Helmet head and other seedling deformities- please advise

SO I have another thread about my grow but this is a different batch of seeds and a different set of problems so I felt it was deserving of its own thread and as well I figured they were problems that might be fairly common but I didn't see after a brief search.

So as you can see all of these little girls have variations of seed hull problems, what some call helmet head....i call failure to launch.....certainly not the picture perfect shedding of the seed shell allowing the leaves to unfurl gracefully and gently. That leaves me and others in quite a predicament as you can imagine.....do i do something, if so what....and if not.....how long do i wait until i intervene?


I wouldnt even be so concerned if i hadnt already lost a few sprouted seeds to various levels of the same problem....one of which was about an inch high but whos leaves had rotted while stuck inside the seed hull and had i removed it earlier it probably would have survived. When seeds can often cost 10 usd/euro each then the motivation to intervene becomes even more pressing.

Please look through the pics at your leisure and comment or advise as you see fit and ill thank you in advance. EDIT: They were planted in peat pellets which were soaked then drained for a couple hours before dropping the seeds in the lightly fluffed upper part to keep it airy and not packed too tight. Currently not under lights.

Just a note.....the last pics 6a and 6b are from my other grow but i thought the challenges it is facing was similar to the new ones.....

thx for your time!

stop drowning it plz

schnooby said:

SO I have another thread about my grow but this is a different batch of seeds and a different set of problems so I felt it was deserving of its own thread and as well I figured they were problems that might be fairly common but I didn't see after a brief search.

So as you can see all of these little girls have variations of seed hull problems, what some call helmet head....i call failure to launch.....certainly not the picture perfect shedding of the seed shell allowing the leaves to unfurl gracefully and gently. That leaves me and others in quite a predicament as you can imagine.....do i do something, if so what....and if not.....how long do i wait until i intervene?


I wouldnt even be so concerned if i hadnt already lost a few sprouted seeds to various levels of the same problem....one of which was about an inch high but whos leaves had rotted while stuck inside the seed hull and had i removed it earlier it probably would have survived. When seeds can often cost 10 usd/euro each then the motivation to intervene becomes even more pressing.

Please look through the pics at your leisure and comment or advise as you see fit and ill thank you in advance.

Just a note.....the last pics 6a and 6b are from my other grow but i thought the challenges it is facing was similar to the new ones.....

thx for your time!

Click to expand...

^agreed
What kind of light ya got goin at this point?
You pack the soil tight in those pots?

Well the newly erupted seedlings posted have only been given a few drops each one time since they were planted 2 days ago. But i guess over watering is a real problem for noobs and im trying to restrain myself. Does the wetness of the media, peat in this case, cause the seed hulls to stay stuck to the leaves? More importantly doi need TO DO anything like gently pry the seed hulls away etc? I just dont want the leaves to rot nside like the other one did. Thx for the reply. They were planted in peat and popped in less than 2 days, so overall i think i started them pretty well.....at the correct depth and not overwet in the peat pellets which i allpwed to drain very well before planting them.

Holistic, sorry i failed to state clearly they are in peat pellets, not packed tight at all....after soaking them to expand them i let them drain for a couple hours and i fluffed the top portion where the seeds went exactly so the seeds would not be packed too tightly. thx for the reply. I havent put them under lights yet should I?

As my last two friends mentioned^^, too much h2o. You can get a pin and GENTLY lift the corner of those seed caps off and let the whole mess dry up a bit. Too much water will rot the neck of the seedlings and they will collapse.

schnooby said:

Well the newly erupted seedlings posted have only been given a few drops each one time since they were planted 2 days ago. But i guess over watering is a real problem for noobs and im trying to restrain myself. Does the wetness of the media, peat in this case, cause the seed hulls to stay stuck to the leaves? More importantly doi need TO DO anything like gently pry the seed hulls away etc? I just dont want the leaves to rot nside like the other one did. Thx for the reply. They were planted in peat and popped in less than 2 days, so overall i think i started them pretty well.....at the correct depth and not overwet in the peat pellets which i allpwed to drain very well before planting them.

Click to expand...

They look fine dude, don't worry yourself.

There is a membrane that is paper thin that the seedlings need to push past and off. Sometimes this membrane is really tough.

Jimmy thx ill do that immediately......as i felt this was somewhat of a time sensitive issue. Should i put thm unde light immediately as well? Right now all i have are a few 2700k cfl with some 6500k on order. Thx so much!

Edit: Jimmy that membrane can cause the leaves to stick together no? Should i gently wipe that membrane away with a cotton ball? I saw another thread where someone with the same issue turned the peat pellet upside down and soaked the entire head in slightly warm watee until the whole mess came off leaving the leaves completely free. I am hesitant to go that far but i dont want to be remiss in tending to them properly.

Holisticfarmer said:

They look fine dude, don't worry yourself.

Click to expand...

Also I've had some issues with those pots, because they're airy the soil drys out a lot quicker. Ya got a dome or somethin to keep it nice and humid in there?

Holistic, i dunno i mean ive read that peat tends to be wetter and more compact than coco.....anyway i went ahead and gentl1y removed the hulls and residual membrane with apparent success as the leaves even released some tension after the membrane was loosened....hopefully thats a good sign.

Am i not supposed to put them under lights because thats what i did......at this stage are they still supposed to be kept humid?

Seedlings generally like a humid more humid environment I kept mine under a dome for just a couple weeks

Don't let the peat get to dry. Dry peat actually repels water.

I can only tell you what I like to do and it's probably wrong with the entire consensus but ... So I like to remove the stubborn seed caps and let the the leaves open up. If they stay clasped together tightly like my wife's legs then I like to GENTLY remove them with tweezers or a tooth pick. DO NOT FORCE ANYTHING THAT IS BEING RESISTANT !!!! I immediately put them under a few 5,000 k cfls 18 on . I don't dome them or feed them or mist them or anything. A little water when mostly dry and smoke a bowl it's that easy. My seedlings are bomb in my opinion, but play with stuff, experiment ,try your ideas just keep the basic stuff in mind

Today all my babies are much worse. Honestly it looks like theyre all too dry and perhaps the lights were too close. I put them in shoe boxes with cellophane on top to increase the humidity. Im feeling very discouraged right now......

I only had them under 2 23watt cfls about an inch or two away and my previously healthiest plant, the moneymaker has a completley dropping head. The coco plug its in was bone dry.

So dry is good right guys?

For anyone following this catastrophe of mine heres an update:

i decided to give my girls some sleep. Until now ive had them on 24/0 light and perhaps that among other things has stressed them out. I have also started misting them every few hours to not allow the media to completely dry out and i also put clear baggies over them to raise the ambient humidity.

I realize now i should have done alot more reading, viewing and research and made better accomodations for my seedlings which are known to be very fragile in the early stages. I might have to chock up this grow to a learning experience failure and knowing what not to do next time.....

will update as things change

here is the droopy moneymaker that used to be my healthiest plant. Can anyone tell me why the head would turn down and feel like its stuck there? The stem has also shrunk in diameter. I folded a piece of paper and put it jnderneath the head to make it face upward so it can at least get some light.