josieskid said:So they do germinate in the fridge as long as they stay moist? Do you keep the temp set like in a regular kitchen fridge? At like 35 - 38 degrees or so? And a daylily seed will germinate that way?
I'm pretty sure that most of the refrigerators which are storing daylily seeds
are regular kitchen fridges.
A lot of gardening advice is region-specific. If you include some general information regarding your region and climate zone in your header, you'll receive better information.
Daylily seeds won't usually try to sprout in storage unless they're wet.
I store seed in small manila coin envelopes, placed inside ZipLoc baggies. Many daylily seeds require stratification in order to sprout, and since it's hard to predict which ones will, I stratify them all. Cold stratification requires moisture and at least 3-4 weeks of cold temperatures, and they'll frequently sprout in their envelopes a few weeks after that. It's a very slow process because of the cold, so a weekly check will suffice. Try not to disturb them too much, because if the seed envelopes have been consistently oriented, you'll find that the seeds will sprouting uniformly, with a small root emerging in a downward direction. Many of them will also have a 1/2"–3/4" white leaf growing upward, which serves as a fine planting handle. If the bags of envelopes are tossed around in the fridge, you'll have roots and sprouts going every direction.
This is my favorite stage of growth to plant. It's fast, easy, and you won't have a lot of bare spots in the pots because of unsprouted seeds. The leaves will green up within a couple of days after planting.
If you sow outside in the fall, you will greatly reduce the complexity of the operation. Nature will supply the moisture and the cold, all you have to do is protect them from critters and other disturbances such as excessive rain, which might wash the seeds away. Climate plays a huge role in this method though, so it will need to be tailored to your conditions.
I usually plant 8-12 seeds to a 3.5" pot, to conserve planting mix as well as growing space, which is precious under lights. If they're well fed and never allowed to dry, (saucers or trays required) they'll probably be OK like that until planting time, which would usually be around June. If you started them very early, and they're really big & crowded, you can shift them to a larger pot, but they're ready to line out into beds when they're the size of a pencil at the base of the leaves.
Ken
