I have found those swirly unwindy thingys do great on gnats.

Fertilize with what?

dutchman said:Fertilize with what?

There isn't going to be any consensus between everyone as to what specific product to use because everyone has their favourite and often there are different circumstances, such as seedlings in soilless mix in a container would need more nutrients supplied than seedlings in soil in the garden where most of the nutrients are available naturally and fertilizer is more of a boost.

Assuming in pots, and they've been germinated for a few weeks (they don't need, and shouldn't have, fertilizer while germinating and have enough stored in the seed to keep them going for a few weeks once they're up) then you ideally need to provide all the essential nutrients.

Those would be nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, iron, manganese, zinc, copper, iron and maybe molybdenum. If you can find a fertilizer with all those listed (except calcium and magnesium which are usually provided in the medium as dolomitic limestone unless you made your own, they aren't usually in fertilizers) you're good to go.

If you're growing them in the garden then you'd look for a general all purpose fertilizer. You may nor may not need to provide the micronutrients (the last six in the list above) or the secondary macronutrients (calcium, magnesium, sulfur) depending on what's naturally in your soil, so something with just NPK may suffice. In fact even just nitrogen may be enough (it's the nutrient most often limiting growth) but the best thing for growing outdoors (or in a greenhouse if on a commercial scale) is to get a soil test.

A comment: if using bleach to disinfect pots and such, you only need a 1/10 dilution, there is no reason to use straight bleach.

And what a great idea to re-use K-cups! ~Jan

Getting some seeds sprouting, using on the rocks, but like others warned some mold issues. Watered with hydrogen peroxide and deionized water. Its okay as I don't have a ton of room for seedlings yet.

The first cross sprouting is TOOTH TOWER x AMETHYST SUNBIRD.

After they have sprouted I did end up buying some soil and slow release fert to plant them in.

How much hydrogen peroxide to water should be used for seedlings?

I've used about 2-3 tsp per qt of water, but I only started using it last year, and am not an expert.

I think I used a 10% peroxide solution. The goal is to change the pH enough so mold won't grow.

I use a cap full per liter but I just started as well.

I did a 1 to 10 ratio of hydrogen peroxide, but again just started. I did get a little mold on a few seeds so I separated them from the other seeds in the cross and dipped them in full hydrogen peroxide, but I don't think any of those have sprouted. That was more of an experiment.

philljm said:
And what a great idea to re-use K-cups! ~Jan

Thank you! So far, it's working out well. Here is one that was harvested (and partly sprouting) on 10/5/15:




It seems to me that I can get atleast a couple of months of growing out of these k-cups before I'll need to worry about repotting or planting the daylilies in the ground, so it's working out. It has already saved me some dirt/space, too, because one of my seedlings got to about half of the size of the one above and then died. All I wasted was a k-cup's worth of dirt, so not too bad.

tcmfish said: I did get a little mold on a few seeds so I separated them from the other seeds in the cross and dipped them in full hydrogen peroxide, but I don't think any of those have sprouted. That was more of an experiment.

10 % bleach solution is better for mold on seeds or seedlings.

Tim, for starting this thread. I have been following it faithfully. As a newbie in growing daylilies from seeds, I have much to learn. I plant to start germinating the seeds on Jan. 1. I wish I can do sooner but I don't have proper set up indoors for the seedlings should they start to grow.

I would like to use the method of germinating seeds as shown on U-tube videos by First Class Gardens that have seeds in perlite that's been moistened with a solution of water and small amount of hydrogen peroxide. Does anyone have personal experience growing seeds using this method? It looks easy enough on the videos but I know it is probably not in reality. What problems do you come across using this method?

I've done more or less that method but without the hydrogen peroxide. If the seeds have been stratified (damp chilled) first you shouldn't need peroxide to break any seed dormancy. At the strength they are using (which isn't actually specified by ratio) peroxide may not do much anyway. You can actually stratify the seeds in the baggies of damp perlite in the fridge for three or four weeks then just move them to room temperature (not in the sun) for germination. Or, plant the stratified seeds right into their pots and skip germinating in the baggies. That's just a matter of personal preference if you want to see them as they germinate.

You may find this article from the AHS Daylily Journal useful:
http://www.ctdaylily.com/files...

For that link. That is a superb article.

I don't know if this would affect your method, Karen, but perlite was terrible for me. My method is to put seeds in baggies with a quarter cup of vermiculite and just a tad less than 2 tablespoons of water. I then blow air in to make a "pillow" and leave them at room temp and they start germinating in about a week. (You can also put them in the fridge for damp chilling first, but I have gotten 90% or so germination without it so haven't bothered.)

The way I tell if seeds have germinated is seeing the little white shoot that first appears at one end. I try to plant them (I use promix in 12 oz Solo cups - 3 to a cup) soon after the first growth appears, though sometimes there are so many I don't get to them all in time, and some have roots several inches long by the time I get to them. Doesn't seem to affect growth, but it takes much longer to plant those long roots, and you risk breaking them.

Anyway, the stores were out of vermiculite last year when I had only started two third of my seeds, so I had to use Perlite instead. Not only did they not do as well, but, because Perlite is white, it was next to impossible to see the white shoots on the seeds when they had sprouted. Plus the Perlite didn't stay as uniformly damp as vermiculite.

You may be doing it using a totally different method where this wouldn't matter, but wanted to throw that in just in case.

so much for your advice, Sue and Rob. I do have vermiculite. I will use that instead. I can try different methods on each sets of seeds to see what is easiest and with good results. Will report back.

I just used the damp paper towel inside a ziplock baggies. I got very good germination with that way so I'll likely do it that way next time.

I do my stratification inside the fridge, in snack size ziploc bags, which in turn are collected into a gallon size ziploc bag. I have done it with and without a bit of paper towel in the small bags, and gotten decent germination either way, though in my experience tets seem to take longer to germinate, and maybe don't get to as high a % of germination, as the dips.

While the paper and this discussion on various media for stratification is interesting, what I do works well enough for me, and probably takes less room than having to use vermiculite or perlite or sand. DH is already upset at having part of the fridge perpetually given over to one kind of seed or another... it's maybe best to minimize the gardening footprint there.

@
Polymerous - How long? 4 weeks? TIA

And yes - know about the DW/DH thing. Last year I had over 120 species stratifying in the fridge at once. My wife eventually got mildly upset with me when I had overtaken better part of one entire crisper.