I have several seed pods that are only 3 weeks old but are already cracked open. They are open a good quarter inch. I can clearly see the white seeds inside. A couple of the pods are showing black seeds but they are only 3 weeks since the cross and I just know they are not ready to be picked. I've never seen this problem before. Of course, I've never had nearly 2000 seed pods either!!!! I think I've lost it, totally and I'm still setting pods everyday. I just can not stop. Oh well, maybe someone will want some of them when I put them up for sale. I sure hope so.

Anyway, does anyone else have a problem with the pods opening way too early???

Mona, I too am having some pods break open too soon on
smallish pods. But, this has been the worst season for
daylilies that I have ever seen. First, the plants came up a month
too early due to hot days, then the days and nights were too cool,
and the blossoms would not open, any of them. Then weather
was and is too dry, and the plants really really prefer rain to our treated
water here. Really difficult to find a nice bloom to take photos.

I keep crossing anyway, many have aborted. Just too dry. Can't seem
to water enough. Recently we got about an inch of rain, and the
blooms were huge and gorgeous for a day. The leaves perked up too.
Then all of them went back to ugly. I have been so aggravated that I
gave some serious thought to forgetting this whole daylily thing. I wanted
to begin selling this year. Hard to evaluate over 700 plants when they are
ugly. We planted over 2400 as well. With ongoing construction on the
house, and having to deal with all manner of problems, I have had little
time to respond to posts. However, things will soon be back to normal.
I may have a few photos to add later, if they aren't too unsightly when I
review them. Guess I shouldn't complain when only one year so far
has been a dud.

Mona, I have seen this. Not just this year, but last year as well. I don't know what makes them do that. Maybe the seeds grow faster than the pod
If I know they aren't ready I just leave them alone. Sometimes the seeds will go on and ripen with time (if nothing gets in and eats the seeds or moisture rots them) if the crack isn't too big. Other times that chamber will shrivel up and the seeds will dry up with it, but the other chambers will keep growing and the seeds will mature and ripen. I would just leave them alone and see what happens. If you take them off the seeds may not be any good and if you leave them on the seeds may not make it, but given a choice they have a better chance on the scape IMHO.

But with 2000 pods Mona, you would be better off losing a few If you have an average of 5 seeds per pod (remember some may have 10 or 15 and some may have only 1) THAT'S 10,000 SEEDS. STOP MONA STOP, you have enough Take a break and give yourself some R & R before it's time to start harvesting all those pods and then planting them. It's too easy to get burned out if it becomes more work than fun.

Be proud of all you've done, but you DESERVE a break.

Ok, as long as I'm not having a unique problem, everything is fine. You know of course that it's always the newest and best that will have a problem like this. I'm thinking that the pods just grew way to fast. I've been amazed at the rate of pod growth I've had this past month. I sware it looks like they are on steroids sometime.

I've had a really good year with plants growing and blooming and with seed setting. Our weather has been as close to perfect as it could be for daylily growth and production. Yes, we need rain, too, but not as bad as most folks. Shirlee, I'm so sorry you are having a bad year. I had the same last year, so I understand and I'm sure most folks would agree, so try not to get too down. Daylilies are very tuff plants and they will survive. Granted they may not flourish like we want in a bad year, what could, but they will be back next year.

My water is the same and I'm sure most community water systems give out such treated water that plants just don't grow as good with bought water as it does with God given water, even though it all starts out from the same sourse. Last year, my tomatos looked terrible. I was watering every other day atleast an inch at a time. The plants were yellow, instead of green. Fertilize didn't help. We finally had a rain come in that lasted a couple of days. I swear, within 3 days, those yellow plants were dark green and happy as rats eating cheese!! So, yes, rain makes a huge difference on plants.

None of this will make your plants better but I hope knowing that we all have these problems will help. It always helps me when I learn it just happens and I'm not doing something to cause my problems like I did last year with my pollen. I left it out too long and was using dead pollen to polinate hundreds of blooms daylily. I finally figured it out at the end of bloom, naturally, after spending the best two weeks(peak time) using dead pollen. I was sick!!!! Lesson learned, and I hope I manage to remember this one!!!

Good luck and I pray that it gets better for you.

Michele, Yeap, I've gone bee hopping crazy. It's like I need to spread pollen to survive God's taking care of my addiction, most plants have bloomed out for the season. But, I'm also getting more rebloom scapes than I've ever had. I guess all that work last fall of repotting 800 plants into 1500 pots, really is paying off. Sometimes a well laid plan does WORK

I'm going to leave the seeds alone. I just couldn't believe they were ready to pick in 3 weeks. Now, if I can keep those little bitty leaf eating grass hoppers away from them, they might survive.

I'm having lots just dry up and when I crack them open, they have no seeds or just tiny ones. A couple of varieties have had most of them abort and the ones left only look to have half a pod. I find this happens on certain varieties and not all. All of Dan Trimmers oranges that I have, make big pods that look like big walnuts, I like those kind of pods, they make healthy seeds. You have so many pods, why are you worrying anyway lol? You have over twice as many pods as me, I get too tired during peak bloom and have to quit making crosses. Being old just ain't no fun.

Dot

Dot, do you happen to know the name of Dan Trimmers garden??

Never mind Dot, I googled it. Its Water Mill Gardens. I just couldn't remember the name of it.

Cindy,

The varieties I have of Dan's are Orange Blossom Trail, (extremely pod fertile), Port Orange, Parrot Moon, Lake Tahoe Autumn, Parrots of the Caribbean, Tequila Mockingbird and Baja California. I don't know about the ones I don't have. All these make big healthy pods for me.

Dot

Tigerland is very fertile as well. It sets pod easily and has strong pollen.