I have one germinated seedling that, while otherwise healthy, doesn’t seem to be uprighting itself or elongating its very short stem. Somehow before or during germination, the seed managed to turn itself perpendicular to the soil surface so that the radical emerged at the surface with the rest of the seed buried straight down into the soil. The radical then did a 180
After reading that red light stimulates unhooking (but far-red light appears to generally stimulate hypocotyl elongation while red light suppresses it), I’ve decided to worry more about the hook than the length of the stem. I carefully lifted out the seedling, replaced it in the soil at an angle, and left its top exposed to the light this time. The root was very long and healthy as I’d suspected… I hope this works.
I’ve done somthing simular on a number of occasions with good luck. Hope yours works as well.
Joan
Random fact which may or may not be related – in some other plants (I believe the specific example I read about was Stewartia – but am not sure) that require cold stratification in order to germinate will sometimes germinate without a cold period, but show little or no stem elongation until the seedling experiences its first winter. I assume that this seedling did germinate after a normal cold period, so that is probably NOT what is happening in this case, but I thought I’d mention it as a possibility.
Joseph
Thanks for the support! I think it might be a little better now, and even though it’s not straightening much yet and hasn’t lengthened, the cotyledons are beginning to emerge from the seed coat. I think that replanting the seedling on a slant has helped it immensely. I’ve actually had Rubus seedlings from bizarre crosses that had trouble and ended up bent at 90