seeds sprouting and heads breaking off?

So my seeds have been sprouting and when i check them in the morning or whatever the seed heads, the top where the leaves are, is completely broken off of the stem. Wtf?

Anyone had this issue before? That's two seeds now in a row, seeds were perfectly fine.

Is there someone around that doesn't like you growing?

nope i live alone. The only things i can think of is that maybe ph is not good, or that i am using a mix of compost and potting soil..cheap stuff. Never had this problem before. very weird. I thought maybe bugs as well but the seedlings look untouched, they're just losing their heads!

That's crazy, I've sprouted a lot of seeds of all sorts and never seen that before. Maybe someone else knows. If you figure it out, post it. I'm very curious.

found this on another site

"Hon, what you have is a case of "damping off" fungus. The stem gets "pinched-looking" and the top of the seedling falls over....dead. "Damping off" is 100% fatal. Sorry for your loss!

The cure is simple! :yay:

You need to microwave, or bake (250 degrees), your soil before using it! Get the potting soil damp and nuke or bake it until it is steaming hot all the way though! This will kill the fungus spores that killed your seedling! Be sure to let the potting soil cool completely before putting your pre-sprouted seeds in it."

i have actually seen that damping off before, but my seedlings are actually totally just getting beheaded! they fall right off

Snails.... or birds. I often have the same thing when planting vegetables outdoors.

this is indoor

So today I figured my seeds should have popped by now. I dug them out of my starter containers and opened up the seed shells. nothing inside. they were empty. Nothing in sight anywhere either, no tap root in the soil or etc. As I was digging them out there was lots and lots of tiny clear worms inside the soil. I googled it and they may be worms that come in compost, which makes sense because i added a mixture of compost to my soil. But those compost worms are supposed to eat the decomposing compost and not your plants. WTF???

So I went to the store and got some seed starter tray thing and new soil, potting mix this time and not any compost. So I've put some more seeds in water. we will see what happens i guess

So after a little more research it seems like these little worms don't go for roots but roots get caught in the crossfire and they will eat them. The worms are only in the two two inches of soil,.. fungus gnats maybe. considering that the seed pods were empty im guessing they crawled right up in there and ate it away. little buggers. threw out that soil. won't be using that anymore.

sunandsky said:

So after a little more research it seems like these little worms don't go for roots but roots get caught in the crossfire and they will eat them. The worms are only in the two two inches of soil,.. fungus gnats maybe. considering that the seed pods were empty im guessing they crawled right up in there and ate it away. little buggers. threw out that soil. won't be using that anymore.

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In the future, a bit of diatomaceous earth should help you out with this. The DE shreds the worms as they wriggle through the soil.


I would recommend adding some to your new soil, just to be safe.

Okay So mystery solved. Took out the microscope. Turns out what i thought was a fruit fly infestation is fungus gnats. Guess they were laying their eggs in the soil and have killed my seedlings. I have some tape up in the tent and have caught a whole bunch but its still pretty badly infested in there.

..okay wtf i thought i posted this yesteray? whtas going on here?

prostheticninja said:

In the future, a bit of diatomaceous earth should help you out with this. The DE shreds the worms as they wriggle through the soil.


I would recommend adding some to your new soil, just to be safe.

Click to expand...

thanks man. how much do i add? i'm going to be planting in a 2 litre pot first and then into a five gallon bucketafter that

sunandsky said:

thanks man. how much do i add? i'm going to be planting in a 2 litre pot first and then into a five gallon bucketafter that

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I'm not sure, to be honest. You most likely cannot go over board with it, unless you were to have a soil mainly consisting of DE. I would just add a few big pinches, mix it in, and see how it looks.