I've been growing my daylilies in pots for nearly 10 years. Our Mississippi soil is clay. It does not drain and it packs down like concrete. I tried digging up some of my older daylilies that I do grow in the ground and I quickly determined there had to be a better way. I had grown about 200 pots of seedlings in pots and when I was ready to move them to beds, I decided to try growing them bigger pots. I used alot of one gallon pots the first year. Daylilies are not designed by God to grow in one gallon pots for more than a year. BUT, they will and they will actually multiply until they burst the sides of the black plastic pot. So, if you get in big plants(not seedlings) do yourself a favor and put them into the biggest pots you can find(or afford!).
I tried alot of different soils. The only soil I shy away from is the ones with the "Moisture retaining additives". I lost 3 good plants in 2008 to this soil. Or atleast I blamed it on that soil. There is a balance of keeping daylilies watered and not allowing the water to drain through the pot.
I'm going to say something here about daylilies and water. I have set really dried out pots of daylilies into tubs of water to let them get a good soaking. I have also left some pots in these tubs for months and they thrived. The tubs I had them in were about 4 inches deep. The pots were 3 gallon size pots. The water usually was only about an inch deep. These daylilies were greener and more robust than any of the others. I have read that some people acutally grow they plants in pots and those pots are sitting in tubs of water year round. The ones I read about live in the coastal South where temps usually stay about freezing. I have no idea what would happen to daylilies in pots sitting in water and the water froze. I figure it would be bad, but I don't know. I always remove any pots from the tubs prior to winter because we have a lot of freezing days. I usually only find a few still in those tubs.
Last fall I started repotting all of my daylilies. I managed to get about 400 pots repotted. It took nearly 1200 pots to put those 400 pots into. I had a bunch of fans!! I use the shredded pine bark mulch and Miracle Grow Garden Soil or something similar to grow my plants in. I use about a 60% bark and 40% soil mix. I'm going to add some sand this year and cut down on the MG Soil but I will still have some soil in the pots with the sand and bark. The pine mulch I use is the cheap kind that comes from Home Depot. I also use alfalfa pellets, a small dose of lime, and a slow release fertilize that's a 16-4-12 ratio. I wanted a fert that was a 3-1-2 ratio(this is recommended by several growers) but the 16-4-12 is the closest thing I can find in my area. I'm actually having this shipped to a local nursery from South Ms. It's expensive! $90 for 50# but a little goes a long way plus it claims to be good for 9 months. I put maybe, a tablespoon plus a little into a 3 gallon pot.
I mix the mulch and soil together in big tub. I then put a section of newspaper in the bottom of my pot. I fill the pot about half full of the mulch mix. I then add a tablespoon or so of alfalfa pellets, half of the fert and a dash of line and mix it with the soil in the pot. I then form the mound in the middle of the pot with more of the soil mix. I put the daylily on the mound so they crown is a bit above the the soil line. I then fill in around the daylily with more soil mix. I now add the rest of the fert, more pellets and another dash of lime on top of the soil mix. I now top all of this with plain pine bark much so it's about an inch above the crown of the daylily. Water throughly. When this all settles down, it will be filled just above the the crown. Like I said, I did nearly 1200 pots like this last fall. I didn't lose a pot of plants. Most thrived like they were on steroids but I had a few that were picky little beasts. I finally took them out of their pots and redid the whole process and they are doing ok, but not perfect like the rest. I may loose these. If so, it only about 10 or so pots out of 1200 and I won't complain.
Over 80% of my pots are in shade most of the day. They will get maybe 4 hours of direct sunlight a day. I give up buds for this but it sure is nice to be in the shade. Makes working conditions alot more tolerable. Of course, they are in sun in winter because they are under decidious trees and most were in sun until middle April this year until the leaves put on. By this time most of them were already blooming. I do have maybe a couple hundred that are in about 8 hours of sun aday. The plants were bigger, had more buds, and most had brighter colors, but most of them set very few seed pods. These in the sun look like burned toast now. The ones in the shade were covered with pods. Most of these in the shade still look good for this time of the year. So this next year, I'm having more of my really good ones in more shade, especially careful of afternoon shade.
THE BIGGEST PROBLEM WITH GROWING PLANTS IN POTS IS WATER WATER WATER! I hope for a water system by next year. I use overhead sprinklers and move the hoses from area to area all day long. I let the water run for an hour in each location and with about 1500 pots, it takes all day long.
So, would I grow in the ground if I had good soil. Yes, I would grow most of my plants in the ground. I would still grow alot of my hybridizing plants in pots just because of the convience.
I'll be glad to answer any questions. Blessings to all, Mona
