Tet pods will produce less seeds but it depends on the daylily. I have seen many tet pods in the 8 years of our hybridizing to have only 2 or 3 seeds. This year we had some tets that produced pods with 15-20 seeds. Recently I picked a pod off of dip Mirror Shades that had 41 seeds.
We are guilty of loading up some of our dayliles with pods. I have a dip seedling that produced 46 pods this year. I have set more than that on some. It most likely does affect the plant but it depends on some factors of conditions and nutrients and water. I have been careful not to set many pods on some newly acquired plants in the past, but a couple of lessons have changed my thinking a little. For example I bought some hybridizing plants one spring that I prized for future parents. I did not set pods on them them the first year to make sure they were established and doing well. I did use their pollen. Two prized parents died over the first winter in spite of special care. I should have crossed them with each other and got some pods.
We have lots of room to plant seedlings so we make lots of seeds but try to take care of the plants. This year has been more difficult due to very dry conditions. We have 800-900 registered daylilies and 5000 seedlings so keeping them fed and watered without natural cooperation is very difficult. Still it has been our best year ever for daylilies. We have had no rain for almost a month and still several are reblooming.
Average tet pods have about 5-6 and dips 12-14
I have changed my process this season. We have found many seeds starting to sprout in the pods. At the beginning, we tried drying the seeds for 24-48 hours before refrigeration. We were finding so many good looking seeds dead after a day or two drying after harvest. We started direct sowing or putting them directly in moist vermiculite. We have a few thousand planted in pots and cups. Also the extra fridge is packed full of bagged seeds. I need a month off work to garden.
