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Cosmos seedling problem
Mark Macgregor
Posts: 6
I've been growing some Cosmos seedlings in trays from seeds gathered from last years Cosmos plants. Quite alot of them seem to be coming up with seed shell stuck on the first leaves. They're too fragile to try pulling the shell off and I'm not sure what's causing it and what to do about it.
Will they drop off by themselves eventually?
Is it just bad luck that they're doing this or is it caused by bad seeds? I don't remember having this problem with the original seeds which came with last years gardeners world magazine.
Anyone have any experience/ tips for dealing with it? So far I've just been pulling the affected ones out and putting a new seed in.
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Posts
Hi Mark, occasionally that has happened with my tomato seedlings. I just leave them alone and the true leaves appear as normal.
This has sometimes happened to me, and yes, they always drop off in the plant's own time - probably best not to pull - Mother Nature will do her thing. Maybe if you keep them really moist when they are under the compost it will help soften them when they come up?
Hi Mark, this is fairly common for me, as they grow they tend to drop off. I've also pinched a couple off before and the seedling has gone on to grow fine.
I try misting the seedlings, this softens the seed coat and the plants does free itself, rather like a butterfly splitting out of its crysalis...
Thanks for the advice everyone. I started potting up some of the seedlings today so hopefully they'll get a good headstart and I'll have some lovely white Cosmos again this year.
Quite a few of my seedlings have done this too; the tomato newsletter that I get suggests a drop of water issued via a pipette, but frankly, the seed casing will fall off soon anyway