Plants gone...

So last night we had a good rain for the first time since I transplanted my babies outdoors. So this morning I went to see how they weathered the storm and found all of them dug up. It looks like someone or something pulled the plants out of the ground, roods and all. All that is left is the rootball and about 4 inches of stalk. The end of the stalked looks broken and jagged, not cut cleanly.. I panicked and left the area immediately and don't want to go examine further.

Does this sound like an animal attack? I had 3 girls, spread out a few feet, one was separated and really hard to see as well. So I don't think it was a random passerby and there is no foot traffic in the area.

All 3 plants were targeted identically. When I first transplanted I had an issue with something digging around the roots but that appeared to be an armadillo digging for worms in the soft soil and stopped after a couple of days.

Losing the plants sucks, but if anything I'd prefer it to be an animal attack instead of police action!

Sounds like wildlife to me - if it was a 'ripper', it would likely have been cut or completely gone, roots and all... that really sucks man, sorry for your loss!

Would police just yank the out of the ground, break it off at the stalk and take the plants and leave the rootball just laying there?

I mean it's not like the buds were huge, you might get 1/4 oz total of 3 week old buds... but what could eat 3 2-3" tall plants completely in such a short time? I mean there is nothing left. No leaves or anything.

The loss isn't a big deal, it was bagseed only.. but I did have a bit of time invested obviously.

I had the same thing happen to my plants that were in a closet in my garage. Something dug down to the roots and ate it from there. I'm thinking mice or gecko, lizard.

You have an animal issue in your garage?

Bromeop said:

I had the same thing happen to my plants that were in a closet in my garage. Something dug down to the roots and ate it from there. I'm thinking mice or gecko, lizard.

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Most of the roots looked like they were there, although thinking about it seemed to be a smaller ball than when I transplanted. I don't think one or two rabbits could completely eat 3 medium sized plants, down to the last leaf though.

Cattle

peace
doublejj

Could be dear. They will scratch and dig into soil looking for food. If its hot and dry out and other plants are starting to wilt as your special plants are thriving, animals will be drawn to your plants for the water that they are storing, an adult dear could easily eat some med size plants. It's a dear eat plant world out there in nature. Sorry for your loss.

I got the nerve to go check again.. I don't think it's deer because there isn't a lot of access. We do have woods nearby but they'd have to go through yards, near roads. I know deer do this, but I'm not sure. I did see some trails leading into the brush, could have been from animals, dogs. One plants rootball is missing entirely, 2 of them are laying there. One had a couple of lower branches still stuck on the stalk. Both looked they were just broken off. One plant had blue tape on a branch from where one got bent accidently. Could not find it.

What would chew them down at the stalk, dig up roots and drag the entire plant away to be eaten?

It's also fairly moist since the rain and there are no tracks. So unless it happened before the rain, then I'm not sure. A ripper wouldn't dig up roots AND break the stalk. Police would have units all in the area looking for more, questioning people, etc.

Did you water your plants with anything sweet like molasses ?

Racoons will scratch and dig up your shit just like you would see a dog digging in the ground after something

Bromeop said:

I had the same thing happen to my plants that were in a closet in my garage. Something dug down to the roots and ate it from there. I'm thinking mice or gecko, lizard.

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Gecko's and lizards do not eat roots.
You have a mouse/rat problem.

I watered the other day with a hefty does of GH Micro/Bloom using Lucas Formula. That's the last I've given them. That was 2-3 days ago, nothing organic like molasses or sugar.

So I guess it's down to deer, rabbits, raccoons or some other mystery animal. Or a very poor thief who takes 3 week old buds and breaks the stalk off. Or police.. but police wouldn't bother with stealth. They would walk right in and chop it down. Or maybe a concerned citizen that happened upon them... but like I said it's not an area people would walk and it borders on an area of thick brush. At this point I have to assume animals but they were so destructive and thorough. Out of 3 plants they left 2 rootballs, 2 tiny branches and a few dead leaves. Everything was dug up at the roots. When I examined the soil I noticed a lot of "roly-poly" isopods on the surface.

In my experience with rabbits and deers they mainly eat on the feeder leaves and not really eat on the bud ,

I have had branches get gnawed on and end up on the ground and all the feeder leaves were eating off but not the bud ,

I would think racoons our an animal similar to them , but im not saying coons for sure ( just a guess )

As long as its not the cops.. but if it was they would have already questioned everyone in the area I imagine. They weren't on my property, someone else's actually.. but no one lives on it. Plus it's behind a tree line and a lot of icky briars and no one would just walk into them.

I couldn't find more than a couple of branches and some chewed up stalks and root mass and a couple of fan leaves. It just seems like an awful lot of plants for an animal to devour in a night.

ULMResearch said:

Plus it's behind a tree line and a lot of icky briars and no one would just walk into them.

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Even though its your spot ,

If you have been their best believe someone else has to ,

Im not saying someone has been their since your grow , im just saying some could come up on it ( never know )

Also if you check around the threads here you will find that their are thieves who likes to steal other peoples grows if they happen to find one .

Hell theirs people who ( specially teenagers ) who will wonder in the woods in different ares just looking to see if they can find a grow

This is know as "Scouting season" for dedicated hunters - and lots of us smoke when we're not actually carrying a firearm.
.20 C

Edit: And now that I think of it, lots of people hunt mushrooms in the woods - bird watchers, root hunters etc.
I used to hunt roots in Mo (Gensing & golden seal) & got around a whole lotta woods then.

Bromeop said:

I had the same thing happen to my plants that were in a closet in my garage. Something dug down to the roots and ate it from there. I'm thinking mice or gecko, lizard.

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Gecko??---....don't forget about the predatory cannabis land tortoise!....if you go look now, ya just might catch him making his getaway stepping from your front yard onto the street.....and if you guerrilla grow it might be a good idea to know how to be observant and look for signs;and be a tracker ,ya know?--....sounds like a person acting like an animal to me.

AND, to the freak that had a week to show how much of a turd he was by having us read about him whiningly trying to get the courage and reason to justify ripping off someones hard work( HELP"I found plants"...)---PLEASE DO! because me and my bowhunting friends are getting tired of putting on facepaint and sitting in our treestands/ground blinds -
JK! ...but be safe out there....

AHHH!!!!! ITS BIGFOOT I KNO IT, nah jk but its sounds like alot of damage for any animal especially if there were virvually no remains, id imagine you'd find a leaf here or a stem there, weird, dnt no what to tell yah