I also just took the seed coats off a couple of Convulvulus tricolor seedlings, though they had split the seed coats and were probably going to manage it themselves.
Is this a known problem? Am I doing something wrong, like planting too deep or growing the seedlings too cool? Should I do anything about it when it happens, or just let nature take its course? (The fairy duster's germination is fast but poor and I don't want to throw out a seedling that might become a shrub someday.)
On another subject, I posted earlier about transplanting asparagus that had already broken dormancy. I know everyone has been waiting breathlessly for the results. Well, they're all alive, but way smaller than the one I transplanted during winter. Still, I'll bet this is better than waiting till fall would have been. So you /can/ transplant asparagus that has sent up spears--but I wish I hadn't waited so long.
-- Jerry Friedman