Hey Ravi,

I don't know why you would remove the seed casing, because they will come off with time. I would just let nature take it course.

I agree--leave them alone-they almost always come off even if it takes a few days. When I try to remove them I end up killing about half of them.

Many thanks for the quick responses guys. I will do just that and leave them alone.

Thanks again,

Ravi

Sometimes it helps to keep the casing damp.

Dale

Second what Dale said. Wetting them helps. Every once in a while, some are just impossible to remove (of course on the rarest wild ones).

Another member of this forum (I believe he still is) posted pics a long time ago about using scissors and clipping the end. It works well, but you need to have a STEADY hand. A pic is worth a 1,000 words.

Chris

Keep touching them with drops of water on a fingertip to keep them damp, at least a couple of times a day. Some say saliva works even better. I'm surprised that some of them take several days to loosen completely, yet the seedlings come out fine.

Most that I've tried removing other ways have ended up dead...guess I'm too clumsy to do pepper surgery.

I don't know...this one is not looking good. Compare the "sprouted" one beside it. I might have to try to cut it open next week.

Ravi
[IMG]http://i138.photobucket.com/albums/q266/TRFanatic_photos/100_2145.jpg[/IMG]

Dammit I can never get these pics right. Sorry for the fuzziness and disregard the date--I just took this.
{{gwi:1141100}}

I leave mine for several days without doing anything to them and they come out all right. How do you think they survive on their own?

I use a very fine tweezer to just pinch the seed "corners" a little (Pepper seeds kind of look like a disk with 2 flat sides and the edge around). No need to be rough. That's normally enough to have the casing release the leaves. I have never killed a plant doing it that way. Scissors or knives really opens up lots of opportunities for damage.

As long as you don't pull off the cotyledons they will survive (in all my cases they have) I have actually pulled off half of the cotyledon and they grew just fine. I use a pair of fingernail clippers and hold it up to the light and you can see right through the casing, just cut around the edges the best you can and it should speed things up on those stubborn ones but still keep them moist.

Dale

you need to plant it now that its germed :)

when the seed germinates, the tap root goes down and the stem comes up out of the growing medium. once the stem is showing above ground, the sprout will pull the cotyledons out of the seed husk and stand upright.

Sorry guys I don't know what a "cotyledon" is?? It is planted in soil and still completely unopened. It is the only one of 14 seeds. I have been wetting frequently throughout the day this weekend but tomorrow I will be at work all day. I will try some manual intervention if it hasn't opened by Tuesday.

Thanks alot,

Ravi

Well son of a gun if the little sucker didn't just fall off. It had raised up slightly and I sprayed it with water and it just plain fell off.

Thanks for all the help,

Ravi

Those two little leaves you see now that the casing is off are the cotyledons (seed leaves). They were preformed inside the seed. They contain reserve food that helps the plant grow until some "true" leaves (which are a bit different in shape) grow and produce sugars for the plant. In peppers, the cotyledons remain on the stem for quite awhile. In some other types of plants they soon whither and fall off.

Glad to hear your plants are doing well.

I find that soaking the seeds for at least several hours before planting them almost always avoids this problem

This first pic was taken on Monday the 14th of a 7-pot that i pulled the seed casing off of. There is only a tiny bit of cotyledons left on the seedling.This is my experiment and documentation of just how strong and resilient these plants are. I am very confident that this plant will grow as it normally would had I not ripped the cotyledons in 1/2.

This picture was taken today.

Updated pics to come.

Dale

Dale your little pepper plant will be fine.

Over the years I've used water to keep the casings moist. I've used tweezers and scissors to free the little cotyledon leaves. Rarely have I lost a patient. :)

Some varieties tend to hold on to the casing more than others.

jwm1960,I did it on purpose. I am positive that it will be OK I do it on a lot of stubborn seedlings this is just to show others that these plants can survive almost anything.

Dale

This is a serious question; even if most casings fall off, some don't, and they can kill the seedling.

On one of the forums, someone posted a method and I used it this spring and it worked perfectly.

What you do is spritz the casing and let it soak in for five minutes.

Then, you put your finger under the casing and gently flick upwards. The casing should just pop off after a few flicks. If it doesn't, I just left it another day, or even just a couple of hours, and try again.

Worked great.

I'm not sure how to answer this, I personally will never try to flick off the seed casing of any of my pepper seedlings. these seedlings are very resiliant but also very fragile. you may be able to flick the casing off of a seedling that is loose and would probably come off in a day or two anyway but you would never flick one off that is on so tight that it could possibly kill the plant.

Dale

Dale

Perhaps those seedlings that aren't able to free themselves from the seed casing are weaker plants which would not have survived in a natural situation. In Dale's picture some of the cotyledon remains--usually it all comes off and those tend not to survive. His little seedling also has already developed a nice root system so I suspect with those two factors it will survive.

I just dripped some water on mine and One just fell off and couple of the others one leaf made it free. I will try that method as time goes on. Ya'll have a lot great ideas and thank you for sharing them.

John