GardenBanter.co.uk - View Single Post - Squirrels or birds? What's digging up my pumpkin seeds?

Pat Kiewicz[_2_] · 24-03-2009, 10:31 AM posted to rec.gardens.edible

said:

I planted my kabocha pumpkin seeds a few days ago about an inch deep in
very damp soil and again, something has been digging them up and eating
the seeds, leaving the husks on the ground. Is it more likely squirrels
or birds? Both are very common here. Whatever it is evidently has a good
sense of smell. Otherwise I can't imagine that they would know where to
dig. How can I prevent this?

Both birds and squirrels love squash seeds. I've seen birds pull them up
in the past when they've just begun sprouting. And row and jays might be
just clever enough to have watched what you were doing and gone looking
for the buried seeds. (Blue jays will tuck caches of seeds into the ground
themselves;sometimes they remember to come back and eat them, leaving
hulls, and sometimes I end up with half a dozen sunflower plants sprouting
at some random spot in the garden.)

My solution has been to make small tent-like things out of hardware cloth
to put over the seeds that I plant in hills (like squash) and remove them
when the seedlings are fully emerged. I have reused the same ones for a
few years now.

I've used bird netting suspended over arcs of pvc pipe to protect larger areas
from birds (such as beds planted to sweet corn) and skirts of chicken wire
at the bottom of the trellis where I plant peas.

--
Pat in Plymouth MI

"So, it was all a dream."
"No dear, this is the dream, you're still in the cell."

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