Viewing post #1275715 by needrain

CaliFlowers said:It looks like the potting soil dried out inside and the plant collapsed in the heat. A few years ago I had a sprinkler system go bad on me right in the middle of summer during an extended absence, and had quite a few daylilies do this. I think that a lot of the fans simply "stall" and die, and that's that. I did the same thing you did and managed to save a fan here and there, but many of them were lost.

Potting soils are notorious for drying out and being difficult to re-wet. In terracotta pots, I like to mix potting soil with good garden soil 50-50 in the bottom half, (if the garden soil is heavy clay, I use less, like 80-20.) top that with an inch of potting mix and scratch it in lightly, then fill/plant with potting mix. It gives the plants a moisture reservoir, re-wets better, and the garden soil doesn't go chalk-dry overnight like potting soil can. I've also lined the top half of them with plastic, and that helps too.

I'll have to try the method of using some garden soil in the bottom of the pot. On some large plastic containers where I've had to drill holes for drainage, I've drilled about 1" above the bottom instead of directly through the bottom.

However, I haven't lost (yet) any daylilies from letting them go dormant. And the summer dormant stage is finished here this year. Everything looks great at the moment. The two that developed rot were still actively growing and still receiving regular supplemental water. One was probably beginning to go toward summer dormancy because it had just finished bloom. One was in a terra cotta container, the other in a plastic, fake whiskey/wine barrel container. I'm just not sure what circumstances are causing it to occur. I don't think either of these had pulled down too low since both had the soil replenished in spring and I elevate the crown when I do that. They looked okay in that respect. I think the heat I have may cause some fan damage at the soil line and then that combined with moisture allows bacterial rot to establish and spread into the plant. I'm not sure I can ever totally prevent that if I'm right.