I started some 3 year old seeds, just to see if they would germinate. They were freebies (Marglobe) that came with ones I ordered (Delicious) but never got planted. I wanted to see if they were still viable, because I would like to plant the ones I ordered. So I did the wet paper towel method, and only one seed germinated, 3 days after starting them. So I potted it up and thought for sure it would be up in a couple days.
NOTHING. After 3 days I figured it died, so I poked around in the dirt expecting to find the withered remains of it. Lo and behold, it was alive and growing, but hadn't broke the surface of the potting mix yet. I noticed it had lost the radicle though, and had what appeared to be a few real fine roots growing out of the edges of the stem. I figured it was a goner, but reset it in the soil anyway. After a couple days, it was still alive but had it's helmet on, and I was certain that was going to kill it. So I gently squeezed the edges of the seed coat with a fine tweezers, and it cracked so I was able to remove it.
The cotyledons were well curled up, but I figured they would straighten out by the next day. NOPE, stayed curled up and don't even look like cotyledons. It reminds me of a fiddle head fern. The stem has gotten longer, and it appears it may have opened up ever so slightly. It also has little tiny nubs on the stem just below the cotyledons, that resemble adventitious root beginnings. And, the tip of the cotyledons looks a little yellow.
It's the queerest thing I've ever seen. I think it's a mutant mater.
I wasn't even going to keep this plant going after germination. My only aim was to test the viability of the 3 year old seeds. But now after all this craziness, I have to grow it out to see what the outcome is. So I'm carefully tending to it to keep it alive. It's day 11 since I put it in the paper towels, and it has been very slow going since it got a radicle after 3 days. By now it should be taller and have it's first true leaves.
If I had to guess, I think it had the beginnings of roots forming, and then the radicle broke off. I believe the radicle is what takes up the bulk of the water in the beginning until roots are established. So maybe it's just slowed way down because it lost the radicle and has been sucking all it's moisture through those tiny hair like roots that were not even a 1/2 cm long. The first pic is from 4 to 5 days ago, and the second one is today. The second one appears to be about double the size of the first. But it's only a couple cm's longer, because I took that pic from closer up. Sorry I don't know why the pics are sideways, or how to fix that.
Has anyone ever seen anything like this? It's nuts!
