manual breakfree?

Are there any seeds you help to break free from their own hull? I had some trouble this year with Mirabilis Longiflora, and to a lesser rate, with Mirabilis Jalappa - they germinated, sent out a root, and then were not able to split the hull and unfold the cotyledons - some just died because they couldn't get photosynthesis started. After I noticed, I freed them, which helped some, but others just rotted despite there was no more mechanical limitation.

something similar happens to some of my ipomoeas - in their case it seems like the leathery hull gets hard and dry again if the stem pushes it above ground too early, once again making the plant give up out of starvation. Those are even worse to peel, since the hull ripps to pieces, no clean half-shells like in Mirabilis

Do you have similar experiences? are there better solutions? Mechanical action always is dangerous for young plants. and, if the seedling is free, whats the best way to put it to the ground again? I voted for root tip down, and folded leaves slightly above ground, if the length of the root allowed for that. Any better ideas?

I'm so very new at seed starting, so have limited experience with this. . . I relied on info from other, more experienced seed starters when I encountered this problem.

MY (limited) experience is this year: tomatoes, french marigolds, chinese asters and zinnias. . to whit: everything I grew, there were some that had this problem. The advice I used (successfully with no seedlings ripped out of the growing medium) was to moisten the seed coat (hull) and keep it moistened (regular, frequent drops of saliva - for the enzymes - I used a Q-tip CAREFULLY). . . then by using tweezers, GENTLY "encourage" the "hull" to let go / effortlessly slip off the wet cotledons. This might take several times of using the tweezers before the seedling is free, just have patience.

Seedlings getting stuck in their hulls is usually caused by the seed not being planted deep enough. Since seed packages usually suggest surface sowing Mirabilis seeds, this problem is very likely to occur.

It can happen to any seedling that was sown really shallow. Some can be pulled loose from the hull rather easily (if the hull is kept wet), but not all. One thing I’ve had success with was to cover the seed with more medium just as it shows the first signs of germination. If you can get the seed a little deeper, the moist growing medium will tend to hold the seed down as the seedling sprouts.

Art

moisture and more soil - I'll try that, thanks to both of you!

and coat. OK, so hull is more the hull of a (space) ship, i guess - it's always difficult to find the context-wise fitting word if there are several translations for the isolated term...