I planted most of mine over the last few days. I am down to
some containers now (I need a break in the rain, maybe
some more fertilizer, etc). I wanted to get the ones in the
ground in before the soil became too wet to work.
I do not care if they are small. I want then growing in sunlight
as soon as possible. Cutworms are simply a risk until the
seedlings get a little taller, when I can collar those that
I lack backups for. Eventually the stems get too big around
for a cutworm to encircle, and the problem can be ignored.
The seedlings that had been outside in coldframes are already
hardened off from leaving the cold frames open whenever it
was not raining. Only those that have been inside the whole time
need some attention to the weather for the next few days (no
long stretches of direct sunlight or significant wind).
Most of that list I put in the "gambling on a good summer"
category. You will probably get some Cherokee Chocolate
fruit regardless, along with Galina's, but it may be at the
end of summer.
I have not seen the cutworms yet when digging in the garden,
but I see them every year. They live in/on the ground and feed
at night. If you go out at night with a flashlight, you can often
find them on the bottoms of leaves of shrubs. The slugs feed
mostly at night, too, taking cover from the sunlight during the
day. If you put a piece of cardboard out in the yard somewhere,
let it rain on it for a few days, then turn it over, you will probably
find slugs underneath.
Not having slugs and cutworms in Western Washington would
be rather miraculous.
Cutworm:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutworm
You can also put a saucer of beer in the garden and check it
the next day to see if there are slugs around (they are attracted
to the yeast in the beer, and they crawl in and drown):
http://igoyougo.files.wordpress.com/...pg?w=541&h=405