I did not get as good germination using the peroxide method. I will go back to just sowing them in pots outdoors. That worked much better for me.

Im not sure about the gnats, I would have to guess they would not help with gnats, but I dont grow inside and have never dealt with them, so Im afraid Im clueless on that one...sorry. The picture is one of last years seedlings, its about 3 weeks at this point. Im so irritated and upset I wasted all my seeds this year on trying something new. Well...live and learn.

http://www.daylily.com/cgi-bin...

This is a random seedling from Rich's auction. I post it to show how big and healthy a seedling can get and stay in a very small space, if the 'space' gives room for the roots to sit in water...like with the sponges. Altho mine have NEVER looked as good as his, I have kept them a good year in the sponges. I need to fertilize them more I see, like his.

gardenglory, sorry about the failure of the new method.
I know you have heard this a million times but never put all your eggs (daylily seeds) in one basket. I am new to starting daylily seeds pretty much. So I tried the paper towel method, seeds folded up in a damp paper towel then placed in a plastic baggie. I was too impatient, but I did get a few seeds to sprout. The remainder of the seeds I divided between potting some and placing some directly into the garden. So far they are sprouting, but so slowly, one or two one day, then nothing , then one or two more, I was hoping for nice little rows of sprouted daylily seeds sprouting all at once. Anyhow, I have been able to get some sprouted, now to see if I can get any to grow to maturity.

gardenglory said:I use the smallest ones. 120 sponges. I order two packs at a time to save a little on shipping and then have a two year supply. It does come out to 15-20 cents a sponge, but well worth it to me when you have such a short time to plant for spring bloom. Up north, unless growing inside, they might not be as appealing, as it takes awhile for bloom anyway.

Very very good to see you again!

Nice to be back.

dspack,
I found this article on the web about starting daylily seed, and it mentions Chamomile Tea being good to prevent damping off and fungus gnats.

http://www.midaylilysociety.co...

Something to bear in mind if your seeds are sprouting sporadically instead of all together is that a percentage of daylily seeds can be dormant. By that I mean the seed is dormant, it isn't necessarily related to the foliage habit of the parents or the future seedling itself. Stratification (damp chilling) for about four to six weeks breaks the dormancy so that when you remove them from the fridge they will all sprout promptly pretty much together instead of dragging it out over weeks or months. Chilling seeds that are too dry is not effective for this.

Thats why I put mine in the fridge, even down here, where I could easily just plant them. I like them all to come up at the same time.

Sue - I totally agree with you. I do refrigerate mine, too.

I had some seeds that I planted in the late Spring. I don't know how long the hybidizer had them in cool storage, but there were several crosses that did not sprout. I had been advise by others here on the forum to wait before tossing the soil in the containers. Sure enough, they eventually did sprout months later. I was so surprised to one day see daylily sprouts pop up in those containers as I was thinking that enough time had passed. I was going to toss the dirt that coming weekend. It was almost 3 months later that they sprouted!

3 months??? Wow, I probably would have tossed them too.

I bet they did not get chilled long enough.

Im totally defeated this morning. After all the bragging about the sponges, and how I had salvaged my season, something came last night and just ate every last one of them. Mowed them right down, Left a few little leaves to torment me. These seedlings are right outside my bedroom door, and I am going to make at least one of the dogs sleep out there from now on, I think I might even check into a motion sensor light. I think I get the message....no new seedlings for me next year.

Sorry Pam. I need to borrow that critter, though. I have seedlings galore coming up. No way I can handle that many in the long term. I didn't know how well they'd come up and wasn't trying for super germination, but I'm guessing I'm easily going to triple or quadruple the numbers I'm seeing now. Too bad I don't live down the road from you. I could come feed your critter and save myself from a glut and maybe they'd leave yours alone.

well, that is the bright side, Ill have less to plant. Im guessing they will all grow new leaves, Im just upset Ive probably missed next spring bloom with them. Ive got more coming and will have to set up some screen cover for them.

needrain,
Donald what did you do to get such good germination? Do you have pictures of the process and/or the seedlings?

