Seedlings with stubborn helmets

[WildLife]

Originally Posted by gardenmama

Add me to the spit camp! The digestive enzymes in saliva are more effective in softening the seed coat than plain water.

I agree

I have tested both water and spittle and the human
liquid works better.

[melody]

Plus, you can put it right where you need it...it stays there, and you don't have to un-necessarily have to wet the seed mix or anything else...(I obsess about too much moisture too)

[Tomstrees]

lol Dcarch ~ too funny

Tom

[Patrina_Pepperina]

The spit enzymes probably work on weakening the coat as well as giving it some moisture

PP

[michael johnson]

I used to use spit, but these days I have found that if you leave them for about ten days for the seed leaves to grow a bit out of the husk,if its still stuck I just nip off the last eighth of an inch of the tip complete with seed husk and then spread the two leaves apart, and they grow quite normaly after that.

[Tomstrees]

After all this talk and no stuck on helmets, I got one this morning !
Time for the old "spit" trick ~

Tom

[michael johnson]

I have tried the old spit trick, which seems to work in some cases.
But if you get a bit of green leaf showing and the seed husk just stuck on the end, I find its quicker just to nip off the tip near the seed husk and spread out the two cotyledons leaves and they soon recover and carry on growing normaly.

[gardengalrn]

Last year I had quite a few sticking seed coats for some reason. After asking here, I also used the "spit" method and it worked like a charm. It is my hypothesis that I removed the dome on my seedling tray quite early to accomodate a row of seeds that came up super fast. While the medium stayed moist enough for the others to germinate, it was drier than it normally would have been and the seeds didn't want to let go.

[bugsy]

oh man i just love stuck seed coats. i used the spit technique and got this little v shaped cuticle thingy that basically hooked into the coat and let me pull the leaves gently out. However, unless the seeds are really old I try not to do this anymore since they generally get a little ripped from me doing this and eventually they come out on their own just fine. But I must say pulling them out is soooo fun that sometimes it is kind of hard to resist.

[michael johnson]

I have often wondered- if one mixed up some of that whetting agent that you can buy for mixing in compost, or the gel they sell for the same thing, that keeps things moist and retains the water etc, just enough in a small egg cup size container, and used this on the stuck helmets as it would keep them moist for longer, or even a thick mix of just plain old fairy washing up liquid might also dothe trick-its worth the time to experiment with.