in Horticultural Terms

digitS'

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What do you call the situation . .

. when the seed coat traps the seed leaves . .

. after emergence?

Steve
 

Ridgerunner

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Its a family forum. I cant say what I call the situation.

I see that sometimes. The case just doesnt fall off and seems to trap the leaves in it. If it doesnt eventually fall off on its own, Ive been known to very gently remove it, careful not to harm the seed leaves. The seedling needs the nutrients in those seed leaves to grow until the true leaves take over.
 

catjac1975

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Don't know the term. I mist the seed coat lightly with water. It seems that it dries out and traps the leaves. I gently remove them but some times the leaves are damaged.
 

majorcatfish

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well since it's raining and my bags are packed for my trip.
since I did not know the answer and had time to research it what I come up with is "helmet head"
 

digitS'

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Helmet head?!

I hope Charleston is wonderful for you, Major!

Helmet head?! Yeah, I guess that is kind of it . . . the helmet can be screwed down so tight that battle fatigue sets in if the plant can't break free! After observing the difference in seedling performance several years ago, I have been very carefully removing the seed case when necessary. It seems to be both a seed viability problem and an environmental situation. I guess . . .

Old seed seems to have more of them but I've also got different batches of the same seed planted and the #'s with the problem are quite different. Why that might be - I haven't a clue.

Sometimes it is very difficult to remove the seed case without damage. Sometimes, impossible. Too bad . . .

Steve
 

digitS'

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I understand that it is a beautiful city, as well.

Thanks Major. That article reminds me! I don't take the seed coat off if it only on 1 leaf.

It is when the leaf tips are trapped. If you allow the seedling to continue with that problem, the true leaves may very well grow. However, they will be stunted, in my experience.

If the cotyledon leaves don't even appear outside the "helmet" -- I won't try to free the seedling. I'm sure that I'm doing damage even when I can't see I've done a thing to harm the plant. There's a range of damage short of "death" and I'm not likely to be happy with a plant that begins life with a serious struggle that it can't overcome.

Steve
 

journey11

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I hate it when that happens because it makes me OCD. :p I always want to pluck them off, but have learned that really it's better to just leave them alone and wait for cotyledons to grow bigger and pop themselves out. I mist them with water too, Cat. That helps. If I get impatient and pull them off, inevitably I damage them.
 

MontyJ

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digitS' said:
What do you call the situation . .

. when the seed coat traps the seed leaves . .

. after emergence?

Steve
The technical, horticultural term is PITA ;)
 

897tgigvib

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For some reason, I guess there is no name for it!

Howzabout we invent a nice greek latin tern for it based on PITA.

some para, poly, centro, pita, terra type parts in the word for it, at least.
 

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