I had a ton of 2020 seeds that got neglected and I finally recently went through them, discarding the ones that I could tell were bad. One group that I particularly wanted to sprout (paper towel method) were not responding, so I carefully removed the seed coat on six of them.

It was like I jump started them.... In 24 hrs they all started to show signs of growth. May try on some others that seem slow to germinate.... The seeds in the two pics are not in the same position... I dropped the container while taking the second photo :(

Wow! I may have to try that.

Yes peeling the seeds does work, I tried it after reading about some experiments done with daylily seeds and sure enough they germinated very quickly. The downside is that without the protective black seed coat they are more vulnerable to diseases so be careful what you plant them into. I could not get any good seed starting medium in mid-winter here when I tried it so had to use potting mix and some of the seeds rotted after planting.

If your seeds are taking a long time to germinate then other things you can try are stratifying (chilling in a fridge in damp medium, such as a damp paper towel or vermiculite) for 3-4 weeks and then starting them at room temp, or soaking them in dilute hydrogen peroxide.

Mike Huben has also removed some of the seed coat by shaking the seeds in a jar with sandpaper (scarification). According to the earlier research on daylily seeds supposedly it isn't the seed coat itself that slows germination (it's not impervious to water) but a membrane underneath that blocks oxygen.

Hopefully you'll have better luck growing the peeled ones on than I did although I didn't lose all of them.

sooby said: Yes peeling the seeds does work, I tried it after reading about some experiments done with daylily seeds and sure enough they germinated very quickly. The downside is that without the protective black seed coat they are more vulnerable to diseases so be careful what you plant them into....

You are correct.... I have experienced some of that with some others I first attempted this with... they loose their natural protection.