Polymerous said:
Interestingly enough, I recently read a blog post by Brian Reeder, who credits Mike Huben, to the effect that seeds do not need to be stratified in order to obtain good germination. http://daylilybreeder.blogspot...
They don't always need stratification but it's not a myth that they benefit from it if any in the batch have seed dormancy. I'm not sure what Mike H. might have meant there because he has experimented with scarification (not stratification) to germinate daylily seeds. Sometimes seed dormancy can wear off in time, such as with dry storage. Whether a daylily seed is dormant or not may also depend on the environmental conditions experienced by the parent, as well as the seed itself.
That daylily seeds can benefit from stratification was first determined by Dr. Robert Griesbach back in the 1950's. You can read his study reports on the AHS web site:
http://www.daylilies.org/AHSar...
The experiment I pictured above was one of several that show stratification is beneficial to daylily seeds, but only those that have seed dormancy. So one can't generalize either way, unfortunately.
What I always say is if your daylily seeds typically germinate erratically over weeks or months, but they do eventually germinate (they're viable), then in future they should benefit from stratification if you wish to make them germinate more quickly and not erratically. If your daylily seeds germinate immediately with your current method then there's no point in adding stratification to your method. I should add that seed dormancy doesn't necessarily correlate to foliage habit.
