Peter, those plants look very happy indeed, and you have such a nice set up
for seedlings. So neat, so organized.

For what it's worth, I had some mold appear on the potted seedling soil this winter also.
This didn't happen until the plants were further along in growth, and needed frequent watering.
This year's potting soil was quite good for drainage, and seeing mold freaked me out at first.
So, I put a 10 percent bleach/water mix in a spray bottle, and gave them a squirt
whenever mold appeared. That killed the mold on the spot. No adverse affect
to the seedlings. No damping off.

Peter,
Nice looking plants. You have a nice setup and it looks like you can start lots of seedlings.

your seedling paradise looks fabtastic, Peter!!

kousa said: I found that the best growing medium for the daylily seedlings was the good potting soil (real soil) mix with perlite and some peat.

That is the mix that I use too, but I add part coarse sand

Sabrina, its better if you choose which ones you want to germinate


Mayo

So I am late to the game and playing a haphazard game, really just an experiment for my 14 year old daughter, Elizabeth and I.

Last fall we collected several seed pods from my daylilies. I got 12 seeds from my El'Desperado and 4 seeds from Lady Elizabeth. We put them in a moistened papertowel, into a ziplock bag and into the refridgerator where they were promptly forgotten about until today.

In addition, I collected 3 other seed pods and now for the life of me, I have no idea who their mother was. We were in the throes of renovating our kitchen and the ziploc bags with the seeds disappeared until just recently.

So meanwhile, El'Desperado seeds have tried to germinate in their moldy towel and the Lady Elizabeth seeds have small pips in them.

So today, I planted them into seedling pots. In total I am starting with 32 seeds. We will see what becomes of them. On of the El'Desperado seedlings had a nice little root started.

Thanks Everyone, I will take a few more photos today. Everything is doing pretty well.

Peter - Holy Cow! I think you are doing something right!!! Those look awesome! Now comes the hard part .... planting them outside. Keep us posted on how that goes. Great job sowing and growing those babies.

Thank you. First time for me... I learned a few things along the way. Hopefully the outside part goes as well.

Thank you for sharing the pictures, Peter! Those seedlings look fantastic! Do you use different growing mediums? Some of yours look like they are in potting soil and some look like they are under sand or even untreated mulch.

I did, I had a Gnat issue at one point, so I topped with gnat nix and then sand.

In the future I will skip both, and just use a BT bacteria control product.

I did start out using a organic potting mix, and switched over to a custom blend of Peat, Vermiculite, and perlite, with Bio-char.

Quite excited that 6 days later my ElDesperado X Unknowns have taken off. 9 out of 12 are growing, several are 2 inches tall already and a couple now have their second shoots appearing. So far there is 1 Lady Elizabeth X unknown and no other seeds have sprouted, but they hadn't been soaked, or anything else, so not going to panic yet!

Congrats on the sprouting seedlings! Always exciting ... before you know it .... you'll be expecting buds to bloom.

That's great, Heidi! It is so nice to see sprouts and growths from daylily seeds during winter. I hope these seedlings will give you beautiful flowers in the coming years.

My seedlings are growing quickly. I have never grown daylilies from seed before, and I am amazed at how quickly they are growing. (Critic's Choice x Ed Brown) x Prickled Petals has one seedling about 3 inches tall. The others are about 1 1/2 inches tall. Out of 8 seeds of that cross, 6 have germinated. The others I have growing now are Dragon's Eye x Unknown, Spacecoast Starburst x Caesar's Head, Palace Garden Beauty x Get Jiggy, Sarah's True Colors x Linda Beck, Wisest of Wizards x Ruffled Strawberry Parfait and Country Pride x Fluttering Beauty. All but Dragon's Eye came from Hemlady (Cindy). Thank you!

Are these your seeds, Valerie? When do you think you can plant them outside in your zone?

The only seeds that are mine in this group are Dragon's Eye. The others I got from Hemlady (Cindy). I have some other seeds of my own, plus others from Cindy that I am going to start this week, and some I am going to keep and start in pots outdoors. I am experimenting since this is my first time growing daylilies from seed.

I should be able to plant outdoors around the end of May.

Glad they are growing so well Valerie and you are most welcome. I will have more free seeds to offer at the end of selling season, which should be end of May.

Hemlady said:Glad they are growing so well Valerie and you are most welcome. I will have more free seeds to offer at the end of selling season, which should be end of May.

Thank you I am going to start a few more today. I have set up some fluorescent lights, and the ones that I have started seem to be thriving so far

my baby seedlings are having a tough time ….

As many of you know, I have really drastically cut back on my gardening and have grown very, very few seedlings in the last few years.

My entire "program" this year consists of 6 seeds I planted in the ground here in Ohio last December. They were seeds I made, and I used them to show someone else how to plant them outdoors in the fall. I have always planted my seed outside in the fall. I was taught years ago to do them this way. Every seedling I have ever raised started by being planted late in the fall outside in the ground.

I made some thoughtful crosses from my plants last season to give to a friend who wanted to get started in hybridizing. I wanted to give them a nice mix of color and styles, with good plant habit. A nice base group to start a program with.

I picked one of the crosses to keep for myself, and used that one to show him how I sow them out in the ground. The cross is Mother Upduff x Raptor. Should be some strange looking babies from that cross - that's why I kept it. It was a little to much on the weird side to give to a "newbie" and I like to mix things up and do things that are different and that other people probably would not do.

Of the 6 seeds, 4 have broken the surface. One was showing a hint of two little leaves. The other 3 were just green bumps. Still have hope of seeing the other 2 seeds germinating. I usually have really good luck with sowing seeds outdoors in late fall and early winter.

Well --- in the last few days since they broke the surface - the temps have taken a nose dive. They have had 3 nights below freezing. It snowed last night. It's supposed to be down to 21 tomorrow night.

There is a little bit of shredded mulch around them, but not much. I won't do anything to protect them. I don't baby seedlings here. The will live or they won't.

I think they will be just fine.

I also had the pleasure of receiving seeds from Hemlady Many were planted (after they germinated by the paper towel method using H202 solution) on January 29th. Most are 12" or taller right now. Although I didn't keep track of the germination rate, I can say it was pretty darn good. I'll be excited to see blooms from her seeds because they were crosses from daylilies that I don't have myself. I planted a lot of my own too. This is my first time trying this and I'm having fun. Some sleepless nights, wondering if I'm doing the right things. Can't wait til the weather stays warm enough so I feel safe getting them in the ground.

They really are not as yellow as they appear to be in the picture. It's just my camera and the lighting.