Sugar pine seedling died

I report this news with a heavy heart indeed: my sole sugar pine seedling died, of damping-off disease. The seedling looked great for a while, but then just seemed to stall. The true leaves took forever to appear, and then stayed at <1 mm in length.

Surprisingly, I have little experience with damping off. Perhaps conifer seeds are relatively resistant? The symptoms are disturbing because they seem fixable. It seems like the plant would survive if you could just prop it up.

The good news is that this little seedling awakened me to the beauty of sugar pines. I am nothing if not persistent. I'll have more sugar pine seedlings soon enough.