I couldn't wait to plant my cross I got on the LA of America's Most Wanted X Woman At The Well. I got 6 seeds,4 germinated, and I broke one off.So,I have three 3" seedlings,and am going to start millions more after Christmas decorations come down!

Betsy

I was tempted to start some of mine right now, but too much Christmas prep remains since my family will be spending Christmas day here. I decided to wait until after New Years and then I will be starting about 1,000 seeds under the grow lights. It sure does help me get through the winter months when I can watch things sprout and grow.

Linda

I'm tempted to start some, but I'm trying to wait until late January or early February. I hate dealing with fungus gnats for so long, and the ones I planted in December last year got very leggy by the time they went outside. The ones I in February last year were the healthiest over time and had the biggest fans by fall. Good luck to all with their seeds in the coming year. Watching them grow helps beat the winter blahs!

Debra

Shelly, Betsy, Linda - Oh My Yes!! I'm starting em also - just can't wait! I wish I were starting as many as you guys! To get through the winter 'dormancy' I found a cookie cutter in the (kinda) shape of a Daylily, and thought "why not make Daylily Xmas Cookies to give out"?? Here's a pic of the cutter:

So I'm mentally sharing a plate of them with you all:

Anyway - why not try making holiday cookies in your favorite DL colors?? (Have I had too much eggnog?).....

Happy Holidays to you all,
Chris in CA

Love the cookie idea.. that might work too. I will not get close to Linda's 1000 but the ending count will probably be a good 500 or so. To ward off the fungus gnats--I have fans blowing the seedlings from a variety fo angles.. if they can fly in that.. then best wishes..lol
Debra.. some of mine got leggy too last year - I found that if I transplanted them out of their community pot and pulled them out from under the lights - they worked more on roots and had a better system than those from previous years.

Wow!
You all are sure starting early!
I don't dare start until March, otherwise they will get too tall, and I can raise my lights only so much. Can't put them in the ground until late May anyway, so they're easier to handle if they're shorter.

Betsy, you're going to start MILLIONS more? Do you have a greenhouse?

Neat cookie cutter, Chris.
That reminds me, I'd better get started on my own cut-out cookies!

{{gwi:988643}}

We started planting sprouted seeds the end of November. If your going to grow indoors during the winter you need to give them the maximum amount of light as possible. This means you will be blinded when you go check them and lift the space blanket curtains.

Our grow room has 4 - 2 bulb 4' fluorescent fixtures loaded with 6500k bright daylight bulbs. Photo below. Old mother nature just can't supply enough light in the winter for good growth. We purchased some seedlings Spring 2007 that were grown in a greenhouse over winter and not one bloomed for us. Our indoor plants had twice the crown that they did.

We also found growing seedlings in beer/coffee cups (1 per cup) also helped for first year bloom. We use a bulb planter to make the holes and plop the plant in without disturbing the root systems.

We know some will tell you it's not worth the hassle, but we observed this year 50% +/- first year bloom. See photo.

Here's a scape on a 9 week seedling before we cut it off. Seems we get a couple of these every year.

[IMG]http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff306/briarhill1/Picture001.jpg[/IMG]

Photos of our setup. It's not pretty and professional, but it works great.

[IMG]http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff306/briarhill1/indoor.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff306/briarhill1/3.jpg[/IMG]

Last photo of those seedlings in mid-late September. Is it worth it? You bet.

[IMG]http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff306/briarhill1/2007seedingsoutside.jpg[/IMG]

Cheers,

Here's a scape on a 9 week seedling before we cut it off. Seems we get a couple of these every year.

Photos of our setup. It's not pretty and professional, but it works great.

Last photo of those seedlings in mid-late September. Is it worth it? You bet.

{{gwi:670153}}

Cheers,
Bruce and Tanya

I am going to try the beer cup method after Christmas.

I have around 1000 seeds to plant,and no greenhouse.I will plant most of them outdoors in the spring and just start the ones I bought on LA this winter.That's only about 60 or so from expensive parents that I can't buy now.

Love the cookie cutter!

