admmad said:
I do not know whether daylily seeds need to dry before they sprout. The way to test that would be to remove the seeds from a pod that is just about to open and plant them immediately.
Maurice, I tried that as one of my germination experiments - I took some seeds from a mature but unopened pod. I didn't have a lot of seeds so this may not mean much, but I started the test on August 5 according to my notes. By 23rd of August, in 1:8 H2O2 3 seeds had germinated and 4 not germinated. By September 3, all 7 had germinated in the peroxide.
18th October note: Other seeds from unopened pod stored without added moisture (on dry kitchen paper in baggie) in fridge since 5th August removed from fridge and placed in damp vermiculite (9 seeds). By January 9th, 1 germinated, rest placed in 1:3 approx peroxide to test viability (I don't seem to have noted the result of the viability test).
Similar batch from unopened pod placed on windowsill on 5th August in damp vermiculite without pre-treatment: as of 18 October 3 of 9 had germinated.
Such a small number of test seeds it might not mean anything but an "eyeball" analysis (since all 7 germinated quite quickly in peroxide), suggests they all had seed dormancy straight from the pod.
Having said that, I (and Griesbach in his experiments, since many of his were stored at room temp prior to starting) have also had dry stored seeds that were still dormant (and some that weren't) but the timing of their being started was likely different.
There's a research paper I saw somewhere on daylily species that just put the whole unopened pods in the cold to stratify. I don't think I ever tried that one.
