What causes seedlings without growing tip?

[loulac]

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

Here is an example - I had four out of 600 of these seedlings without any growing tip at all. They just sit there and produce a few leaves. What causes that?

You are a lucky guy, your defective plant has leaves, mine can just be vertical leafless sticks. I had one this year (out of 400 plants) and I decided to keep it out of curiosity. It had been sown in march, several outshoots came out just above the soil in July and are less than half an inch long now. The seed comes from a recently bought packet. I’ll keep watching to see what may happen.