So, decided to trim seedling foliage. Running out of vertical space again. Found two more scapes on different seedlings!




pics of seedling HB23-21 X Lillian's Illusive Eyes. Seed purchased from Spunky1 on the LA.




pics of second Creative Design X Apophis seedling to have a scape.

How exciting! I can't wait to see the blooms.

Amazing seedlings Tina. How old did you say they are. Fantastic job on your seedlings What do you feed them? They look so healthy. Keep up the good work.

They are in Biomix with Osmocote Plus added to each plug when planting. That's it for fertilizing, nothing more added. Used T8 bulbs this year. Was afraid they would get too hot upstairs (metal roof), and in my experience T5 HO runs mighty hot. Seems to have worked out well, but I miss seeing them all the time like when they were downstairs. Thanks for the kind comments. We newbies are amazed at everything! Just can't help it. Edited to add that first seedling is approx 3 months (cross germinated 12/10), second is approx 6 weeks.

Those plants look exceptional. We don't grow indoors anymore so we are always waiting 2 years to see seedling blooms. I am sure your methods and care are way above average. I had 2 first year seedlings bloom last year out of more than 5000.
What a treat to see buds so soon.

Thanks @kidfishing! I will never tire of this.

I have shortened Iris seedlings before with no Ill effect. I thought it encouraged increase,

Paul2032 said:I have shortened Iris seedlings before with no Ill effect. I thought it encouraged increase,

Mowing grass does encourage increase ("tillering") but with daylilies you would want the initial plant to get bigger so that it gets to flowering size earlier, whereas in theory encouraging increase should delay flowering if the fans are then smaller. Trimming leaves reduces the amount of food for growth that the plant can make from light, so you don't want to cut off too much or do it too often if you can avoid it.

I had to trim last year also, don't like it. But they all recovered well and I had several bloom the year of planting. Still, I will have nightmares about these ALL dying. Just hate to cut a healthy leaf.

I just trim off any leaf tip that gets burnt if it touches the lights. Also, any early ones that die off. I leave as much leaf as possible.

@beenthere Two seedlings of the cross Creative Design X Apophis have produced scapes - how many seeds in total of the same cross germinated? Did you also plant seeds of the reciprocal cross Apophis x Creative Design?

@admmad had 23 seeds germinate in the Creative Design X Apophis cross. I only planted 10 of those d/t space constraints. Did not do a reciprocal cross. Knew that Creative Design would give me the most seeds per pod.

2nd of the Creative Design X Apophis seedlings to bloom. Very wonky bloom, weak scape, but bloom the same color as the first.

such eager little seedlings!
I hope they do well and we get to see them bloom in the seedling beds.

Is the other seedling with a scape going to bloom?

Yes,@touchofsky , just not quite there yet. I can see it will be purple. Probably will bloom next week.

I can't wait to see it

@beenthere, I see you're in Ky. When do you plan on putting them in the ground?

@RaiseTheBar will plant out sometime after April 15. That is, if the extended weather forecast stays good. Last years seedlings went thru two late freezes with no damage.

Seedlings are tough. I didn't lose any despite -20C low and below freezing for 200+ hours of those 3 mo. old plants that were put in ground before Valentine's Day. Of course, the 10" snowpack helped.

Mine are probably better off outside than in. The cats have recently taken to pulling them out and chewing on them. I think next year, I will have to keep them isolated ( the seedlings, not the cats! ).