Gardening: Rampage in the garden!!

Last night was not a good one for the spinach. I don't know what it was, but something came along and had a midnight snack!

Spinach batch 2
Before

Spinach batch 2
After

Spinach batch 3
Before

Spinach batch 3
After

Batch 1 of the spinach, planted about 6 weeks ago, got nibbled on a little but is largely intact. The same can't be said for batch 2, planted 4 weeks ago, which has two badly nibbled survivors out of the 7, or batch 3, planted about 2 weeks ago, which was completely annihilated in the attack.

The carnage happened while the plants were overnighting in the 'safety' of the grow rack and I guess the culprit is sleeping it off somewhere because I can't find any sign of bug, slug or mouse. Whatever it was doesn't seem to like broccoli or tomatoes because all of those are untouched.

Oh well, this gives me a chance to try something different than those teeny tiny little seed pots, which I am now convinced are far too small. Even the two week old seedlings have roots extending out the bottom of them.

Christopher Bird, author of 'Cubed Foot Gardening' advocates Styrofoam cups as seed starters. I've been looking for slightly more earth-friendly old-fashioned paper cups but haven't had any luck finding any. In the mean time I have a few 3" peat cups I can use.