Oh no! The cat slept on my seedlings!! :(

[PrideRavyn]

She did it before but only when they hadn't sprouted and I completely forgot about it until this morning - last night I took the cover off the propogator lid as they were getting too tall for it, and woke up this morning to all of my poor seedlings flattened

Out of 4 cape gooseberries and 5 pepper seedlings, I only have 2 peppers that are even remotely ok and one squished but still intact gooseberry which is alive but horizontal, the rest were well and truly flat and shrivelly and I think she even had a nibble on one or two

Should I even bother to replant any seeds for either now, or is it too late?

[Glutton4...]

* makes note to leave lid on propagator!

[mattyod]

i'd just snip the the seedlings where they've broken with a sharp pair of scissors and they should still grow, they just won't have the top set of leaves, and it will take abit longer as the leaves give the seedlings more energy as they catch it from the sun. eventually new leaves should appear and will start growing normally again. try to keep the cat away this time my cat knocked a whole tray of seedlings on the foor a few weeks ago

hope this helps you.

[PrideRavyn]

The lid is well and truly back on now, it was the cape gooseberries that were getting too tall anyway and the only surviving one of those is now having a lie down in the propogator

It's hard to stay angry with her for long, she is not all there and has some cat 'issues' and normally chooses to sleep in her litter tray, I'm not sure which I prefer!!

[PrideRavyn]

Unfortunately unless they will still grow from nothing more than a stem, then that won't work, she's flattened them below the seed leaves, so there'd be nothing left but the stem if I snipped the damaged bit off

[tamsin]

I've found cape gooseberries a bit fussy but peppers will cope with a bit more. If they are young you can bury the stalks a bit like you do toms. As long as the stalk isn't completely broken off, stake them and they'll still grow. I snapped a branch off a big pepper last year half way through... taped it up and the peppers still grew and ripened.

[mattyod]

they should grow from stem, aslong as the roots intact the plant should just carry on growing as normal.

[arknor]

atleast your cat didnt do this
(was a fairly big plant before the attack the leaves pretty much covered the pot (4 real leaves with 2 more starting)

it also did this to one of my chilli plants

[mattyod]

aww, i bet you could'nt stay mad at them for long. what else ya growing apart from cucumbers and chilli? is that bonsai soil your using?

[PrideRavyn]

Unfortunately I discovered that the cat of doom had gone one step further than lying on and eating my seedlings and had also decided to water them herself So the seedlings went in the bin

So....no peppers or cape gooseberries this year I fear!

[arknor]

aww, i bet you could'nt stay mad at them for long. what else ya growing apart from cucumbers and chilli? is that bonsai soil your using?

no some multipurpose peat free stuff that looks a bit dodgy when it goes dry on top, its pretty good stuff imo ive had some nice results with it
im just growing 5x tomato , 4x cucumber and about 12 different chilli plants on my balcony

gave the cat a good soaking but wouldnt trust him to be near them again so the balcony sun bathing they would normally do is off limits :P