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seeds Seeds stuck on seedling plants?

E

Emeoba69

Was wondering what to do with seed (jacket or coat?) that are stuck over the seed leaves of my new Bhut seedlings? I have three or four where the seed seems like it is stuck and not letting the first leaves open up. They seem to delicate to mess with and I figure leaving them be is best? Is this a major problem or natural? Anyway to prevent this, is this why some people scar seeds before germinating? Two of them were buried deep enough that the soil held the seed down and the leaves and stems broke free early on. The rest were either on top of the soil or barely beneath.
 
I take a small pair of scissors, clip the very very top of the seed and then take tweezers and gently pull it off. Never had any problems. You might clip a little bit of the cotyledons, but as long as you dont completely cut them off it'll be fine. I only do this because the cotyledons are photosynthetic, and I worry if they dont receive light soon enough the plant wont have enough energy since the shell is blocking them that it'll die. I've actually never waited to see what happened, always removed them.
 
chillilover said:
Plant deeper next time. Mine always did that then I planted 1/2 inch deep and none like that so far.
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+1 on the plant deeper BUT NOT TOO DEEP AS THEY WILL ROT BEFORE THEY GET TO THE SURFACE.... I plant @ roughly 1/2 inch normally (shallower when in doubt) and of the ones that ended up being shallower, around 1/4inch or so, some of them were shell bound and I nip'd the edges of the seed shell off with scissors and and it came off nicely...BUT I only do that once I see the cotyledons are fully developed and poking out the bottom of the shell a little.

A few I could not get off and left on the cotyledons. Some came off naturally about a week to two later, and a few never came off and the cotyledons on those plants rotted and ended up turning black and the plant died.... Probably from when watering and the shell getting wet and being too moist in side. So now I take my chances and cut them off even if I have to damage the cotyledons a little...
 
These all shed their seed-coats in about a week.
Leave them alone, they know how to get rid of the coat.

crop3400.jpg
 
Here's another POV; if they can't shed the coat, they're not strong enough to survive, so ef'em! Survival of the fittest! Ya woll mien fuhrer! ;)
 
Leave it alone it with come off by it self if it need to. I have plants growing with up to 4 permanent leaves growing with the seed cover still stuck on.
 
I freaked out and pinched the seed off the little leaves. Dorset Naga didnt mind too much. However I'm not willing to dod that agin after reading these posts. I'll have to be more patient.
Thans you guys.
 
I always pull seed "hats" off but I have very steady hands an am accustomed to performing micro-surgeries
I've had several seedlings die or get very stunted by trying to be patient:(
 
+5 - leave them alone, they'll be fine. Even if the cap doesn't come off, those 1st leaves fall off pretty quick anyway, let the plant do it's thing.
 
I also tried pulling the "hat" off a seedling after misting the seed casing failed to work. I pulled too hard and the leaves came off also, the plant was written off as dead. A week later, I noticed the stalk had turned green, and a new leaf was just starting to form
IMG_2289.jpg


The seedling now has a 1cm long true leaf and a 2nd on the way, I usually weed out the slower, smaller plants, gonna give this one a chance, for I like it's fighting spirit.
 
nubster said:
I gently pull on the seed. If it comes off easily great...if not...I leave it alone.
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+1 on that, usually just slides right off for me. But i let them do their things for a couple days then give it a tug
 
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