I watered them last weekend, the soil was a little damp, so I moved the fan to blow on the seedlings, I had just had the fan in the room not blowing on them thou, I am hoping I don't lose anymore. I am curious as to how your seeds and seedlings will do, we got snow on the way, they are saying 2 to 4 inches next week. My seedlings I planted out side months ago, have stop growing so I am guessing they have went dormant for the winter, I am so ready for spring, I don't like this cold weather at all.

Catherine, you are having some damping off of a few seedlings. We started seeds indoors over the winter for several years and stated having more problems daming off and mold so I changed and moved the operation outdoors last year. I built a hoophouse and planted seedlings all winter in cups and pots. We had great results with no damping off or mold.

Larry, I am not sure how your seedlings that are just sprouting will handle the freeze but if they have roots and growing baby plants I think they will survive. If you have them outside in the weather you could put them on the sunny side up against the house or just a small cover over them.
The temps are cold since my hoophouse is just a PVC frame and 6mil plastic cover. Last winter we had temps down to -4f and temperatures in the hoophouse got below freezing several times. We did not loose any seedlings to the cold temperatures.
I have about 1000 seedlings started and growing so far this winter in the hoophouse. Our forecast is for the next 6 days to be below freezing for high temps. Over the next 6 days temps from 5f to 28f will give these seedlings a freeze test. I use one small space heater in my 8' x 16' x 8' high hoophouse. It is not enough to keep it above freezing when temperatures drop into the teens and below.
I did not know just how well newly planted daylily seedlings would survive winter conditions but lots of experiments tell me that they are tough. I have tried just about everything here. I expect from our results last year that the new seedlings will survive. Some will go dormant until spring.
I sprout my seeds in the fridge in moist vermiculite and then plant them in cups and pots so they go in the hoophouse as newly planted baby plants.

This is what they look like when ready to be planted.

Here are plants in the hoophouse.

Love your set-up, Kid, I am so envious!

I have bought the little greenhouse accessories (frames and covers) for the little "vegtrug poppy" planter as they are the perfect size for my butler tray tables of seedling pots but only put them on if it forecasts bad weather overnight. My seeds were sown and germinated in mid-late September and so far are doing fine ( I have half inside under a 125w cfs blue spectrum light and half outside to fend for themselves), the ones inside look greener and possibly bigger but the ones outside seem to be doing fine also.

If the outside ones continue to do fine over winter and grow well in spring I will just do them all outside in future as it is much easier for me personally than faffing with grow-lights as I have trouble walking so going up and down the cellar steps where the seedlings/grow lights are is rather painful

@kidfishing
Love your setup, do you have lights in there? I have some 6mil plastic, and I am sure I have enough stuff laying around to build something like yours but smaller. I will not be doing this a lot, I am just starting them inside to plant in the spring in my beds, and my mother's flower bed. I am hoping with the seeds I have and the seedlings I have now, it will be enough for the beds. I am working on a new bed now, so when spring arrives it will be ready for planting my seedlings in it.

Nikki and Catherine,
It is much easier for me to grow my seedlings like this. Starting and growing seedlings in the house was more work and less healthy plants. A cold frame or hoophouse is inexpensive and in your climate you would not likely need a heater. My hoophouse is covered with white plastic so no need for any lights. I wanted it large enough to walk in and work in. After the holidays I will move my cups, pots and soil in there and get all my seedlings planted. I hang my trouble light and after work I will spend evenings working in there.
I attached my hoophouse to the east (back) side of my house. It took less material to build it and it helps keep it warmer with a solid west wall. I used old lumber for the ends and the door and 3/4" electrical PVC for the frame.

Larry, experiencing some of this same temps. It's going to be interesting to see how they do. So far their foliage looks like the other CVs, Frozen!

I see the cold and even snow has made it a long way south. I guess some of us will see how our new seedlings take this cold.
New years day was a problem and caused unexpected cold exposure to all my seedlings. My water lines froze in the mornig when temps were at 5f. I hooked up a second heater to the same outlet that is used for my hoophouse. Our farm house is a raised floor, crawl space construction, so I crawled under the house and placed the heater near the water pipes. Within an hour I had the water working. I did not realize that soon after, the breaker kicked off due to the extra heater. I did not have my hoophouse heater working the rest of the day with a high temp of 17f or overnight with a low of 10f. It was discovered and back on after about 26 hours well below freezing. I don't know about my seedlings yet but will be able to check them in the daylight this weekend.

