainly because I know that if I buy plants from the nursery they always grow much faster once they're in the ground. I assumed getting my seedlings in the ground early would make them grow that much faster and it would be better for them health-wise. I know I was planting things out in early April. On top of that, it was exciting to see my number of jugs decrease and watch the garden get planted out.

Now I've changed my mind. Once the weather is warm (like it is now) the plants may grow better in the ground, but I think the jug provides them with warmer soil and protection during the very early days of spring. We had many warm days, but the nights were always very very cool with a few frosts mixed in, as well as many many NOT warm days. I think the seedlings in the ground kind of halted their growth while the ones in containers were able to warm up in those jugs during the day, retain some warmth at night, and grow healthier root systems faster. Next year I'm going to make myself wait to start planting out. Besides, the better the root system the better the chance of survival.

That makes so much sense, Deanna. I planted out some hollyhocks early because they were in a small container. They haven't done a thing in weeks. Meanwhile, the ones in the milk jug have gotten much bigger. Even though the jug was untaped they were probably warmer and more protected than the ones shivering in the garden.

Caryl

Sometimes plants that are variegated will produce offspring that aren't always the same and sometimes they will.
There isn't a lot that can be done to prevent that from happening.

The odds are the seedlings that are in the containers have grown larger for the following reason.

In the container there is only so much room for the roots to grow. Seeds germinate and start to grow upwards and send their roots down below and into the soil.

Those seeds push for root development in the containers until they reach a certain point and then they don't go any further because of lack of room. So the stems start growing taller and faster, as that is where the energy is put when the roots start thinking they don't have enough room to grow anymore in the containers.

When you transplant the seedlings into your garden beds, it's perfectly normal for the plants to appear stagnated and not growing for several weeks. We all see that happen.

BUT,

Those seedlings that you transplanted are growing very, very quickly under ground. They are setting their roots, growing huge, healthy root systems and putting their energy into that first.
The way one has healthy plants is with health large root systems and WS seedlings put their energy into the root system first before starting to really grow above the soil line.

It won't take much longer before you see those seedlings start to shoot up and catch the store bought size plants and go beyond that very quickly.

And, when those store bought plants start to peeter out, your WS seedlings will be going strong and looking beautiful.

Now with your missing seedling problem, it sounds like you just might have more than one critter problem going on.

Holes left where the seedling was planted is an indication that you have skunks enjoying your hard work and loosening soil to plant seedlings.

Skunks dig in the dirt for bugs to eat and you made their work easier by loosening soil when you planted seedlings.

Usually you will find the seedlings and plants right beside the hole you put them in and not harmed because skunks don't eat the plants.

If you have lots of chipmunks around, they eat the plants, sometimes right where you planted them and sometimes they will take the loose plant that you just planted and take off with it right across your yard and enjoy it elsewhere.

If it is skunks that dug the seedlings out to dig for bugs, then they made life ore pleasurable for the chipmunks and easer for them to just go off with the entire small seedling.

It also could be bunnies dragging off the dug up seedlings as well.

Sometimes chipmunks will dig up a newly planted seedling, but they make a messy job of it and you can usually tell.

Skunks, on the other hand, are very neat with their work and go right straight for the softly dug soil and make it look like you dug the hole and not the skunk.

Hope this helps

Fran

Fran, your post was very helpful. I'm glad my seedlings are developing strong roots and not just in shock from the cold days. I really appreciate your post because I love knowing WHY things happen. The details of how the plants establish coordinating with cold has bugged me.

As for critters, everybody should get a big dog. She actually killed a weasel here the other day, first time I've seen one. The weasel would have been helpful getting rid of other critters, but I was still impressed. She keeps us free of mice, moles, voles, and the occasional rabbit. We have plenty of woods around us for those critters to inhabit, so I'm happy for my garden to be off limits, especially to the voles.

If only she could hunt and kill ticks.

Deanna, ditto the dog thing. When we moved in we had a number of groundhogs far out in the back yard. I planted a garden and didn't fence it, but never lost anything. We had a great dane at the time. He was old, but his presence kept them from coming toward the house -- they'd run off into the empty lots on either side.

We now have a younger great dane as well as a border collie and shepherd mix (the last killed a ground hog in her youth -- it was trying to burrow under the patio. They tangled twice and it kept coming back till she finally killed it. Darwinism at work?)Critters aren't a problem, except for one persistent rabbit, but I know when that one's in the yard because the dogs start whining and carrying on to go out. They haven't caught it yet, but I think they keep it from establishing a home here.

Big dogs rule :)

Caryl

Well, that is a happy thought about the root development. :) I hope soon I will see them start to take off. I really want these!

I do think I'll wait and let the replacements for the stolen seedlings get a little bigger before I throw them to the critters. ;)

Connie, it would great if you post at the end of summer about the performance comparison between your seedlings in the soil and the ones that stayed in the jug longer.

thanks littleonefb! Your explanation of the behavior of transplanted seedlings was very helpful, not to mention comforting. I know that patience is a virtue and a necessity in the garden, but I was feeling anxious about my seedlings' apparent stagnation post-transplant. I was even going to post a question about it here. The only seedlings to contradict your description is the chamomile seedlings I transplanted, which looked really scraggly in their paper pots, but which now are flourishing. But I guess another lesson is that for every rule, there are tons of counter-rules!