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Helmets on or off

megamoo

megamoo

Some of my seeds have just popped up like this
helmet002.jpg


I want to help them out but don't want to kill them in the process. So should I take their Helmets off or let nature do its thing? I'm guessing that not everyone aggrees about this.

Also I wanted to know if there is an age limit for CO2 ? Is it pointless to use CO2 on seedlings that only have their first set of leaves??
 
I hate it when that happens!

I've had some success just sliding the seed casing off in the past but other times accidentally pulled their heads off in the process!

As much as some people say soaking seeds prior to sowing isn't necessary, I find doing so helps considerably with preventing stuck helmets (at least in my experience anyway).
 
give them some time, they should drop the helmet in a few days. if you do end up having to pull em off make sure you wet them real good and gently squeeze the seed from the edges as you pull, this will make the seed open and slide off. just be very gentle and make sure the seed is nice and moist , if its dry and you try and pull it off it will break.
 
If your seedlings are strong enough they will manage to push out the seedcoats by themselves. But if you can't wait you can risk it by removing the coats by applying a drop
Or so of diluted tea or you own saliva to soften the coating. Leave it alone for a couple of minutes and you can pry the coating off with either your hands or tweezers. But if you're not as capable of doing something as surgical as this you should just leave it alone. I've killed seedlings doing this. Lol.

Hey wm, nice seeing you on here again.
 
My thoughts lean towards what would happen if this thing sprouted out of the ground wild, with no human to look at it - the helmet would remain for a while, unless some animal or bug happened along and knocked it off. But also, what really does happen even with humans around - usually the plant gets bigger and stronger and the helmet comes off on its own anyway, just because the plant's grown out of it. I've never seen a plant suffer any real damage from this, so don't really consider it an issue. Has it ever been a problem for you?
 
I have ripped the head off a seedling trying to pull the seedcoat off very roughly before but I had enough sprouting clean so I didn't really care. I also left one on and the very tips of the seed leaves were stuck fast in it. It looked ridiculous so I pulled the coat and the tips of the leaves off and it had enough leaf left to keep growing.

These specific ones are important because I don't have a whole lot of them. I'm happy to let them go for a bit and see if they can do it.

Anyone have any thoughts on CO2??
 
My thought with the seed coats is to leave them alone. I had a jalapeño seedling grow up and produce just fine after having a stuck seed coat. The cotyledon's were damaged and twisted, but it grew normally after that. Have not researched the use of CO[sub]2[/sub] on plants, but my knee jerk reaction is it is really not necessary. Our atmosphere has plenty of CO[sub]2[/sub] all ready, and more due to human activity than it has had in thousands of years.
 
First, when this happens I give the seedling's cap a misting of epsom salts, this tends to soften the shell, I then come back in a couple of hours and test the seed cap, by gentlely wiggling it, to see if it is loose or tight. If it appears loose enough I go ahead and attempt to remove it with tweezers. If it appears tight I leave it alone for a couple of days because, like many others, I have killed the seedling. Keep misting it with epsom spray. 2010 was a terrible year for me and having this happen, my gold bullet habs were the worst and I do soak all my seeds for 12 - 24 hours prior to germinating.
 
regarding co2, i have read that 800-1000ppm is useful to capsicum plants. i would assume you could get at least 15-20% faster growth assuming optimal conditions. if you have any deficiencies going on, co2 will exacerbate those conditions. also co2 doent appear to be effective unless you maintain a fairly high temperature, i don't know the numbers for pepper plants but if cannabis is anything to go by you will want to maintain the plant in the mid 80's while the lights are on. i think you will find that, due the economics of co2 enrichment, most of the info on co2 comes from people growing cannabis.

also have you considered how you will seal your environment? i understand you are probably just vegging some small plants for later transplant, but it can become quite difficult to maintain co2 levels while not allowing heat to build up from hid bulbs floro ballasts and such cannabis growers use split ac systems and dehumidifiers to tackle this problem.

im going to use co2 next year when im more comfortable with my aero setup. im curious, if you dont mind coud you share how you plan to enrich co2? do you have a bottle? or a gen?
i have a Honeywell co2 monitor with an analog output, i plan on sending this input to a programmable logic relay to control a simple tank and solenoid setup.

edit:
i just reread your post and i misunderstood your question about co2. As to weather or not it helps at that age i really do not know, id love to know myself if someone more experienced would chime in.
 
I just use a 2l bottle with warm water, sugar and yeast in it. A tube goes from the top of the bottle to around the plants where there are holes in it. I only used it once on some tomato seedlings and I'm don't know if it worked because after a week a certain toddler decided to tip the whole tray upside down on the floor :rolleyes:
 
megamoo said:
I just use a 2l bottle with warm water, sugar and yeast in it. A tube goes from the top of the bottle to around the plants where there are holes in it. I only used it once on some tomato seedlings and I'm don't know if it worked because after a week a certain toddler decided to tip the whole tray upside down on the floor :rolleyes:
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haha, sorry to hear that.
what you are doing sounds alot like what the planted aquarium guys do. i think they just use yeast and jello with warm water.
have you ever measured the co2 ppm around the plants? i think they make cheep syringes that suck in air and give you a reading.
although they are only one use.
 
Well I sprayed the helmets with water and epsom salts to soften them up. Then despite thinking I'd leave them alone I successfully freed a Bhut Jolokia and a Hungarian Black but managed to behead a Habanero :oops:
I still have a few Habs going well so that wasn't such a loss. There are still a few Habaneros with their first two leaves deep in helmets and I'm going to have to let them sort it out on their own.

Don't have a CO2 measuring device. I have a fan on a timer set to come on now and then for air circulation and so the CO2 can't pool around the seedlings and poison them.
 
insanitypepper said:
I wouldnt rush things.
"All good things to those that wait"
Hannible Lector
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So what you are saying is that if I rush and try to take the helmets off these seedlings then some crazy evil genius will drug me, tie me to a chair and feed me my own brains ?!?!?! :shocked:

Hmmm that makes sense, I will leave them alone then.
 
megamoo said:
So what you are saying is that if I rush and try to take the helmets off these seedlings then some crazy evil genius will drug me, tie me to a chair and feed me my own brains ?!?!?! :shocked:

Hmmm that makes sense, I will leave them alone then.
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Yesss Clarice, with fava beans and a nice Chianti. Swessweswe!
 
Just leave them alone. The 1st leaves drop anyway. Why risk killing a perfectly good seedling. Nature put more thought into it than we ever could.
 
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