I have some bachelor buttons that grew w/ long hypocotyl, relatively speaking, 1.5-2" that fell over. They have really nice dense clumps of true leaves 3-4" tall, 5-9 leaves growing almost like a rosette or crown (think parsley) rather than the leaves on stems, things like my peppers or snapdragons I'm terrified that they're just holding onto their roots by this little thread, and so afraid I'll snap them.

When I do remove them (very carefully) from their starter cells to the garden how deep should I bury them? Does the hypocotyl go underground? Or will I rot the base of the rosette/crown/epicotyl if it gets too close? The seedlings are doing really well so I don't want to make a mess of them. I tried getting a picture of the plants themselves, but they're too big and too close in their trays to see what I'm talking about, so I borrowed this pic:

the answer is yes- bury the hypocotyl.

about a week ago I buried them to various depths, and the ones buried right up to their true leaves are doing best

Good to know, thanks! I've been adding soil to dangerously tall seedlings, but wasn't sure if I was not causing other problems by doing so.

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Digging deep enough for the the hypocotyl to be at soil level ended up beautifully

thank you for posting your results!
I do this experiment every year, and always forget which were which by the time they're big enough to evaluate results, kinda messing up my scientific method.

Im glad I could share. Theres really a huge benefit in size and growth shape for the bachelor buttons, asters and cilantro that was buried up to the first true leaves.

I always do that, especially after growing indoors to help correct any stretch.