The cups in the red rectangle are all getting tossed out tonight after I drink my coffee
Those are the plants that are not progressing. They have been cotyledons for over a month. There were a few more like that but they started to grow regular leafs and were picked through to keep the better ones.
I am starting to learn what is going on and how to battle it. I basically know the seeds are old and we're just stored on a shelf for 3+ years so about 50-60% have dried out inside. So when I germinate that automatically counts out 50-60% as they will never sprout regardless... Out of the 40-50% that will sprout, half of those if not more are real weak and easy to mess up. They are finicky and you have to basically baby them the whole time and everything has to be just right because they are so old and weak so if you do anything wrong that little thing will ruin them. They can't get too dry, but they can't get too wet... They can't be buried too shallow, but they can't be buried too deep.... If you bury them just a tad too deep they suffocate. If you don't bury them deep enough they either dry out too quick or they sprout fine but they weren't deep enough to push the shell off on their own. So I have been fighting with burying them too deep and never see anything sprout but when I dig them up they will be a half inch to about an inch and growing sideways in a circle. Some crack and pop the Taproot but the root won't extend it just swells and gets fat with no hairs and some just stay that shape like the letter "C". Some like that even work the shell off and are just in the "C" shape with a fat smooth root and two cotyledon, but they never grow. Some grow fine but once they get to the point the first set of leafs is supposed to come out, they just stop, never sprout true leafs, but they don't die. They stay cotyledons and here and there after a few weeks they start to eventually grow and get nef leafs, but the leafs grow mutated for awhile and then start growing normal. The one's in the red rectangle have been just cotyledons for over 45 days now. Now that I know all this I am sprouting some more seeds, to get a better germination rate by selecting through the seeds for the best ones, and I am sprouting them in a paper towel and ziplock bag until the root is an inch, and then they will be transplanted into cups. They are too old to germinate naturally under ground. They don't have the strength like fresh seeds. So I have been putting a bunch in bags in paper towels and constantly monitoring them. I think before my mistake was trying to transplant them the second they crack because let's say 10 crack out of 30. I would take the 10 that crack and immediately transplant them before any Taproot emerges. And not all those 10 will be good or strong. Out of the 10 maybe 1-2 will grow strong and healthy. Some could have just cracked due to moisture being present but weren't viable to begin with. So I think if I start a batch in paper towel and a baggy, once they start to germinate I should wait and see until the best growing ones have a Taproot an inch long, and ONLY transplant those ones... Throw away anything smaller/growing slower... Because those are the stragglers! They either want to live and grow or they don't! But not all want to do if they don't want to grow, I don't want to grow THEM! BYE FELICIA!
