Next summer I will be x breeding daylilies and I want to know if I could plant them after I dry them out. I heard from others that I put them in the fridge with a little amount water in a small sandwich bag and let the roots develop. But I tried that and it didn't seem to work as I expected. Is there another option for the seeds that does not involve a fridge, or sandwich bags with water. I hope their is, because I have a lot of things to do on my mind next summer. Especially GARDENING!

Hi Ian,

Daylilies are pretty easy to grow from seed. If you weren't successful, perhaps you did not let the seeds ripen enough before you picked the seedpods from your plants.

Daylilies do need a cold stratification period and dampness does help with that. One way to accomplish this would be to pot your seeds in January or February and leave them in an unheated garage for a month. The seeds won't germinate until spring no matter what you do. I wouldn't recommend putting seeds in a plastic bag with a little water - that sounds like a recipe for mold. If you want to stratify in your refrig., put the seeds in a little bit of damp sphagnum moss in a plastic bag.

Chilling in the fridge in damp vermiculite or perlite works too. After about a month take them out to germinate at room temperature or outdoors if warm enough. They are not supposed to be left in the fridge until they germinate. They also should not spend an extended period of time submerged in water either in the fridge or out.

Thanks, Daisyl.
I knew there was another answer out there somewhere. But I didn't know what it was. Oh one more thing. Should I water the seeds too while they are potted in an unheated garage or shed during their germination?

I tried germinating stella de oro seeds in the fridge. I added water just a tad so the seeds had time to germinate ( 10 to 12 drops in a mini plastic sandwich bag). But it didn't work. :(

Here's a picture to show you what bag I used compared to the bag you guys might of thought of.
(I used the 2x3 bag)

Sooby is right, the seeds will not germinate in the cold of the refrig. Its built into the DNA of the seed that growing before winter is over is a bad thing. So when the seed is ripe, it goes into a dormant state that it will remain in until the right conditions occur.

To get the seeds to germinate, you have to try to mimic the conditions that will break the dormancy of the seed. In this case, the right conditions are a cold damp winter, followed by a warm spring.

The reason for adding water (or better yet putting them in dampened vermiculite or something like that) is because for chilling to break seed dormancy the seeds need to have taken up enough water. If the seeds had been dried down then a few drops is probably not enough to rehydrate them.

The idea of stratification in the fridge is to simulate a winter in the ground, followed afterwards by germination at warmer room temperature (simulating spring). As I said, they are not intended to germinate while still in the fridge, which seems to be a fairly common misconception that you probably read somewhere.

If you do this outdoors instead of in the fridge, the medium you put them in should be as damp as you would normally make it for seed starting, so that they can take up enough water for the cold to have an effect (it needs to be between 32 and 50F for stratification). If you cover the containers they should not need further watering.

Just put 304 seeds (all one cross) in 16 separate bags in the frig for cold stratification. Testing half on damp paper towels; the other half on gauze, squeezed out. If I didn't provide enough moisture can I soak 24 hours in water at room temperature (or in the frig), just before I plant. All other seeds I have planted over many years, I soaked 4+ hours before planting. Thanks!

If I understand correctly you are thinking to soak the seeds after stratifying them? There's no need to do that before planting. The important thing is that they take up water before or during the chilling otherwise the cold can not work to break seed dormancy and allow germination. So some people do soak them for a few hours before refrigeration. IMHO it is better to chill them in dampened (not wet) vermiculite or perlite. After about a month in the fridge they can be taken out of the fridge and planted immediately outdoors, or indoors under lights.

Refrigeration on damp paper towels does work too, again they should be damp but not wet. This is for stratifying not storage. For long term storage in a fridge they should be dry

I am having the worst germination rates ever this year. But let me say that seeds kept moist for a few months in the fridge will germinate in the fridge, found that out by experience last year when I was slow getting all my seeds planted.I was not trying to germinate them in the fridge, it just worked out that way.
Now in the past two years I first used cotton balls in the little zip lock baggies, that was too moist and caused a lot of mold. The next year I just used a small piece of paper to retain moisture in the baggie, that was too moist also, and caused mold. This year I just sprayed a quick squirt of water in the baggies and so far that is working much better.
I wanted to try the vermiculite or perlite this year, but forgot about it till sooby just reminded me.
The germination rate has been terrible for me this year due I think to the media I used to plant the seeds in. I did not think it was the seed, and that was proven when I sent some to a member on the site here, they germinated during shipment. So I tried that here, just took a few baggies out and laid them on a table in the laundry room, yep they sprouted in a couple of days.

I have a friend who has just started registering her own cultivars and she has started planting the seeds in November in the last two years. The cold stratification happens naturally in the garden and she doesn't have to baby the seedlings in the house. Not sure what percentage of her seeds actually germinated though.

She has some beautiful intros and a beautiful garden:
https://teaguewood.plantfans.c...

I have heard of others just planting the seeds in the ground, but then they have the problem of the weeds growing faster than the daylilies. So the time you save not having to tend to the seedlings in the house may be spent keeping the weeds out in the spring.

Another thread here talks about direct sowing:
The thread "Planting seeds directly in the ground after harvesting them?" in Daylilies forum