Hi there! I’m going to take your challenge and describe what I do – beginning until end. However, there are a few things that you need to know. First, I live a few miles west of Augusta, Georgia. We have very hot and very humid summers that often start in late May and continue into early-to-mid October. Our winters are typically mild, although an occasional snow or ice storm are known as are low temperatures into the teens. Spring can start as soon as late February or early March. Second, I am a “backyard” hybridizer. I raise about 300 seedlings per year. Because of this, I have chosen a method that fits that number of seedlings as well as the way I think. I am visually oriented and like to see what is going on as much as possible. Over the last ten years, I have planted all purchased seeds, all seeds from my own garden, and various mixtures of the two. Regardless of the seed mixture, I have averaged about 90% germination and 85% success from seed to first-year seedling. As others have said in almost every “How do you grow daylilies from seed?” post, there are probably as many ways to raise daylilies from seeds as there are people who do it. My method may be the best for me, but might not be for anyone else. With that said, here is what I do:
I start monitoring my pods on a daily basis about 6 weeks after the first flowers were pollinated which would be mid-to-late June. I collect seeds when the pod shows the first sign of splitting between lobes. I take the pods into my home where I remove the seeds from the pods and place them in 1-ounce portion cups and identify each cup by cross. I place the cups on an inside window ledge that gets no sunshine and allow them to sit for two days. The room is air conditioned and typically runs at about 74 degrees during the summer. After 48 hours, I check the seeds and throw out any that are soft or those that collapse when give slight pressure between my fingers. I then place the seeds in a 2X3 inch plastic reclose-able envelope on which the cross, the date, and the number of seeds has been written. I keep a running list of all the envelopes (cross and number of seeds) in a Microsoft Word table. I place the filled envelopes into a larger reclose-able plastic bag which contains a card with the dates of the seeds in that bag. All bags are stored in a ‘crisper’ drawer of a refrigerator. I check the seeds every 4-6 weeks and remove any seeds that show mold or any other problem. If I find a seed that has germinated in the refrigerator, I will check the cross and determine if that is one that I might wish to save. If it is, I will plant it as I will describe later and try to raise the seedling indoors until it is time to plant. If it is not a seed that I hope to grow, I destroy it.
I do not wet-store my seeds, nor do I place water into the storage bag in the weeks leading up to germination. My germination rates are good, but they don’t all germinate in 3-5 days. It can take 4-5 weeks to get everything to germinate. Over the fall and winter I have determined which seeds I will be germinating and assign a number to each cross for identification purposes.
My date to start the germination process is March 1 plus or minus a week or two depending on the weather. I use 9:1 water-to-peroxide and put just enough in a small glass/cup/etc. (6 oz. or smaller) so that seeds can float; place cups in a plastic pans; cover with dark towel; and place pans on a counter top in room set to about 72 degrees, but allowed to cool off at night to 68. No sun touches the pans. After 2 days, I start checking daily for germinated seeds. I generally choose 350+ seeds to start the germination process. With my typical 10% loss, that will result in at least 320 germinated seeds. When I see that a seed has germinated, I carefully remove it from the other seeds in that cup and place it in a cell filled with moist planting mix. The cell is about 1 inch square and 5 inches deep. I cover the seed with about ¼ inch of soil-less mix. I used peat pots for several years with good success, but the space needed for a pot with adequate depth was too great and the cost of the 3+ inch depth pots was high. I found the cells I currently use on a close-out sale 2½ years ago on the Home Shopping Network. I’ve never seen them advertised anywhere either before or after I bought them. They are manufactured in England, the brand name is Haxnicks and the product name is Deep Rootrainers™. I checked and they are available through Amazon.com for as little as $18 for 32 cells (8 rows of 4 cells each, a stand and a plastic cover). I paid $5 for each set of 32 on the close-out. They take some getting used to and can be awkward to get the seedling out of, but the savings in both peat pots and potting mix is worth it to me. Also, I have used several soilless mixes (Fafard, Pro-Mix, Miracle Grow, Stay Green, etc.) as well as mixing my own. All have worked adequately. I like my own mix best as it has the fewest long, thin wooden pieces. I moisten the mix partially before filling the planting cells as the dry mix is almost water repellent once it is packed in the cells and getting the filled cells moist takes too much time.
I fill 11 trays of cells prior to starting the germination of the seeds which gives me 352 cells. I have marked each tray with a number and each set of four cells also with a number. I place them all on a rack of shelves which is located in my yard where it will get sun most of the day. I take one or two trays into the house when seeds start to germinate. I place each germinated seed into a single cell and cover as noted above. I use a plant marker to mark each cell with the cross and the cross number. I enter the identification of each cell by cross, the location of that particular seed and the cross number in a table using Microsoft Word. The location is noted as tray number, row number and cell number (A, B, C or D). The final ID will look like this – 3-5-B, meaning third tray, fifth row, second cell from the right. When all of the cells in a tray are planted, that tray goes outside and a new tray comes inside. This continues until I have 10 or 11 full trays. At this time I am finished with germination for the year. I will sprinkle the trays lightly with water each morning and each evening. If the weather is unusually cold I will bring the seed trays into the house or the garage depending on the space needed. If the temperature gets unusually cold, I will put a small heater in the garage with the trays to be certain the temperature does not fall below freezing.
As the seedlings grow, I continue to keep them moist and I will occasionally rotate the trays to the top tier where there is the maximum amount of sunshine. When the seedlings are about 3 weeks old, I will start adding a very weak dose of liquid fertilizer to the water once or twice each week. By the middle of April, the seedlings are ready to plant. By then I will have taken my list of seedlings (by tray-location and cross) and noted any empty cells where seeds did not grow successfully. I remove them from the list. I typically have several germinated seeds which produce plants which grow very slowly, grow into misshapen seedlings or are albino. At this time these seedlings are also removed from the list. Since the table is in Microsoft Word, I sort the list by the cross number so I will have a table telling me where all of the seedlings are located for each individual cross. Based on the size of the bed or beds I will be using for seedlings, I plan out where the seedlings will be planted and then get started planting.
I live in an area where I could plant in August and have seedlings large enough to make to through our typical winter which would get me blooming seedling sooner than waiting until spring to plant. Unfortunately for me, I simply can’t stand work outside through the heat and humidity of our summer to get a bed empty are ready for new seedlings by September 1.
I have very likely left something out or made something difficult to understand. If that is the case, please post a question about that part and I will try to answer your question.
I hope this helps.
