What do you do when this happens?

Check out the pic, I'm sure this is something that many of us have seen in our grows! Just wondering if you have a seed shell that's stuck onto your seedling, do you ever try to remove it somehow? Would it come off in all cases if I leave it?

This is a Dr. Greenthumb Bubba Kush. It's a pricey seed and I don't want to risk damaging the plant by trying to remove the shell somehow, but I also don't want the plant to get messed up by leaving it there.

What do I do? Any advice? Thanks so much.

I removed many seed shells just be really careful.

You'll get two different opinions........some will say let it alone and others will say remove it.
I always remove it when it happens to me.........mist it with water to soften it and very gently pry it off with a toothpick or tweezers.

Pull it off, it'll be fine.

Here's what I've done that worked: take a cup of water, dip your finger in it so you get a drop hanging from your fingertip, and transfer that drop to the seed shell. Let it hang there and the shell will absorb it and soften up. Once it dries up or gets absorbed, put another drop on. Repeat until the shell can be easily slid off or comes off on its own.

I always peel them off with my fingers. They often have a membrane wrapped around the cotyledons that comes off pretty easily as well.

IMHO the do nothing plan is statistically better than manually taking it off, but it's your plant do as you see fit.

Nature for the win lol.

Thanks everyone for all your answers, I appreciate it. @weedstoner420, I'll dab a drop of water on it a few times over the next couple of days and let nature take its course. If it doesn't come off on its own in a couple of days, I might try to pull the shell apart with two pairs of tweezers under my magnifying lamp.

Wish me luck, I've never tried Doc's BK, I'm looking forward to it!

I carefully and remove it use water to loosen it up first any time I don't remove it the seedling dies..

Use a clean toothpick and carefully pry it off, if it doesn't come off on its own.

"Leave it alone" is solid advice, but I've had seedlings die because the helmet and membrane never fully came off, and the sprout just withered and died. I say give it 3 to 4 days above soil, if the helmet doesn't come off at that point, intervene with a clean toothpick.

Like everyone is saying. Water to help loosen it up. I like to get it wet a few times over an hour or so. Then i get 2 tooth picks and spread the shell off the sprout. Just be very careful and do not to pull up on the sprout.

I have tried leaving it on for a day before while getting it wet occasionally and it didn't seem like it was going to come off on its own. The seedling was also starting to stretch.

Add more soil or just around it to cover it up.

Taking it off may cause damage gotta be so very careful..

Leaving it on can also cause damage if the light is bright or heat can cause yellowing.

Wow, was it ever stuck on, the seed had hardly even split. I used a sharp toothpick in one hand, and sharp tweezers in the other, and got it off, but I had to try to split it apart a bit. I may have scratched the outsides of the cotyledons a bit, but hopefully it'll keep growing. Crossing my fingers.

GiovanniJones said:

Wow, was it ever stuck on, the seed had hardly even split. I used a sharp toothpick in one hand, and sharp tweezers in the other, and got it off, but I had to try to split it apart a bit. I may have scratched the outsides of the cotyledons a bit, but hopefully it'll keep growing. Crossing my fingers.

Click to expand...

A scratched cotyledon won't affect anything. Grow on warrior!!!

I had this happen lots, and I typically pulled the husk off. I then started planting my seeds a bit deeper so the husk would get pulled off by the soil as the sprout grew.

I like to wet 2 cotton swabs
Hold one on each end of cracked hull
Left handed one gets rolled counterclockwise
Right one rolled clock wise
Much like gears work
It’ll create a pushing up effect
(Spray down the husk like stated above to soften it)
This is very gentle on the seedling, haven’t hurt any..

Success, she's alive! I removed the shell yesterday, and it was stuck on more than anything I've seen before, but all is good now. When I checked it after work today, I was scared I'd find it wilting, but it opened up nicely. Thanks for the help, guys!

I'm guilty also of picking off (ever so gently) the seed shell when they seem to want to stick on. Thing is, sometimes your seeds maybe be a bit on the older side - if they have less vigor to them they might run into problems and succumb to damping off and crap like that.
But doing so you're also selecting for plants which may spawn weaker seedlings.
Conversely, if you leave the shells on, and only keep the strong seedlings that discarded their seed shells easily - you'd be selecting for genetics for higher success in germination and early veg.

Let it be. The cotyledon leaves will shuck off the seed shell when they emerge.

sometimes they just need a little hands on time