I had said a while back I would do a post on beds that help produce rapid growth after planting your seedlings or any daylily. First I want the soil to be loose to promote root growth and water drainage, that's why I add about 2-3 inches of pine bark (dime size) to every bed. Pine bark will not break down as fast as compost and does not become part of the soil for several months, therefore keeping the soil loose for a longer period of time.
Old daylilies have been removed form the bed and tilled 8" deep. Start adding the bark, and spread with a garden rake if you have no tractor.

Pine bark complete

Time for the good stuff, the most important thing sitting in that buckett is the LIME you want you ph at 6-6.5 so those roots will take up the other stuff your putting in the bed. If you ph is low the daylilies will not be able to take up enough fertilizer for the growth you want. Ph meters are very cheap and most garden centers carry them. Alaffa has a growth hormone and also promotes worm growth in the beds, which are really beneficial by making compost and keeping the beds healthy. Bag #3 is Chicken Litter 4-2-2, I buy it by the ton to get it at a cheaper price, you can use milorigate if the litter is not avaibale. The small buckett is 13-6-6 slow release, or something close. All of these items are applied to a 60 foot x 54 inch bed as follows. Lime, one 40 lb bag, Alaffa 20 lbs, Chicken Litter one 40 lb bag, 13-6-6 ten lbs. A little more or less will not hurt anything, there is nothing here that will burn the plants.

Everything tilled in and ready to plant

I only use this tiller once a year so its important to clean it before putting it back in the barn. One thing to remember, the tractor and tiller only do about 10% of the work, but it's the hardest 10% of building a bed. You can see the pile of pine bark beyond the tractor. (60 yards)

Time to put them in the ground.

I plant everything from left to right

More later.

Wow, you sure do a fabulous job on your soil for were you want to plant the seedlings. I see you are recommending adding the lime. What if it is an already established daylily bed? Do you recommend lime for established beds also? I do already use alfalfa pellets, composts and various fertilizers on my daylilies at various times of the year. Just never thought of adding lime. Lime is something I used to put on the veggie beds each spring before I planted. Now those used to be veggie beds are daylily and Tall Bearded Iris beds and the daylilies love them. Of course, being old veggie beds, they have compost enriched soil.

oh how I wish I had a tiller for the tractor. It would be so much faster and easier than the walk behind kind I have. I guess it will go on the wish list.

spunky1 said:Time for the good stuff, the most important thing sitting in that buckett is the LIME you want you ph at 6-6.5 so those roots will take up the other stuff your putting in the bed. If you ph is low the daylilies will not be able to take up enough fertilizer for the growth you want. Ph meters are very cheap and most garden centers carry them.

I think what Fred is saying here is that you should get a PH meter and test your soil first, before adding any lime. Your soil test will tell you how much lime you should add - if any - to get to the 6-6.5 number he is recommending.

I have been tilling in pine bark - or shredded bark if I could not afford or find pine bark into new beds for years and years. I think it is just as important to put the mulch INTO the beds as on them.

And, daylilies just LOVE alfalfa pellets!

Great series Fred! Thanks so much for showing us how you do things! Having the right tools (tractor and tiller) makes such a difference when doing a big job like the bed prep!

If I had a tractor and tiller, I wouldn't have ANY grass, and my dogs would be VERY unhappy! ~Jan

Great information not only for newbies but we can all learn from it, thanks for taking the time to post it. Maybe it can be kept as a "sticky"

You need to check your ph with a meter, soil conditions are different in every area, even in different parts of your yard. In existing beds like Rita has with companion plants, this ph# may not be the best thing for those other plants.

Back to the seedlings
After the seedlings are planted, I apply Snapshot or Preen to all the beds and walkways to slow down the weeds, weeds are a year around problem here being we have little winter. I also have to apply milorganite to the beds to keep the rabbits out for a couple months, you may not have this problem, they say this also helps keep the deer out. After a couple of months the foliage will be tough enough the rabbits want eat them.
For the first two weeks after planting they get nothing but water every other day. Water is most important thing for this early growth. After two weeks I start applying a water soluble fertilizer at a rate of 1/2 oz to the gallon. This is sprayed over the foliage every week from now til bloom time, then every other week.

Have redone the watering system in the seedling area this week. I replaced the large pulsating sprinklers with shrub sprinklers. This has reduced the watering time from 60 minutes to 20 minutes because the water is more concentrated.
Both of these sprinklers put out 3 gallons per minute, the small one is the new one.


I spaced these at 10' between each one and each row of sprinklers covers two beds.

Wow Fred looks really nice.

Great job on showing us how you build your seedling beds Fred!!

Fred the overhead sprinking I am assuming its so you can foliar feed and also wash off insects and drown them. Am I correct in that as it is a great way to do it rather than soaker hoses.

Steph, I have heard that overhead watering will keep the insects at bay especially spider mites, not sure how true that really is. When I did have spider mites they were a lot worse where I had soaker hoses or hand watered. I've spent a pretty penny on soaker hoses and non have lasted very long. The flat ones lasted longer (2 seasons) than the regular ones (not even one season). They ended up with leaks all over the place.

Michelle I had some spider mites this year and I don't have a sprinkler settup so I just used a hand sprayer that makes a good jet on it. I then took a sprayer and used soap and water underneath and over the top and only did it 3 times over 1 month and that seemed to do the trick. Have not seen any since and I keep checking all the time/

Spider Mites are the worse insects for daylilies we have in this area. I start spraying in late February or early March and for three weeks, once a week. This keeps us from having a large out break. I do not fertilize thru my watering sys and don't know that it does much for the insects, its just the way I have watered the last many years. I also do a lot of digging in the beds and all those hoses would be a problem I think.

Good job at the Monday night meeting Michele.

I had a few plants invested with mites this year and I thought the plants were dying. They looked horrible. I sprayed and that seemed to do the trick. They now look fine.

Also, I forgot to mention that my garden inspector came last week and I was really surprised that he found rust on about 10 plants. I never have had that many infected at one time. Most of the new ones I acquired from the south this spring were infected, along with a few seedlings and a few daylilies I have had for over 5 years. Luckily our winters will kill it. I was told, however, to closely watch the daylilies planted near the house because if any of them get infected, the winter probably will not kill the rust because the plants are picking up some heat from being planted near the house.

Thanks Fred and you did a great job getting the auction done quickly.

Bummer Cindy on the Rust. I have also been told that for us northerners, that rust can overwinter if the winter is mild, and not our usual frigid cold, or even if the snow cover is really deep and 'protects' it. ~Jan

Well I heard the weatherman is predicting 60 plus inches of snow this winter. That's a lot for this area. That should kill any rust.