Here is their website link:

http://fafard.com/

This is the potting soil I use:
http://fafard.com/products?pro...

But they also have a seed starting mix.

It is sold locally and often times runs out because it is in such high demand here. Most of the box stores do NOT sell it. It is the small local garden nurseries that sell it. I swear by it, but that is just my own personal experience!

I had intended to slow down and plant maybe one or two crosses-H flava X H minor maybe. But I got carried away dabbing pollen this summer in spite of family problems ( my autistic son had to find a new apartment in the space of about two weeks- we thought we had him settled in a good neighborhood and the landlord sold the building-Rats!) Then some seedlings started blooming and I couldn't restrain myself even though they were some pretty odd crosses -tet pollen on supposed dips and now I can't imagine if I have dips or tets or both dip and tet Ed Murray or what and now I am watching seed bods rot or crack all over the place--quite untagged! The seedling ended up with three huge seedpods, maybe from Wild Horses, old Ed Murray has three large pods on different plants from different places-one probably dip one possibly tet but the grower stopped being sure which was which and I bought a whole clump of one or the other. The old clumps I have had from back around 1990 or older so it must be a dip---it has a large seed pod. Then Wild Horses itself formed five or six pods and there was an old pink spider back in weed heaven and out of curiosity I put some WH pollen on that. Two pods formed, one fell off- one may ripen. There are some other mismatches around, a pink that may be Frosted Pink Ice (although it had no label) that I dabbed on either Catherine Woodbery or a similar seedling--I'm looking at 23 seeds in one pod from that and I can't decide how I am going to plant any of them. Some may be alright if I just put them in the ground in October and let them come up in the Spring. But I've had problems germinating seeds from old Ed so I may wait until Spring and pop them in seed trays either in wafer stuff or Pro-mix----I told my wife I am probably going to have to live past eighty to see the blasted things bloom. And where to put them even though I have ten acres of woods and wetland. With deer and rabbits and critters all over. Wild Horses pollen on this red seedling

Pam...Sorry to hear about your seed loss. Bummer! I too use Park's sponges. Have used them for the past 3 years. I love the concept. I grow my seeds under the dome that Park's Seeds sells, and have had great success with this concept. I have a 48 cell dome, and place it in a south window. I also use hydrogen peroxide in the well of the dome mixed with water. I only use a tablespoon of the peroxide. Once the seed has germinated, I will leave it in the sponge under the dome until the seedling is about 5" tall before I transplant it to a plastic pot which I have many of. I then very carefully peel away the sponge to expose the roots and sdlg, and transfer the seedling into a potting soil mixture.

As for those pesky gnats, I have to deal with them every year. They are a nuisance. I might try the sticky tape. But so far, the gnats have never destroyed any sdlgs. They are just irritating flying bugs that manage to always find my coffee cup in the morning during the Winter.

Because I only have space for 100 sdlgs on my property, the price of the sponge method works well for me. I also have to take into consideration the extreme cold Winters we have here in VT, and the amount of sunlight. The dome controls the temperature inside, and when placed under lights or in a southern window works well for me.


http://parkseed.com/bio-dome-s...

Thanks Becky. I located it at a nursery fairly close to where I live.

Seedfork,

I looked on the bag and the finely ground material is called Cocopeat, a coir product originating from Sri Lanka in this case. The bag gave a url of www.galuku.com and had an address from Waco, TX. The url still brings up a site with some info. It was a clearance bag that was old and faded and had obviously been sitting around in inventory for a few years, which I'm sure was why it was so cheap. I like it, but it may be difficult to obtain again.

Donald

I think Lowe's and Home Depot carry coir products.

I live in the boonies! Lowe's and Home Depot are special trips involving miles. I try to plan those carefully .

