Seedling stem damage at the soil

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D

DeXodus

New Member
Dear gardeners,

I need some help to identify a problem of a few seedlings that I have.
I am growing some black locust (robinia pseudoacacia) seedlings from seed. Currently they are about 3-4 weeks old. They are planted in a coconut choir that is enriched with fertilizer and vermiculite mixture (50:50). I water them daily very small amounts. I had 3 of them and then one of them fell over. After inspecting I found that the stem at the soil level was damaged. It looked as if it was chewed off. Here is the image of what I recovered:
http://s31.postimg.org/neuus4v23/13090882_1272310596131978_777277671_o.jpg
After inspecting the other two I found similar but smaller wounds on the stems. Here is the seeding with bigger wound:
http://s20.postimg.org/eq3a5xhm5/13063974_1272310602798644_1295072663_o.jpg
http://s20.postimg.org/mwv9xi7ot/13054631_1272310592798645_1038304812_o.jpg
What could have caused this?
 
You are right, those are chew marks.... Since the damage is at soil level, the culprit could be a caterpillar or a slug, but since there is no slime trail you can rule out slugs or snails....
Damage occures more then likely at night when the caterpillar is most active, and it is probably hiding in the soil during the day.
Try poking around in the surface soil, you may uncover the larvae...which could be a pale green or tan color.
 
What I am surprised about if these are chew marks is that I am growing the plants inside in what I thought to be a sterile growing medium. That is why I could not believe that this is chew marks. I will try to poke around today and maybe look at what happens during the night.
 
That is the thing. There are not the smallest of all the critters out there. My pots are rather small so I would think there is no place for these buggers to hide.
 
Then it has to be a nocturnal pest that you haven't seen yet.....hope you get the culprit!
 
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