Seeds that sprout but the seed casing doesn't want to come

Off? Should I try and pull or break off the seed casing. Not sure what to call it, casing? On a few hard shelled seeds they can't seem to get they're leaves out. A stalk with a seed shell on the end.

Any ideas what to do?

I'd try and spritz the seed shell with water constantly, so that it will try and soften up.
Ideally, for some seeds, the seed should be planted deeper in the soil, and the sprout will crook up, leaving the seed shell down in the soil, and as the plant crooks up, the seed leaves, or cotyledons will be pulled, and the seed case will be left in the soil.
As you spritz the seed coat, you can gently press the seed coat on the split lines, to help open the coat, but do not pull. If you pull the seed leaves off the sprout, the plants pretty much dead.

Others may give better advice.
Good luck.

That happened to me too. I did the same thing. I was germinating it in a plastic cup so I took it and put it in a small clear plastic shoe box and put a drop of water on the seed shell and misted the inside of the box to up the humidity and then sealed the lid on.
The shell popped off before I got home from work. I had a couple others I had to leave in the box for a couple days repeating the drop of water every day.

I did get the the sprout to bend up. Then they just popped the seed casing right out of the soil, soil and all. I'll give the watering thing a try and see if they'll soften up. I'm only having this problem with some very hard tropical seeds. Had to use a dremel tool to nick them.

Dremel tool to cut through hardened seeds! Never thought of that. Thanks!

Oh ya the dremel tool is so much easier. Small seeds are a little hard to hold but other than that it works well for me.

I had that problem once and those suckers really hung on to the leaf. I thought about it after wards and wondered if I should've soaked these seeds first before planting. I hear alot of people saying to soak seeds but I've never done that. Maybe that would help? Anyone know?????

Soaking the seeds before you plant them is sometimes necessary in order for it to germinate, but it won't prevent this from happening. I've had this happen on seeds that I have soaked.

I tend to agree with ecrane3, like these seedlings of plumerias for instance. The casing sometimes, hang on for an extended time (due to its slow growth). But likes Castor beans, they grow so rapidly, with natural rain and moisture, the casing will eventually fall off. I'll have to refrain myself from spriting this type of seedlings, since plumeria won't tolerate high humidity. It could invite rust problem when being misted.

In this picture, you can see the seedling's casing on the left corner. I just wait for it to outgrow its casing naturally. Others seedlings had without intervention.

That's exactly what a few of mine look like. By the way, on the really hard seeds I do soak them for 24 hrs before planting them. Seems to speed them up. The tropical plants seem to always need nicking, soaking and warm temps to germinate.