outdoor pest issues

[jj7leaf]

First time poster, have lurked at times but never had a real reason to post.
This year I have seen an issue I haven't encountered before in the North east.

Plants put out in 5" peat pots with well developed roots into a mix of worm castings and native soil. For some reason shortly after transplanting something pulled the entire pots out of the ground and left them laying there to dry. In some instances the plants rerooted sideways and is growing albeit slow and weird. the other plants showed to be bigger than when I transplanted but the stem and all branches are intact and dried but devoid of leaves. There is no blood or bone meal in my holes. Nothing but worm castings and some fertilizers and polymers for moisture control. It is almost like something was under the cup and popped it out of the ground???? Thinking that next year I need some small rodent fencing but has anyone ever had this happen around them?

For the life of me I can't think of anytime this ever happened before. Would it be raccoons, rabbits, mice, skunks, deer? Wtf, am i dealing with here? Very annoying to do the work only to find the damage after it is too late.

Thanks for any help....


j

 

[smokeymacpot]

in my country, rabbits do this kind of thing. i cannot even have a unprotected hole filled with compost, the bloody things just go digging in it and theres nothing even in it!! when theres plants there, they dig them up, eat them e.t.c

please use cages and the best cages are those that are pinned down to the solid ground around where your hole is. CAGES ARE A MUST!!

p.s you didnt remove the peat pot when planting?? i think they are supposed to rot away, but surely they must hold the plant back from putting roots out as fast as they would normally.

 

[moonie]

Squirrels are my backyard enemy, they've done almost that exact thing, if there's something that smells good underneath that pot, well they'll dig it up and move it to find out what it is. They can be destructive. Coyote piss man, buy at the hardware store, spray around your fenceline, little mammals think you got a coyote in your yard, they stop comin in.
Another thing to do for outdoor grows, dig your hole, say 4' wide 3' deep 4' long, line the bottom with red brick, sides to, then fill in with your soil, animals wont dig through brick to get to your girls. And around that brick you put up a little fence, Fort Knox for the plants.

 

[vanzman12]

i've heard that the water polymers can do this if you used to much and didn't put them low enough. Did you wet them before you put them in the hole? If not they might have expanded and popped your plat right out of the ground.

 

[jj7leaf]

thanks for the input

thanks for the input

The peat pots always treated me good however I will abandon the ease of the peat for the same size bags or small plastic pots next time. The reason was water retention. I noticed that the peat allows them to dry quicker and I lost a flat of seedlings in 3" peat pots when I waited a day too long between waterings. Now with this little issue I can see how a transplanted plant would have fared better if the pot wasn't free to pop right out of the ground!
The Rodent didn't really dig around in the dirt at all. The Polymers were wet but I watered wben I planted and the amount of polymers used was minimal for the size of the hole but I woudn't count anything out at this point.

So for my lesson of the year this year. No more peat and gotta stage some small cages before next spring.

Thanks guys.....


j