Heeeeeelp! Sweet pea seedling disaster!

I'm very distressed and really hoping someone can help me! This is my first year growing seeds and so far I've had very mixed results but my main problem is with my sweet peas. I ordered some special sweet peas that I've loved the look of since I first saw them (duchy of cambridge or something like that). 17 out of 20 germinated - hooray! They've grown on well and I was very pleased with them until yesterday morning when I went into the greenhouse to find two of the little plants chopped off straight through the stem just above soil level. They look like they've been felled by a tiny man with a tiny, tiny axe. So after I finished work yesterday I went down to the g/h to put the plants to bed and they looked fine. However, feeling paranoid I went back with a torch at 11pm and three more had been felled I'm now down to 12 and I'm distraught! If you'd told me this time last year how much I'd care about a bunch of tiny plants I'd have laughed in your face! I'll have to put the lid back on the propagator tonight to protect them but really they need potting on and the lid will squish them. Does anyone have any idea what or who is causing this and what I should do?

 

Not a slug or snail, as no other damage, mouse ?,it`s a clean cut, somebody else will be along soon more knowledgeable than me, I would put the lid on overnight anyway, it will bend them slightly if that tall, but they will soon pop back.

 

I know how you feel, even before my morning cuppa I'm in the greenhouse checking on my "babies". My sweetpeas haven't even germinated yet so I'll be watching the replies to this thread with interest. Can you plant some more?

 

I'm watching this too as my Lathyrus azureous are just popping their heads up,
Jenny

 

Although I suspect a mouse/vole, look underneath that cellular tray to check whether there's a slug or snail lurking underneath.

A few slug pellets of whatever type used within the confines of a greenhouse shouldn't pose any problems to wildlife.

 

Thank you everyone. I do have 5 more seeds but don't know if I'm brave enough to plant them. I did try and look for slugs and snails but the problem is I haven't built a shed yet (new house) and the g/h is full of shed type junk. I can't use any type of pest poisons as my dog is in and out all the time, I won't even have them in the house. I'll have a hunt round the outside now before it gets dark to see if I can spot anywhere a rodent could get in.

 

Yes, they really would like to be potted on. I'm just worried about putting them in anything without a lid now! I'm seriously thinking about bringing them into the house until they are much bigger...The plastic cups idea is great, there are some at work I could, erm, borrow.
There definitely look to be places a mouse could get in along the back of the g/h but there is a huge leylandii hedge on one side of the glass and a pile of junk on the other at the moment so I can't get at it. I'm just mystified as to why any pest would ignore the pea plants, salad seedlings and dwarf french beans and fixate on the sweet peas. And not even eat them.
Blimey, this gardening malarkey is harder than I thought

 

I think it is a slug or snail, so might be best to put a lid on them until you can put them elsewhere.

Val

 

I always sow my sweet peas in loo roll tubes, I stand them in a plastic container all jammed in together, then just plant tube and all, it will break down in soil/compost.

 

Aww, bless ya. It *is*, but then that only makes it ever more rewarding when it all works out.

Sorry about your sweet peas, but I just know how much joy and satisfaction you will get from the surviving ones

 

My money is on slugs / snails. Sprinkle some slug pellets on the top of the tray - I have slug pellets all over the trays of young plants I am growing as otherwise it is guaranteed that the little seedlings will be "mowed" by the blighters.

My understanding is there is something about the chemistry of slugs and snails that means that they have such a serious reaction to slug pellets but, whilst poisonous, other animals are not effected by the concentration of the chemical actually present in slug pellets. You'd need to read the label though of course ...

If your hound is going to eat the slug pellets off the surface of the sweet pea tray I reckon there's not much hope for the safety of the plants themselves!!!

If the sweet pea tray is on a bench? you might be able to stand its legs in something (saucers of oil??) that slugs won't be able to cross to then climb the legs of the bench - providing that there isn't another way for them to get onto the bench - abseiling?!!