First, let me say that I'm not overly careful when deflasking, so any purists out there may disagree with my advice. I, too, am in SF, and this has worked for me.
1. I break the flask and remove the contents into a plastic collander. I rinse and rinse until all the agar is removed. I usually wear latex gloves.
2. If the seedlings are green and healthy, I do not bother to treat them with fungicide. If there is some evidence of fungus or rot in the flask, however, I rinse the babies with a very weak solution of Cleary's 3336.
3. I separate the seedlings into 2 categories - big and little.
4. Big seedlings go into cellpacks, purchased from OFE, with seedling mix, also purchased from OFE. (Isn't it nice living in SF? So many resources close by!) One seedling per cell. I've found this works better than compotting for me. The cellpacks then go outside in a shaded, protected area of my shadehouse, and they get watered every day or every other day. You have to watch them, though, because they can melt quickly from too much water.
5. The tiny seedlings go into a large glass bowl that has been layered in the bottom with good, saturated sphagnum moss. Just place the plantlets on the moss, don't try to "pot" them standing upright. I place a glass plate over the top of the bowl, creating a lid. The now-sealed container goes under a plant light, and is misted once a week or so. The sealed environment stays plenty moist, and the seedlings turn bright green and grow pretty fast.
One other thing, I leave the seedlings in flask for as long as I can. You can tell when they've depleted the nutrients in the agar, because they will begin to show signs of stress. Get them out as soon as possible after that happens, and you will have big, healthy seedlings.
This is what I do, and it's worked very well for me. Good luck!
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Removing Seedlings from flask.
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