Please help with my first transplant

so i just transplanted my first 4 seedlings...ever! And i have a few questions and concerns.
One of my seedlings shed its shell while it was still in the paper towel. I gently grabbed it by its cotyledone with a sterlie pair of tweezers and planted it root down...even the small leaves. Should i have tried to pack the soil in around only the root to try and hold the leaves above dirt? Or should the root be strong enough to push the leaves up above soil?
A couple of the other seedlings were still in the shell but i had a hard time getting them “root down shell up”. I got them in as good as i could but they still point down like a ‘u’ (taproot and shell down). Will this be a problem?
Given...and hoping...everything is okay with all that, when should i water next? I did water right after transplant

Any productive advice???

It can be a problem if not taken care of correct - watering too much, the soil can be too compact for the seedling to push through.

It is best to use a spray bottle. If the soil was watered prior to putting your seeds into the soil, it probably won't need to be watered until it pops out.

Some spraying will be okay if you want. Just keep humidity up ~70-80%.

I would have just put the soil up to the cotyledon (first circle leaf). But it should try to break out and reach for the light.

It is okay that the seed fell off before being planted.

Even if the seed/taproot is not positioned in the correct position, it will turn itself around. It just adds some time to the process of it breaking through and coming out.

Thanx bro

generalnyce said:

so i just transplanted my first 4 seedlings...ever! And i have a few questions and concerns.
One of my seedlings shed its shell while it was still in the paper towel. I gently grabbed it by its cotyledone with a sterlie pair of tweezers and planted it root down...even the small leaves. Should i have tried to pack the soil in around only the root to try and hold the leaves above dirt? Or should the root be strong enough to push the leaves up above soil?
A couple of the other seedlings were still in the shell but i had a hard time getting them “root down shell up”. I got them in as good as i could but they still point down like a ‘u’ (taproot and shell down). Will this be a problem?
Given...and hoping...everything is okay with all that, when should i water next? I did water right after transplant

Click to expand...

Let gravity and light do its work.

1st one will be fine, dont worry.

For the ones going downwards, they will fix themselves up without intervention usually... Also as @Joint Monster said, lightly mist your medium (soil / coco) with water from a spray bottle for the first couple of days before and after the seedling pops up... also best to use pre soaked and ready soil / coco medium.

My seeds go into root riot cubes and sit on a super sprouter heat pad with a humidity dome over them. I baby them for the first couple weeks since it is so dry here in Colorado.

What he said, Plus....when growing in soil....Clean hands when handling seedlings - Yes. Serility? Special tools? - Not necessary. Theres nothing sterile about soil and it never should be. A carful hand - Yes. Micro Surgery careful - No
I tell this to every newbie....OVERCARE is the NUMBER 1 killer of your plants. The amount of fuss people have in these beginning stages is stressful to read. I get some of you are working with only a limited amount of beans, and that maximizing your germinating success is like the pinnacle mission of your life....but the paper towel princesses who need to SEE their germinated beans and insist on this being the best way, are really just impatient and adding unnecessary steps and risk to the process. Plant the beans in soil to start with knot side up 1/4-1/2" down. water it good. put it somewhere warm and covered up. and then leave it the heck alone. ONE single 6500K daylight bulb 2-6 inches over top to start those little babies and give them a direction. This is ALL YOU NEED in your first 5-7 days after it pops out. And dude....if they don't germinate this way....they wont in paper towel ether. This way you don't risk fumbling a delicate single root, and you've learned that patience is a virtue. Replant when you have a root ball to work with. Its faster, more efficient and natural this way. And watering.....the fussing.....don't do it. water the darn things yes....but not all the time. Allow that soil to dry out sometimes...even allow the plant to wilt a LITTLE once in a while. it sucks more oxygen into the soil and promotes strong roots. A plant that struggles a little time to time ends up a hearty one. pot plants can survive some serious abuse....but they do not survive OVERCARE, over watering, over fertilizing, over and over and over. If you wanna know more....lemme know. I wouldn't steer anyone wrong.