I did buy mosquito dunks and break off a piece and add it to my watering jug. So far no fungus gnats! This time last year I was going crazy with them,so the dunks might be doing the job!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you!
Wish for an early spring!

Betsy

I love starting daylily seeds this early! Just something about growing inside when there is snow and cold outside. I like to drop my crosses in a cup of water with some Hydrogen Peroxcide in the dark. (99.8% germ. rate!!) Wait till the little roots poke out, and drop it in a little dirt and barely cover. My problem too is they get leggy. I usually just keep cutting them back though to put energy to roots.

Lilynut-- your cups intrigue me.. might have a shelf or two reserved to try your method..questions though - do you have drainage in the bottom of each or just top water? Do you wait for the seed to sprout and them move to individual cups or drop seed in each cup? What sort of potting mixture do you use? Where are you located -- zone and such. Did I mention that your method has me intrigued..LOL I am always learning from this forum.. first year I covered my pots of seeds with plastic wrap - taking it off when the greenery was touching-- two years ago, someone shared the ziplock bag hoodie method..lol.. so I love to try new ideas..
Shelly

Shelly,

We live 25 minutes north of Pgh, PA (zone 6b. We drill 4 holes through the sides of the cups at the bottom and this year made large pans out of flashing to bottom water 1/2 of them to try that way out. The photos are from last year when we top watered.

At Home Depot we buy Pro-Mix with water jell and use 9 month time release ferilizer (also Home Depot) 1 teaspoon per cup mixed in 15 cup batches.

We sprout the seeds then plant in the cups writing the crosses on the cups. Using Space blankets (Wally World) in the Sporting Dept; we make a curtain so all light is reflected back to the plants and it also keep the humidity high enough you don't need to tent them.

One of the biggest items is LIGHT. LOTS of LIGHT. THe more the better. If your plants are leggy then you don't have enough light. Did I mention lots of light. *-)

Anymore questions? Here's a photo of one of the plants were keeping to evaluate.

Hummm.. very interesting.. I bought the cups.. will be waiting for the seeds to sprout -- will have DH drilling holes.. and I have the same soil so that works.. I will be interested to see how they do. We'll bring this message up from time to time to share progress.. any one else in?
Shelly

I will be using the cup method for my seeds, except I usually plant more than one seed in the cup. It can be a real pain to separate them later, but my grow light area won't allow me to plant just 1 seed per cup. I do like the space blanket reflector idea that lilynut is using, and may try that. I also live north of Pgh., PA., about 40 minutes drive....nice to know there is someone else in my neck of the woods addicted to DL's.

Linda

Shelly, I started a few indoors just to see if they would grow. I have never tried it before but it seems they are working ok. I have about 30 up & growing but I have to tell you, I did nothing special to them. A light, some Jungle Growth soil ( Lowes ) and water. They may get leggy but, that's ok...

Chris, the cookie cutters look great and festive. Thanks for the pics....Ellie

OK you guys, you got me intrigued and as a result I just went out and bid on a few seeds on the LA.

I've been reading the hybridizing threads and thought I'd like to try that too but hey, what's hybridizing if you can't grow the seeds? Seems like a reasonable place to start, especially for some of those wonderful edged thingies where I can't afford the parents.

Thanks for sharing all your wisdom & secrets.

Can't wait to see if I can grow something decent.

Is this the beginning of a true addiction? LOL, I feel like I'm on the edge of a precipice about to fall out of the wagon.

You are definitly hooked. Now we can laugh at you as folks laugh at us. Are you carrying pics of your dls yet??? Ellie

No pix, only because I'm waiting to get most of them from the vendors. Until now I've only had a few: Stella de Oro, another small yellow NOID, the tall orange ditch lily (is that H. Europa?), a moon orange-yellow colored one, and some NOID's bought from a local DL society sale that I'm still waiting for bloom on. And until this fall I never thought to catalog them and take pix or even mark them in the garden. Now everything is getting tags and catalogued. All my house plants are getting the attention of my obsession in the mean time.

