Question
QUESTION: I recently planted two sunflowers outdoors that I started indoors from seed.
something demolished one of them. first knocked it over near the ground, then, two days later, all the leaves were gone.  This has happened to me other years, too - the sunflower big seedlings that i plant disappear.  Is there some critter - bird, squirrel, or ? - that especially likes sunflowers?  the other plants near it were not bothered.
I have several more sunflower seedlings that I want to plant outdoors.  How can I keep them safe?

ANSWER: We all know the feeling - a seedling that's hatched, just getting off the ground, leaves sprout, it grows, the hard part is over, the best is yet to come...

and then... poof!  gone.

I lost 75% of this year's seedlings this year.  AGAIN.  As usual (in my case), a few careful peeks under the tray, and there were the culprits: Big, fat, hungry slugs.  I'd checked, but slugs hide by day and wait until cover of darkness to strike.  If only I'd known.  Again.

So I can tell you, if you were growing these at my house (which included Sunflowers, by the way), Nocturnal Slugs were waiting for the sun to go down to feast on your Sunflower seedlings.

In your case, you don't know who to blame.  Could be hungry birds.  They, too, love a juicy sprouts with their morning meal (although in all fairness, at this time of year, birds are mainly carnivores, good to have around to devour plant-eating insects like Japanese Beetle larvae, Cutworms, and Aphid nymphs).

So when you try again, you need protection.  And you've got to cover all the bases, unlike me, who only has to cover the Slug base.

I don't know what part of the country you're in, so I can't be sure this is the best solution for you.  But if you were here, here's what I'd do.

1. To protect against Cutworms: a Toilet Paper Roll shield.  Cut into 3 inch lengths and bury 1/2 inch deep in the soil around the sprout.  Cutworms munch at the soil line; with this, they're foiled.

2. To catch Slugs red handed: Water at dusk.  Late at night, take a flashlight and a saltshaker out to the garden and inspect your seedlings.  If Slugs are the villain, you'll see them in action, slithering around in search of Sunflower seedlings.  Sprinkle with salt and they're doomed.  (A little dab will do it.)  Pick up some Sluggo (which is nontoxic) and use as directed to keep them from coming back forever.

3. To thwart Birds with a gourmet appetite: Fishing line. Dental floss might work as well.  The line is strung over the plant(s) to be protected.  Never tried this? 'This monofilament line method is relatively new and has not been fully tested. Recommendations about optimum size monofilament line and optimum line spacing are still being developed. The technique works best on sparrows, but fails to repel robins and starlings, at least in New Mexico and Nebraska studies.'

Why it works is anyone's guess.  'The actual reason that monofilament line repels birds is not clear.  It has been speculated that because monofilament line seems to appear and disappear, birds are repelled by the uncertainty of whether a barrier exists or not.  Perhaps the fear of becoming entangled is part of the deterrent.  The monofilament line does not pose a physical barrier to the birds and the lines are spaced far enough apart that the birds could easily pass between strands.'

Here's a URL to that dentalfloss/fishline method:

animalrangeextension.montana.edu/Articles/Wildlife/Repelling_birds_monofilament.htm

Know thy enemy.  Stay vigilant and you'll be picking Sunflowers in no time.

L.I.G.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thanks for your answer.  I forgot to mention I live in the Boston area.  That's part of the reason I chose you among the experts, the other part of the reason is your commitment to organic gardening.  Me too.
I also should have mentioned, so you could get a more complete picture, these "seedlings" are lanky - about 2'' tall and skinny. ( not enuf light, i guess.)  The stem looked like it was snapped, almost, but not completely severed just above the ground.  For 2-3 days, the leaves stayed green, so I thought the plant had survived, after all, hanging by a thread.   Then I went out and saw all the leaves were gone.
I think I'll try a combination of monofilament and support cages stolen from tomato plants.
the place where I'm going to plant them has plenty or sunlight.
I would have planted them sooner, but I was afraid from previous year's experience that the mysterious critter would get them.  I thought if they were bigger and stronger, they'd be less vulnerable.
thanks for reading this and thinking with me to help solve the problem.

Answer
I appreciate your commitment to chemical-free gardening, Anne.  If the weather was cooler -- right now, here on Long Island, it is variable -- you could cover them with a clear plastic bag to guard them from passing vegetarians.  Slug bait that stops slugs in their tracks is quite deadly to other garden visitors and can be absorbed through skin or breathed very easily.  These people advertise, and they spend a lot of money do it.  This is why it is so hard to get information on these products.

The way I see it, if you spend enough money, you can shape the entire country.  You can tell poor people that giving tax breaks to rich people will make them affluent, and they'll believe you.  You can tell people that you're doing everything you can about a catastrophic oil spill in the middle of the Gulf, and that damage will be minimized, and that you'll pay for all of it, and no one will show scientists who are measuring oil gushing 10 times the rate into the ocean that you've claimed.  If you own a U.K./Australian/U.S. media conglomerate, you can make up anything you want.  And if you make money selling chemicals, and newspapers and magazines want your business, they are going to play along; it would be stupid if they didn't.

Do you know how much damage those imported Sunflowers do to the countryside and the people who grow them for export to the U.S.?  Thank God there are people who will grow their own.

Birds love them.  They're stunning in a vase.  You can salt and eat the seeds.  These are perfect.  Good luck with them,

L.I.G.