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Best time to start sowing

15 years ago

this is my first year starting daylily from seed. I did my own crosses, so if all goes well I fugure I should have some pretty interesting seedlings.

Now my question is , I have collect most of my seed now, have a few pods hanging yet that are not ready. I want to just direct sow, do I have to wait till spring or can it still be done this fall? Or is it too risky? Or would seed planted now remain dormant until spring?

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Comments (3)

berrytea4me
15 years ago
Good question but the answer depends on your local winter conditions. It would be best to get someone in z6 and your region to respond but here is a general response.

When direct sowing some of your seeds may germinate now, others may need winter freeze & moisture to break dormancy so you would see them in the spring.

If the seedlings are northern hardy they should make it through the winter even if they germinate now so long as they have enough time to get good roots established before freezing weather sets in. That is also a dependency on your local region. Since it can take several weeks for seedlings to sprout & then to develop true roots you need to calculate if you have enough time before frost would drive them into dormancy.

In my area, winter is our driest season with very little moisture but too cold to use a hose to water. Because of that I would only direct sow after freezing weather sets in so they won't sprout until spring or else sow in the spring to make sure the seedlings have plenty of root developed before they have to go through their first cold/dry winter.
newyorkrita
15 years ago
No expert here but I think the secret to winter sowing is to wait until the ground freezes BEFORE you sow if going to plant now. The reason being if you plant those seeds now, they have about enough time to just sprout and then it freeezes and they die because they were not big enough to be established before winter. So you would have wanted to plant them much earlier. Since that wasn't done, waiting until a freeze means that the seeds will not sprout until spring and that would be good.
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Daniellalell, It looks like you've just discovered our Forum, and if that is the case, a big Welcome! I also need to warn you that you are about to embark on a wondrous adventure of year round gardening which will drive your family and friends to think you are a certified wacko gardener... You will experience pure joy in the coming months if you participate in this thing called winter sowing. (Some folks at this time would write 'but I digress', yet I will not since I have never digressed at the thought of filling gardens with all the plants I want. I garden in a similar zone as yours and start winter sowing in the deep cold of February - also know as Valentine's Day. Only once in five years have I lost a couple of containers to a deep cold frost and these were tender annuals which were sown too early. You see, we start with perennials, then we move on to biennials, half hardy perennials, then it's the reseeding or 'tough' annuals, and then as the season winds down, we sow our tender annuals. I have also learned in the last few years that most seeds which germinate early are tough and will make it through. I've had Bachelor Button Sprouts covered with 1.5 inches of ice pellets and after the ice thawed, they were still there growing as strong as could be! I've posted a link to the FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions) page so you can peruse and read at your leisure. Do read them, and then come back and we will answer any question you have. Here is a link that might be useful: Winter Sowing FAQs
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sundays
15 years ago
The people I know who sow their seed directly outdoors in Ohio ( zone 5 ), wait until Thanksgiving. That way, they don't germinate until spring. Not sure about zone 6 though.

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