Hi needed some advice on when to start my daylily seeds. Here in PA (zone 5–6) I gathered my seeds August - October . They have been going through the stratifying process. My question is when should I start trying to germinate them? Our last average frost date is in May and I do have a grow light setup but still am unsure when to start the germinating process. Any help appreciated.

Mochajoe, some of us has already started our seeds. I haven't done so yet due to my current schedule of things to do. Mike

I start mine in February, the weekend after the Superbowl, because that's when my holidays and parties are officially behind me and I can start looking forward to Spring.

Harvest mine in July/ August time frame,start cold damp stratification on weekly basis, start planting in cold frame on a weekly basis after 4 wks stratification period. Most of this yrs. Seedlings are 3"to 6" tall , and look pretty good. They will stay in cold frame until frist of May, then planted in already prepared seedling bed. Have lost very few once they sprout. Will post pictures of cold frame. Hope that some of this may be of help, my garden is in zone 6b.

I put mine in cold/moist stratification first of Nov. They are all planted in trays under lights now, with 197 (but who's counting! ) up as of today. I'm relatively new to all this, but I do know that once stratification is begun, as opposed to simple cold storage (no moisture), then the germination process is already underway. So, you have already started. I like to see them grow all winter and prefer to set out strong seedlings. So, the 5 or so months indoors benefits us both. In zone 6B, so they go out between mid May and June.

I love that cold frame!

Cold frame

Kenny is that a heater on the cold frame ?

No Mike, that is a foundation vent for crawl space on a house. It is automatic ( by temperature) , completely closed at 40 degrees, completely open at 70 dregees. I got mine at Lowes. Thanks beenthere. No heat , no electric, . This is 5th yr. Using cold frame ,does pretty well

Kenny thanks for the update.

Kenny, I love your cold-frame too, I'd like to find the plans (I hope you worked off plans). You did a great job either way!

I just planted a mess of seeds... and am in Zone 5a... once they have been stratified the only disadvantage of starting them as early as possible is space, work and the cost of adequate lighting, pest control. I have a friend (Zone 5a) who wont start his until February because they get big enough for him in that time frame to plant outdoors, they then overwinter and most bloom the following summer. Now he has awesome soil.

My soil is not great, my growing season in 5a is shorter than my friend's in 5b by almost a month... so I want my plants to have more of a head start... so I plant earlier. On the downside there will be more work, and I need to use larger planting trays to accommodate larger seedlings indoors.... I use 1020 trays with extra deep inserts (36 per tray). That seems to be big enough... but come spring they will be pretty packed... so even larger would be better (but these are good enough).

As you can see... i am planting seeds in larger containers just to get them germinated with 3 leaves then I will transplant into 1020 inserts one seedling per cell... I am doing it in 2 steps so that my 1020 flats have no spaces where seeds failed to germinate. This saves space for me ultimately... and helps keep things orderly. It is also more work and may cause more stress on the seedlings if transplanting is not done carefully. However, this also allows me to germinate in verliculite which MAY help with dampening off and any fungus gnat issues when seedlings are youngest and more delicate. Also, these lettuce crispers I am germinating in are very cheap... much cheaper than using 1020 tray domes. There are up to 40 seeds in each of these 7in x 7in crispers. This is the 1st time I am doing it this way... we shall see if it was a good or bad idea. LOL

If you dont have tons of seeds I would germinate and grow in the same container. Either 1020 tray/inserts or the red solo cups many folks use. The sooner you start, the sooner you will see the blooms

Excellent salad bar

Talk about dedication. Jeff when I grow up I wanna be like you

Wow thanks everyone. This is my first year starting seeds so your information is a big help. A lot of great ideas. Maybe I'll start in stages so I'm not overwhelmed with a bunch of seedlings all at once. Gary

MochaJoe said:Wow thanks everyone. This is my first year starting seeds so your information is a big help. A lot of great ideas. Maybe I'll start in stages so I'm not overwhelmed with a bunch of seedlings all at once. Gary

When you say they have been going through the stratifying process I'm assuming you mean they are being chilled in damp medium like vermiculite or perlite or on damp kitchen paper towel rather than dry storage in a fridge (which is not stratifying). I would not leave them stratifying much longer than 8 weeks or so if possible.

I wanna be like Jeff, too!

Oh-Oh, hope he didn't see us rolling on the floor laughing!

@kennysh very nice cold frame.

I need one of these and have been pondering designs in my head for some time. May have to steal your design.

Daylily seedlings don't mind being crowded, and in their early stages, seem to thrive on it. There are as many ways to do this as there are people doing it, but I feel like a lot of excessive handling and transplanting before lining out may be a waste of time and energy. It's more than I want to do, even with just a few hundred seedlings.

I dug through my notes and found an old seedling thread that may be helpful to folks just getting started. It's long, but has some really good information regarding culture, planting density and growth, and a lot of valuable dialog.

Here are two posts with images that made me rethink how I do things.

‪https://garden.org/thread/view_post/1051401/‬

‪https://garden.org/thread/view_post/1115150/‬