Seedfork,

Nothing, really. I just started planting them in MiracleGro potting soil as the pods cracked. I didn't like it and found a different planting medium that looks like finely ground peat moss which was on clearance. I still used the potting soil, but the upper layer is the finely ground stuff. The pods getting ripe and cracking got ahead of me, so I stowed some of them in refrigerator until I got time to plant them. That probably was less than two weeks storage at the most. My observation so far is that there is a percentage of quick germination on seeds planted the same day the pod cracked. Those in the fine peat are germinating better than those in the potting soil. Those in the potting soil are still coming up, though. I thought I might have killed (by rot or something) some of the first ones planted in potting soil, so I dug up three of the pots and found what looked to be good seeds and replanted them in the peat. I did one of those before the other two and half the seeds are up. They might have done that anyway, I don't know. Another observation is that many of the tet seeds are slower. A caveat on that is that the tets I had bloomed earlier than the dips, so those pods are older and nearly all got planting in the potting soil. The dips planted in that seem to be slower too. The containers are all over the place from tiny to large, plastic to clay. The truth is I don't really know what I'm doing and I'm not trying particularly hard. I'm too old to do it seriously. The urge to obtain a seed and then plant it is very strong. It's an illness .

needrain
Do you have any thoughts on why the Miracle-Gro potting soil is not as good as the finely ground peat moss looking
medium? Does one stay more moist? Maybe better drainage? Does either have added fertilizer? Any guesses as to why one seems to work better than the other?
The reason I did not put my seeds in the refrigerator first (other than I am too impatient) was because I had read that if seeds were planted very soon after harvesting they did not seem to enter into a state of dormancy. It appears you are saying that you have noticed at least a difference in planting within a day. Any trials on two or three or four days later? In other words I am wondering just how soon the seeds need to be planted to avoid the dormancy issue. I don't recall how long it was between harvesting and planting my seeds (did not realize the urgency) probably over a week at least.

Well, Seedfork, I haven't been paying real close attention. Within the same pod, though, I expect seeds will react differently. I had 8 seeds from a cross of Purple Many Faces X Lillian's Vapor Trail that I planted on 8/18/14 the day the pod cracked. On the fourth day after planting a seedling was up, but it took 'til today for the next one. I've just noticed that those planted the same day have had seeds that sprouted fast, but not every seed in the pod. It may just mean a longer time between first and last within a pod. If you have to wait for the last one, it may not be a benefit at all. If you want them in a hurry and are willing to sacrifice the later germinating seeds, then it might be a good thing. But not any trials or comparisons on those that waited. Because I had a lot of pods with either the same pollen parent or a pollen parent I didn't keep up with, I tended to store my pods in a checkbook box in the fridge until I got the last one. I was running out of containers, you see . So when I did that and had quick germination, I couldn't say for sure it came from the fresh pod.

As for the different seed starting mediums. I don't think any potting soil is an ideal seed starting medium. It's too coarse, it has additives and, IMO, has too much clay content. So it both retains moisture too much rather than draining and it sets up hard like a brick. The additives may or may not be detrimental, but the gummy, coarse texture isn't ideal. It's all I had on hand when the pods started to mature, so it's what I used. I need to read what actually in the other bag, but it really does look like Canadian peat moss ground to nearly the texture of cornmeal. So it's light and doesn't gum up, but it does dry out pretty fast.

I hope this is helpful, because I'm sure not any kind of expert on growing daylilies from seed. I haven't done before. No way could I even be called a knowledgeable grower of dayliles, for that matter. They were just on my bucket list to grow successfully. Over many years I've grown many things with good success, but daylilies weren't one of them. When I finally had some success, the drought set in and the deer thought they were a banquet just for them. So after a few years rest, I'm trying a different approach to growing them. Fun this year, but no guarantee for the future.

Pam, I'm so sorry to hear what happened to your seedlings.

I'm still struggling to find the right planting medium. I tried sponges, but didn't have the luck with them that you do.
I used seed I bought, so it could have been them. One nice thing about sponges is they allow for easy transplant.

I'm doing big batches of seeds and sponges get a little pricey.

I've had no problems germinating seeds in Fafard Professional Potting Mix. I had read somewhere that it was a good potting mix for starting seeds. It has been for me. I got most all my seeds to germinate and was kinda shocked as I wasn't expecting such a good germination rate either.

Pam - I am so sorry to hear about your seedlings getting munched down. But you know, if the roots are growing well, you could still have a some very healthy and possibly blooming daylilies next year!

I have not heard of Fafard Becky. Where do you get it???