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judylb

By Judylb

Channel Islands , Jersey

Hello everyone, I have had complete destroyance of all my seed tops in a plastic greenhouse by snail/slugs. All that is left is about 3 - 5 mm of stalk. My question is, will the seedlings recover and grow again or is that too much to ask of a tiny seedling? They are cosmos, varying marigolds, cornflowers, pansies, and a variety of other bedding plants : (




Answers

 

If all you have left is stalks with no growing points its a sad fact that you will have to start again. Those tiny slugs can be a menace with seedlings and its a mystery where they come from unless there are eggs in the compost. Unless you have very strong principles I would use a few pellets next time you sow.

3 Apr, 2015

 

Thankyou Steragram - that's just wasted three weeks of growing then ?

3 Apr, 2015

 

Will they not throw out any side shoots trying again on those stalks ? It seems such a shame to ditch. And yes, I've been out with pellets everywhere In a-vengeance !! I'm not out to get the biggest or showiest plants just some colour for the community garden.

3 Apr, 2015

 

If only the cotyledons were present (the first set of 'leaves'), then no, they won't shoot. You haven't mentioned that you'd pricked them out, so its hard to imagine they might have been seedlings which had 4 or 5 sets of leaves, and some of those leaves are still present.

I'm afraid Steragram's right. However, you can take comfort from the fact that a new sowing is likely to grow a little faster than the first lot, simply because daylight hours are longer and the temperatures (hopefully) won't be so low from now onwards.

You might want to get some slug pellets and distribute those round and about this time.

3 Apr, 2015

 

:( thank you Bamboo - they only had the two leaves up. So it would seem they're doomed then. I'll be sowing again this next week then.

3 Apr, 2015

 

Not altogether wasted though Judy - you'll remember next time to put a couple of pellets in your seed tray...

3 Apr, 2015

How do I say thanks?

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