cybersix said:Becky, if you think to Mother Nature, the seeds fall in the ground without even getting dried. I read many direct saw seeds. I may try with some fresh seeds from my crosses (nothing fancy, mainly stella with some nice colored dip), the problem is I have not enough room for them.
Sabrina, didn't you have problems with germination until you chilled them? The problem here is that seed dormancy in daylilies is variable. It may relate to climate or other factors. Not all daylily seeds have seed dormancy, so not all daylily seeds need chilling to speed them up. But you can only tell that for your particular seeds by experimenting. But one shouldn't assume that everyone's daylily seeds will behave the same way.
Say, for example, someone in Florida starting seeds in summer or fall doesn't need to stratify, that doesn't mean that someone in Michigan starting them in fall does not need to stratify. But that person in Michigan may not need to stratify if they start their seeds in April after a winter of dry storage.
When I say "need" that rather means benefit from because with daylily seeds chilling causes them all to germinate quickly and at the same time. Without chilling they can germinate erratically, some quickly and some over a period of weeks or months. So they can still germinate without damp chilling, it's the time it takes for the whole batch to germinate that changes with damp refrigeration.
The benefit of damp chilling daylily seeds has been established by research for daylily seeds where there is seed dormancy. There are always a percentage of daylily seeds that will germinate quickly without chilling even in a batch where the majority have seed dormancy. The idea of stratification is not that they won't germinate without it but that it speeds up germination and they all germinate together.
Editd to add, I want to try and clear up a misunderstanding of daylily seed chilling which is that they are actually supposed to germinate while still in the fridge. What is supposed to happen is that damp refrigeration simulates winter and then you take the seeds out to germinate at room temperature (spring). Seed dormancy is a mechanism to prevent seeds from germinating at the wrong time of year, e.g. just before a winter that could kill a young seedling. Another misconception is that just refrigerating dry seeds is adequate. If daylily seeds that were refrigerated internally dry instead of damp germinate promptly and all together they most likely did not have seed dormancy. Damp chilling is the operative word, not wet or refrigerated in liquid.
Yes a daylily seed that drops to the ground can germinate right away, but a batch as a whole may stagger germination to avoid them all being killed by winter. That's why we trick them with refrigeration so they "think" it's safe.
