I have heard that here in the south to plant the crown right at ground level or actually above. I just plant and try and make sure it's not more than an inch below the surface. I have never lost any during the summer to crown rot just in the winter when we had the hot/cold/hot/freeze weather.
At my old place I had daylilies in the ground and I mulched these to keep the soil moist but since all the beds now are nothing but pine bark there is no need to mulch.

tink3472 said:I have heard that here in the south to plant the crown right at ground level or actually above. I just plant and try and make sure it's not more than an inch below the surface. I have never lost any during the summer to crown rot just in the winter when we had the hot/cold/hot/freeze weather.
At my old place I had daylilies in the ground and I mulched these to keep the soil moist but since all the beds now are nothing but pine bark there is no need to mulch.

Hi Michelle - I never knew you could grow daylilies in all pine bark. How deep are your beds?

The beds in the hybridizing area and seedling beds are 10" deep, we use 2x10s. The others are made of rocks and they are anywhere from 12" to 3ft deep. If you notice when you dig up a daylily that the roots spread outward more so than downward so 10-12" deep is plenty good.

Pine Bark (the small dime size or nickel size pieces, not the shredded or big nugget size) mixed with about 10% sand is what most nurseries around here use to pot up cuttings or seedlings or plugs and such. Then you can add whatever amendments you want such as chicken litter, alfalfa pellets, fertilizer, and whatever else you may want to use.

Michele,

I have heard that mulch, when it breaks down takes nitrogen from the soil (well, it is the medium). How do you compensate for that?

Do you keep changing the food (fertilizer) part?

I just have you confused. I thought you were planting in pots.

Bobbie,
I'm not sure how much nitrogen it actually takes away when breaking down so I really don't know.


What we do is take the pine bark and sand and mix together. We were adding lime to help raise the ph since pine bark is a little acidic. Now, since the chicken litter has added calcium and it raises the ph we're not adding lime.
So chicken litter, alfalfa pellets, slow release fertilizer, milorganite, and a little Epsom salt are added and mixed in the planting hole or tilled in, this is where the nitrogen and other nutrients comes into play. We also top dress with some of these also.
We then fertilize with a water soluable fertilizer in a regular basis, once every week or two. I have been told that with our heat, moisture, and rain it's hard to over fertilize here because it gets depleted fast.

When we take everything up in the fall to divide and then replant what we are going to keep back in the beds we add the chicken litter and the other stuff to the hole and as top dress. In the spring we will top dress with more of this. I use a lot of alfalfa pellets so the worms will be happy. So basically twice a year we add the admenments to the beds.

No I don't plant just in pots. The sale plants go into pots when we divide in the fall or if I get something in late spring and I don't have room for it in the bed I will pot it.

Thanks Michele, that helps me understand better. You seem to have your program down to what works great for you!