Helmet Head!

Ever heard of helmet head? No this has nothing to do with football or hockey players, it's something that can affect seedlings. When seedlings push through the soil they sometimes will not lose the hard seed "shell" or "coating". This will not allow the leaves to unfurl and the seedling to grow. What are the reasons for helmet head happening? What can be done to prevent it from happening.

The reason for this happening:

• the seeds were planted to swallow

• not enough humidity

• type of seed (bigger seeds such as peppers and pumpkins)

Ways to prevent helmet seed

• Soak bigger seeds before planting (such as tomato, pepper, and pumpkin seeds)

• Make sure soil stays wet, but not overly saturated.

• Use humidity domes.

• Make sure you are planting at an appropriate depth (2-3 times their width).

What happens if you get helmet head? You can try to pry off the seed coating. Success will depend on how attached the seed coating is on the seedling. If I can see some leaves I'm had good success getting the coating off. If there are no leaves I've typically culled the seedling. Prevention is key!

Atlantic Pepper Seeds wrote a really good article on how they prevent helmet head and get good germination. Another good source on helmet head in pepper seedlings.

The pictures below: First picture is Globe Thistle which is struggling with dampening off and helmet head. Picture 2 if you look closely to the top left you can see some peppers seedlings have helmet head.