Re: how do you protect seedlings?

 

I use 1/2 inch wire mesh frames to keep chipmunks, squirrels and jays out of my seedling pots. I make them as 5 sided rectangles from the full width of  the mesh, which is strong enough to stand on its own as a top with 4 sides and an open bottom. Then I group pots, and slide the frame down over the group, and put a brick on one corner to keep it flush with the ground, and reduce the odds that some enterprising seed-stealing varmint will slither underneath and get into the pots that way. 

Kathleen 
PNW coast


On Mar 8, 2015, at 3:08 PM, dkramb d*@badbear.com [iris-species] <i*@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

I usually pot up my Iris seeds in late autumn and set them on the back 
porch to stratify naturally through the winter. They get whatever 
snow/rain falls naturally & whatever temps happen na! turally. Sometimes 
I get good germination in spring, but sometimes I have to wait another 
season.

My problem lies in small furry critters (cats, squirrels, chipmunks) 
knocking over my containers & digging through them. It doesn't happen 
all the time, and it doesn't happen to every container, but with this 
year's crop of Spec-X seeds I *really* don't want to lose any of them. 
(This year I sowed them early & kept them in the refrigerator all winter 
& finally set them outside today... now that the forecast shows spring 
is here! So anyway, *now* I'm w! orried about the critters.)

So I'm curious how do you f! olks prevent critters from messing with your 
seedlings (whether in pots or in raised beds, or whatever you may 
have)? I'm thinking of building a small chicken coop structure around 
them. So I'll probably stop off at Home Depot or something to see what 
materials might do the trick. One small complication is that my porch 
is triangular shaped. So whatever I build will have to be irregularly 
shaped too.

Dennis in Cincinnati


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