Just to elaborate a little on the refrigeration aspect, as I mentioned above it makes a difference if the seeds are dry when refrigerated or if they are hydrated. If the seeds do not have enough internal moisture when refrigerated, they will not respond to the chilling. I've done a number of daylily seed experiments, mostly with seeds that are as genetically similar as I can get them to reduce that variable as much as I can. This first picture is of daylily seeds that had been refrigerated dry for six weeks and then started at room temperature:



The next picture is of the same number of daylily seeds, refrigerated for the same length of time but in dampened vermiculite so that they re-hydrated. Both pictures were taken a month after coming out of the fridge and being started at room temperature:



This test was to illustrate that staggered germination isn't always because they were not chilled for long enough but can be because the seeds were too dry internally to respond to the refrigeration. After a month at room temperature, germination of the dry refrigerated seeds was 24%. After a month at room temperature the germination of the damp vermiculite refrigerated seeds was 96%.

These seeds had been stored dry at room temperature prior to the experiment.

Sue - Thanks! That is a very interesting observation. I will keep that in mind for seed sowing.

Sue, having the seeds in moisture to germinate is just prior to planting right??? I don't think you would want to leave them hydrated for 3 to 4 months as they would probably rot.

I thought they should be moist for the entire period, I thought that was the point she was trying to make. But I think she said four to six weeks of moist chilled conditions and not three to four months.

Storage and stratification are two different things. So while you might need to store them for 3-4 months, yes you'd only damp chill them for the last 4-6 weeks before starting at room temp. Three to four months is probably too long. If using vermiculite, perlite, sand or paper towels to stratify, these media should be damp, not wet.

I agree with Sue.

But I will confess, that when I grow mine. I just leave them in the produce bin in my refrigerator (without any moisture), just sealed in their respective zip lock baggies. Then take them out and let them warm to room temp for a day or so, then sow them. Sometimes they germinate right away, and some take longer. I have had several this late Spring/early Summer that took 3 months to germinate. So if they don't germinate right away, don't toss them. Some do take a while to germinate.

I had success once using the moisture steps, but the next time I tried it ... I had no germination at all. Go figure! I have no idea why it worked one time and not the second time. I hate wasting seeds, so I, personally, just stick to the above routine now.

How did you do the "moisture steps", Becky?

Im with Becky. I just take them out of the refrig. and put them straight in the sponges. If I have ordered them, they go straight from the mailbox to sponges. I usually get 99-100% germination if they are seeds from that year.
The first year I did seedlings, I sprouted them all in dixie cups. Granted, it was fun to see them sprout, but you had to keep the water changed, and they took up too much counter space. Biggest problem was planting them. I found it very difficult to plant something that has a fragile little tail hanging off of it. Popping them in a songe or w/e you use, is just much easier for me.

The wet baggie method is what I used one time. I added distilled water with a few drops of hydrogen peroxide to each of the bags of seeds. Then add all the baggies into a container and let them float (or sink) in the baggies and put them in the crisper bin in my refrigerator for a couple of months. After that I took them out and left them on a room temp counter or shelf until they started germinating. The first time I did this, I got a really good germination rate. The next year when I did it, most developed rot. I have no idea why. I did both years the same way. Since then, I just plant them and let them germinate. I don't overwater them when they are growing in the styrofoam cups. And I have them sitting on a south facing window during the winter months. They did great! I have done that way ever since.

Thanks for the explanation, Becky. That's not the same thing that I'm describing, the seeds shouldn't be immersed in water for the chilling. Pam, certainly if your seeds don't have seed dormancy there's no need to stratify, it's only for people whose seeds usually germinate sporadically over weeks or months and who wish to speed up and even out germination so that all sprout more quickly and more or less together. You're absolutely right, Becky, if they're not stratified dormant seeds can take so long to germinate that one might be tempted to use the media for something else and have daylily seedlings popping up in it months later.

beckygardener said: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....

Becky, I finally found some Fafard Professional Potting Mix locally. It wasn't all that expensive compared to others.

Do you use it as is?

Yes, I do just use the potting mix as is. The only other thing I did was water with Spring bottled water with a little bit of hydrogen peroxide added. That's all I did and I placed the styrofoam cups on a south facing window sill. All I can say is that this method has worked for me for several years. I always expected to get maybe 50% germination rate, but in fact got close to 95-100% from viable seeds. Just be sure NOT to over water them when they are young seedlings. I just kept the cups moist not soaking wet. Even with the H2O2 added to the water, you could still get root rot if you over-water the young sprouts.

Thanks for the tips, Becky.