Leaves wont come out of seed! :(

Well I just started to grow my first plant from seed....my first plant ever...so I made a EB and flow system which I planted basil and I also planted some pots with basil to compare. Once I got it down a little I planted one Alaskan Ice seed.

Facts:
1. Seed was started in a mini green house (heating pad cover system) and was planted in a peat pellet.

2. Once seed sprouted it was placed 1-2 inches from cfl 6500k 23 watt light.

3. My box has 8 23 watt cfls at 6500k running 20 hours on 4 off. Each cfl is putting out 1500 lumen.

4. Using bottled water with ppm of 65.

Problem:

1. Seed sprouted but it seems the outer shell wont let go of the "first leaves" and looks like its being strangled.

I have taken pics...but it was hard to get a good close up....my camera had troubles

Any help would be great!

How far down did you plant them? Loooks like you only buried the sprout...

ummm not very far.....barely covered it....how far down should I have planted it it?

Oh and this is day 7...sprouted day 2 can I save it?

Try to keep it wet with water from a spray bottle. This will weaken the shell.

I recently had three seeds in my first hydro attempt that grew like yours. On two of them I had to take the shells off myself.

Some times you have to manually remove the seed casing and the membrane that covers the cotlydons. Make sure the seed casing is dried out first then use tweezers and carefull remove it. Then use tweezers to remove the membrane and your seedlings are free!

The trick is to make sure the seed casing is dry (don't rush it wait a day if you have to) and to be VERY careful and gentle.

Good Luck

Well i'm sad to say that after 30mins of surgery with tweezers and a magnifying glass my little seedling pasted away early this morning. I was able to remove the top half of the shell but unfortunatly where the new root met the seed was at this point about the size of a thread (due to it being slowly choked out by the unopening seed) and just couldn't handle the stress. Maybe if I had done this earlier I could have saved her (it was a feminized seed).

But I did see what you meant about the membrane so the experiance will help me in the future with my new feminized seeds which should be arriving soon.

Thanks everyone for your help in the matter....and lets all give a moment of silence for the brave lone seedling which never made it home...

B.C Chef said:

Well i'm sad to say that after 30mins of surgery with tweezers and a magnifying glass my little seedling pasted away early this morning. I was able to remove the top half of the shell but unfortunatly where the new root met the seed was at this point about the size of a thread (due to it being slowly choked out by the unopening seed) and just couldn't handle the stress. Maybe if I had done this earlier I could have saved her (it was a feminized seed).

But I did see what you meant about the membrane so the experiance will help me in the future with my new feminized seeds which should be arriving soon.

Thanks everyone for your help in the matter....and lets all give a moment of silence for the brave lone seedling which never made it home...

Click to expand...

Yeah you have to act fast but not too fast. It sounds more like damping off a fungus though. It will stunt the growth of seedlings and then they just get choked out at the base of the stem and die. Can be prevented by using a little h202 or I prefer to use a fungacide in mild concentrations . A product called 'No Damp' can be found at Wal-Mart.
Good luck man

you cant expect a plant to grow strong and healthy if it cant even make its way out of the seed case. its a way of life for the plant. id say its good for the seedling to have to bust out on its own.
one of the reasons to germinate more then 1 seed.

Thanks all! I will plant more this time and use that fungaside in a mild concentration....practice makes perfect.