Ha, just since Sept I've built a db for my pda with ~600 DL cultivars each researched on the AHS db and carefully marked with want, really want, have, maybe, auction bid, auction win, or no thanks. I can even note when I got it, where I planted it, is it pod/pollen fertile, tet/dip,...blah, blah, blah...

And yes, when I get around to upgrading the db version it does hold pix...so there you go, it won't be long now. Now I also have similar db built for iris, roses, annuals, seeds, perennials, hosta, spring bulbs.....

LOL, I really have it bad don't I...how does it go? ...the first step is to admit you have a problem and that you are powerless to control yourself.....

What's worse is I've decide that I am going to change careers and so am looking for a garden related business to buy...dl farming is high on the potentials list though I need income right away so can't start from scratch and wait 3-4yrs for profitability..I may end up w/a garden center and add dl growing to it later....talk about enabling an addiction.

happy holidays!!!

I'm soooo hooked ---thank you Liliynut for sharing your secrets---you R GREAT!!!
I'll be starting seeds in the am!!!! and I guess you mention LIGHT!!!!

I got lights, seedling mats, and seeds from my wonderful kids for one of my holiday gifts!!! even got a kool watering can!!
best to all---cole and canines from mendo

We gave no secrets up. Really it's kind of like anything that is growing..even pets and children. Just as every growing thing needs food and water to grow on. For plants it's N, P, K, light, ph, water and proper temperature range. Not enough of one of these and your plant/animal won't grow properly. They may survive, but not thrive. Learned this through the years by College, raising Show Dogs (beagles), Salt water aquarium hobbist and having grown up on a farm.

Remember soiless mixes contain no nutrients, so get somekind of water soluble fertilizer with micro nutrients and water every 2 weeks with it. Better yet use a 6-9 month time release fertilizer combined with a drink of water soluble fertilizer with some "Super Thrive" added every month.

As for the set-up we made...I learned things from others. Education is a marvelous thing. *-) Over on Tinkers Forum is where the basics came from. Using the 6500K bulbs and Space/Emergency blanket came from there. The thought of making water pans from sheet aluminum stock (came from a friend from Tinker's that visited us) to bottom water. Going to try that on 1/2 our seedlings this year.

The idea of using pulleys and poly-rope to adjust the lights was ours. We knew to cram as many lights in as we could from having Corals in the saltwater tank. Even if you greenhouse them in zone 7 and less; Winter Sun won't give the plants enough light to grow properly. By this I mean there will be a chance for flower in the same year.

We start germination of seeds the 3rd week of Nov., so plants are starting to grow the first of Dec. In our experience it takes most plants 9-10 months for first blooms. Very few earlier and from last years experience approx. 75% before the frost got them.

You can glean from the net the temps for optimal growth and germination. Seems we get the best germination at a soil temp 60-65 F. Growth seems best at 75-85 F.

We started using the cup method after experiencing about 0% first year bloom from the plastic storage bin way to grow plants. Seems all the removing and untangling roots; set back the plants for weeks and/or combined with much less artificial light helping.

All we know is we've had good success last year which was the 4th year of growing indoors over the winter. Every year the result was improved.

We aren't long term Daylily Hybridizers, so as such don't take our word to be gospel! 4 years is nothing. 10 years you are finally getting the hang of it. *-) 20 years you are becoming a Master. 30 years you are the Master. 8-)

Merry Christmas all.

Best,
Bruce and Tanya

The link is a good read.

Here is a link that might be useful: propogation of plants

About those seeds that don't sprout or grow -- After 6 or 8 weeks, I gave up on waiting for those reluctant seeds to do anything, so when we transplanted all our seedlings into the field bed, I just threw all the potting soil from the cups into the new bed, along with the seedlings. To my surprise, quite a few of the "late bloomers" eventually sprouted and grew well. That goes to show that some seeds are very slow to germinate or grow. Don't give up on them!

I always learn a lot from your posts. Betsy, I'll try the mosquito dunks in my watering cans this time. And Bruce, the solar blankets are a terrific idea. You all have me itching to plant some seeds now. I'm going to wait at least another week though.

Debra