Polymerous said
In any event, I never get the budcount here that I see registered, even when I am diligent about fertilizing. Possibly the clumps may be overgrown, and I have no doubt that the water restrictions here (* cough, drought, cough *) are not helping any. I also have a sneaking suspicion that our latitude plays into this (Zone 9 in N. CA is not the same as Zone 9 in FL, in other words). I am seeing maiden bloom on most of my seedlings this summer (in a raised bed on a drip system) that are running from 6 to 9; those were regularly fertilized (with liquid fertilizer delivered via a watering can, since I can't trust the drip to play well with granular fertilizer), and from the parents I would have expected a higher bud count. (Yes, I know, a 6 to 9 bud count is pathetic... ) A couple of (pot grown) older large flowered seedlings have managed to pull themselves up to a budcount of 12-15, but that is obviously still not good enough. I would suspect that maybe confinement to pots also restricted the budcount, except that the daylilies in the ground aren't doing tremendously better (somewhat better, yes, but no budcounts into the mid-twenties or higher). Maybe it is the lack of water...
The first thing I would do is take a ph test, I keep mine between 6 and 6.5 If the ph is to low the plants can't take up the fertilizer you applying. You may want to take a soil test also to make sure you don't have to much of something in the soil. Also use a fertilizers with a low middle # like a 16-4-8. Another thing I do different is spray the liquid fertilizer on the foliage and not pore it in the ground. These are things that work for me and are only suggestions you may want to try. One other thing, if your pots are in the same condition as you beds you will get the same results, pots here do not effect the bud count unless they become crowded.
