Removing Seed Casings

This post follows on nicely from the one yesterday. You will remember that, when I was taking my update photographs I noticed that the Carrots, which are growing well, had a large proportion of seedlings with the seed casing attached to the plant and preventing the leaves from spreading.

This is a common problem and is addressed in many places on the web but I thought I would quickly post a blog about what I did about it just now.

This is one of the Carrot seedlings with the seed casing still trapping the young leaves.

A lot of blogs suggest moistening the casing which will allow it to be removed easier and, to be fair, I think that when I come to the next round of carrying out this task I will do that. This time, as I was impatient, I tried it without using moisture.

I got a Stanley knife, and a pair of needle-nose pliers, and very carefully and gently loosened the casing, being sure to not uproot the seedling. With a minute or so per seedling of effort I was able to detach the casing without causing any tearing of the leaf.

Just on the very tip of these needle-nose pliers you can see the removed casing.

This is what a seedling should look like, with no casing trapping the leaves and able to grow healthily and well.

Anyway, that's a short update for you today.

Keep Growing.