I was going by discussions on the AHS Robin over the years, that's why I tried the soaking in peroxide solution at room temperature until they germinated to determine the optimum strength. I didn't mean that most people germinate their daylily seeds in peroxide but, several years ago at least, some people did and they usually said they left them in until germination. One or two people tried peroxide soaking in the fridge but it didn't work at all well in my tests, whereas soaking in it at room temperature did. Soaking seeds in hydrogen peroxide is known to break seed dormancy in other plant seeds and is sometimes used for seed viability testing. The necessary duration of soaking for daylily seeds is untested, though, as far as I know. If you use a peroxide soak you do not need to refrigerate, the one substitutes for the other, although on occasion a few people have found that peroxide didn't work on certain seeds and they had to be stratified (the seeds, not the people
).
The standard method of combating seed dormancy in daylilies is stratification, which is damp chilling in the fridge, followed by germination at room temperature. I know there has been some misunderstanding of the latter in which a few people leave them in the fridge to germinate there, and I know that works for you, which is entirely your choice. In the original experiments by Dr. Griesbach in the 1950's the dry, unrefrigerated seeds were soaked for a day or two to rehydrate, then refrigerated*. After a few weeks they were removed from the fridge and started at various temperatures (I have the original article and it is 15 pages long so takes a lot of wading through!). He found the optimum germination temp for non-stratified seeds was 22-25C (72-77F) with the minimum germination temperature being 16C (61F) and the maximum 33C (91F) but that stratified seeds could germinate at lower temperatures.
I would agree that most people put their daylily seeds in the fridge to stratify, or at least to store, but not that most leave them in the fridge to actually germinate. Maybe we need a vote
None of the above is necessary if the seeds don't have seed dormancy, they can just be started at room temperature with no damp refrigeration or peroxide treatment, but you can't tell if they have seed dormancy by looking at them. One has to go by experience with one's own seeds, or just stratify anyway. Or, just plant them at room temp indoors or outdoors and wait if it doesn't matter whether they all germinate at once.
I remember once I re-used some potting mix that had had unstratified daylily seeds in it. Apparently some were still dormant in the mix, unbeknown to me, and they germinated around a houseplant months later!
As the AHS Daylily Dictionary says under stratification:
http://www.daylilies.org/ahs_d...
".....Stratification causes the seeds to germinate at more or less the same time
upon removal from chilling conditions , instead of spread out erratically over weeks or even months......"
*Edit: I should add that Dr. Griesbach also tested stratifying daylily seeds outdoors in these 1950's experiments. These days I suppose that would be called winter sowing.