Larry, have you noticed if the sand that you put on top of your seedling cups is effective against gnats?

I'm starting up the daylily seeds, and am looking for new and improved ways (short of pesticides) to keep the inevitable gnats in check. (I'm really tired of using the yellow sticky traps...) Tonight after I pre-wetted the seed starting mix, I put it into the microwave for 2 minutes. I hated to do that to the microwave, but I hate the gnats (and I'm tired of listening to DH's puns on the subject). Hopefully the combination of steam and microwave radiation did for the gnat eggs, but I guess I will see. If I can instead foil them simply by putting sand on the top of the seed starting mix, then that might be a better way to go.

Sorry, I can't really say because my cups are outside. The main reason my cups are outside is because it avoids so many problems that seems to happen inside: gnats, damping off, over and under watering etc. I may grow things inside again someday, I did enjoy it even with all the problems (actually I don't ever recall having a problem with gnats indoors) but I was more into vegetables at the time and not so much into daylilies (which I think would be less of a problem than vegetables). Heck I have almost completely given up trying to grow vegetables outside they became such a problem with diseases, pets, and varmints. Critters were a big problem even with the daylilies the past few years, but now I have most of the daylilies inside the chain link fence or have a separate cage around the great majority of them that are outside the fence.
I now have eight cups out of the twelve with seedlings from the seeds planted outdoors back on December 12th. With so many of the nights dipping down into the teens and 20's I am amazed!

Update on my seedlings, I moved my lights up a few inches, my seedlings have got so tall they had grown up pass the lights. I have have several seedlings die. I used a water peroxide mix yesterday to water them with, I am also using cinnamon. Most of them are doing really good, and growing great. I do have a few that have yellow-brown spots on the top of them. Not sure what to do for that.

My outside seedlings I planted months ago, most of them are gone, I sure hope they come back this spring

Catherine your seedlings are looking great. Only the fittest will survive. A few here and there should be expected considering how many you have growing. Did you start feeding them yet ?

No I forgot all about that, with everything else going on at my crazy house. I will mix up some weak fertilizer and do that later in the week or next weekend since I just watered them yesterday with the peroxide mix.

They look great, Catherine . As Mike mentioned, a few losses are to be expected.

You have those off to a great start.
I would think the ones outside will be ok. I grow mine outside in a hoop house. Nothing is actively growing now. I can tell they are mostly doing ok. I had my heater go off for 24-30 hours when it was 5 degrees. They are tough little plants.

Catherine, your seedlings are looking real nice.

Thanks everyone, I am hoping the ones outside will come back this spring, these last few weeks have been really cold we even had snow and ice for a week. Before that happened my seedlings outside looked good, and I could see them, now they have died off? About 50% of them look like that, the other half are just gone. I hope they come back, but only time will tell

@dixiebelle426

Your pots are plenty big enough to handle 30 seedlings, probably until it's time to line them out. I've grown that many in a 3.5" pot before, and after a few months, I really couldn't see a dime's difference between those and others in the same batch sown 4-8 to a pot.

You're going to get some brown spots here and there, especially if the leaves rest against the lights too long. Not a big deal.

I wouldn't be too quick to raise the lamps if just a few leaves get too tall, just give the tallest ones a bit of a trim. The smaller plants still need light, and moving it further away will tend to increase the difference in vigor between the tall ones and the smaller ones.

As the plants get larger, (3/16" at the base) danger of damping off decreases, and you can water & feed more, as long as you have given them lots of light to keep them sturdy. Also, I like to haul mine outside on sunny days to let them really thicken up.

Do you see any fungus gnats around your plants? Their damage can cause losses due to fungal attack.

Ken, on your Excellent observation and comments.

@CaliFlowers
I have seen a few little bugs flying around in my grow room, that's the reason I used the peroxide and water last weekend. I am thinking about setting my tables and plants up outside, I am waiting for the last of the freezing temps to pass. Moving that many plants inside and outside daily would be too much on me. Average temps are 33 lows to 69 highs. Would those temps be okay for them outside at night?
Here is what they are calling for, for the next few days.