Something is eating my seedlings :(

So this is my first time actively re-using soil for an indoor grow which i did by mixing in ~1/3 by volume new compost from my composter.

Notably there are lots of critters in my 5 gal container (millipedes, little flys and pill bugs) and I grow indoors.

I've had a lot of issues getting my plants to germinate and I just realized that someone is eating them. I put in a seedling that was maybe 1cm tall into 1 pot this morning and it's completely gone tonight, like I can only find the shell of the seed. I guess it could be the pill bugs but I'm not sure what to do right now.

• Should I just dump in lots of other organic matter to distract them from eating my seedlings?
• Or maybe grow my plants until ~2 weeks old in a different container then transplant it? since it won't be so fragile.
• Should I not re-use the soil again?

I realize IPM is a normal thing for living soil people but I was unprepared for this

I've read a few threads talking about mice stealing seeds. You might want to lay some traps.

It's entirely possible that the pill bugs in your soil are eating your newly sprouted plants. Usually they eat dead, partially decomposed organic matter as recyclers, but if they're hungry and thirsty enough they might find your emerging greens soft enough for their liking. Transplanting 1 or 2 week old little seedlings might be a better option for you rather than spouting them in their final growing space. I've never seen them bother healthy, slightly older seedlings.

Some no-till people even purposely introduce them to their indoor beds to promote organic matter recycling, and because they're kinda cute, busy little guys that can be fun to watch.

Northwood said:

It's entirely possible that the pill bugs in your soil are eating your newly sprouted plants. Usually they eat dead, partially decomposed organic matter as recyclers, but if they're hungry and thirsty enough they might find your emerging greens soft enough for their liking. Transplanting 1 or 2 week old little seedlings might be a better option for you rather than spouting them in their final growing space. I've never seen them bother healthy, slightly older seedlings.

Some no-till people even purposely introduce them to their indoor beds to promote organic matter recycling, and because they're kinda cute, busy little guys that can be fun to watch.

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I have likely thousands of pill bugs in my grow. If I don't feed them dried leaves, they will begin to crawl out onto the tent floor in search of food.

They leave the cannabis alone--with one caveat. If any leaves are dragging on the soil surface, they will nibble those up as far as they can reach from the ground!

As far as I know, they also leave roots alone. I wish I could see under there! Tiny sprouts? Dunno.

Pill bugs behave the same way with regular plants in my garden outside, for what that's worth. It's hard to compare behavior between outside and in.

OK i confirmed it's the pill bugs. They are even going at my bigger plants too! I can see them nibbling on it, are leaving big munched parts and i even have to flick them off to get them to leave.

I have mulched leaves i can toss in there to give them something to eat instead. Or would growing some clover or something be a better bet?

chico1st said:

OK i confirmed it's the pill bugs. They are even going at my bigger plants too! I can see them nibbling on it, are leaving big munched parts and i even have to flick them off to get them to leave.

I have mulched leaves i can toss in there to give them something to eat instead. Or would growing some clover or something be a better bet?

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Well, slap me thrice and hand me to my mama!

Definitely try to give them something else to munch on! It seems a bit weird to feed something you might not want around, but I'm not sure how you'd get rid of them otherwise. That's why in my grow I opted to work with them instead.

Mulched leaves would be worth a shot. In the meantime, you might be able to keep them off your plants with diatomaceous earth. I've heard of using, but not tried, a garlic or hot pepper spray. It shouldn't be too hard to control--and with diligence, you will achieve a balance in your soil and know how to work with it.

You know about earthworm castings? Most important part of my IPM.

chico1st said:

OK i confirmed it's the pill bugs. They are even going at my bigger plants too! I can see them nibbling on it, are leaving big munched parts and i even have to flick them off to get them to leave.

I have mulched leaves i can toss in there to give them something to eat instead. Or would growing some clover or something be a better bet?

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Why not get rid of them. Maybe top dress some neem meal and have a tub of water underneath the pot to kill the ones that wanna venture out of the pots. I don't know.

EWC I do have! I could just plot that down, I know it kind of fends them off. Or will it more just distract them with tasty worm poo?

JimmyJackCorn said:

Well, slap me thrice and hand me to my mama!

Definitely try to give them something else to munch on! It seems a bit weird to feed something you might not want around, but I'm not sure how you'd get rid of them otherwise. That's why in my grow I opted to work with them instead.

Mulched leaves would be worth a shot. In the meantime, you might be able to keep them off your plants with diatomaceous earth. I've heard of using, but not tried, a garlic or hot pepper spray. It shouldn't be too hard to control--and with diligence, you will achieve a balance in your soil and know how to work with it.

You know about earthworm castings? Most important part of my IPM.

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DE… game over

chico1st said:

EWC I do have! I could just plot that down, I know it kind of fends them off. Or will it more just distract them with tasty worm poo?

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No, sorry. Don't think EWC helps with pill bugs much. I was broadening the scope of the discussion a bit.

Sounds like you got options here for what to do about the ol' rollie pollies!

Do some reading on what each product or action might do as far as side effects. For example, DE or neem might destroy beneficial bugs as well.

I grow in homemade highly amended soil and whenever I leave something for the first time...a pot of soil, a container used to cook or store it...I dust lightly with DE.

Wear a mask when applying, I have found it to be a real success as far as minimizing bugs.

As a note, I tried to distract them with mulched leaves and things but that didn't work... actually i think they just reproduced faster and now they are everywhere.

They definitly keep munching on the plant but it's still growing fine. Could become an issue during flower though since the plant won't grow to recover.

So Im on to using DE. For the DE (diacotamus earth) do you put it around the base or the plant or sprinkle it onto the leaves?

I have been struggling with my pill bugs as well! They like sprouts (like you have been saying), they ate all of my clover, and they have been eating on the base of my bigger cannabis plant's stem. That plant is also still growing, at least for now.

Two days ago, I put a 1mm-thick layer of DE on the soil surface around the base of the stem and out about three inches. I also cleared all mulch away from the stem the same distance.

I found one half-dead pill bug munching on the stem this morning! I'm not sure what's going on below the surface, but I dug a bit around the stem and see no damage below the soil surface.

I kept all mulch away from my smaller plant all along and haven't had any problems with pill bugs on the stem. As a preventative measure, I applied DE to that plant at the soil level as well!

edit: I have not had issues with pill bugs before, neither indoors nor out. I like them because they eat dead plant material and deposit a nice frass. Hopefully I can work with them, because trying to get rid of them will be very difficult.

So I made it through my last grow by putting some DE around the base of my plants and then they managed to get big enough for the pill bugs to hurt (but I lost 2 of my 4 plants by that point)

Now I'm into my next grow and all 4 of my seedlings are dead. There is tonnes of old leaf material around, soil is reasonably moist but still they chomp my seedlings down.

Is it normal for people to get thier cover crop large before planting weed seedlings? Maybe I need to have more distracting material around. Or do people start thier seedlings outside the living soil pot, and transplant?

I'd personally ditch the soil, wash the containers, clean the grow area and start a new batch that doesnt have pill bugs to start with. Better to deal with it now and end it than continue to struggle and/or waste seeds.

Pill bugs are good and bad. Starting over is a good idea. If you can't, definitely start your seeds in a small pot and transplant when they're big enough to be safe. Keep mulch away from the stem. Or don't mulch, and cover the soil with plastic or cloth - as this should keep their numbers down.