Poultry Talk Ontario (pto.ca)

About two weeks ago I sowed some sweet corn, the package said best before December 2014 but I thought I could try and see what happens. I can always get another pack if it failed. I sowed nearly the entire pack thinking I could thin out later. This week only one little corn plant came up, so I began to gently dig around to see if the corn was at least starting to grow or just rotting in the ground; however nothing! No little plants germanating, no seeds sitting there doing nothing, gone! I suspect chipmunks or birds but it would have to smell the seeds. Grrrrr! Remember the good old days when we walked through nine feet of snow in June to buy our corn seeds with that poison on it that would kill everything for miles around, (back when it was still miles), Ya I want to get me some of those seeds about now.

Our corn was up 3 inches in a week!

the birds made off with ALL MY PEA SEED. sooooo mad.....
and something ate my lettuce. ALL my lettuce. i suspect actually that it was the ants....because it started with tiny nibbles...about 2 mm across. and well, now it's GONE.
and my squash seed. well, actually some of that i found totally dessicated still in the dirt because it was so dry.
it's just maddening.....all that work....ah well.
good thing is corn grows fast, so if you get more in this week you should be okay.

i found a lot of seed, if kept cool and dry, will keep for years and years. some of the peas that actually sprouted and are growing now from my first seeding are 5 years old. and just fine. my second seeding got taken by the starlings and robins. they must have watched where i put it in.

Last year was a real bugger for birds picking the heads off seedlings sprouting up and rotten little voles and mice eating the insides of seeds, even as small as spinach and beet seeds. Then skunks keep digging up the water melons and groundhogs ate the leaves off the pumpkins. This year is better except for the stolen corn capper, the cat likes to lie on a bench next to the garden, I think that will help keep the smaller critters away.

Your corns gone the same way my beans did, down someone's gullet, agravating for sure!

My problem is called chickens!

Trick is to SOAK the ground right after you plant--most little critters would rather not dig in mud if there's another option. All my corn came up, but I neglected to soak the peas and beans because I was sure it would rain that night, and something with little round feet came along THAT VERY NIGHT and pulled up 2/3 of the seeds. Ate some, ate half of some, others just left sitting there. Bugger.