Whether a seed is dormant or not is very complicated.
Below is a quote from a recent review.
"[1 degree C is equal to 1.8 degrees F]
"It has been known for more than a century that the mother plant has a significant influence over seed traits, including
seed size, dormancy, and germination. In many species factors such as age of the mother plant, and position of the
seed in the fruit, inflorescence, or canopy can affect seed properties, often accompanied by a dimorphism either of the
seeds themselves or the fruits in which they arise (Roach and Wulff, 1987). In addition to the major effects of the genetics
and developmental characters of the mother plant, the environment during seed production also has a major influence on seed germinability (Fenner, 1991), and this will be the major focus of this review. These environmental effects can be strong, and temperature is the most dominant signal across species, with as little as 1°C differences shown to have important consequences for seed dormancy in sensitive ranges."
https://academic.oup.com/jxb/a...
What does that mean?
It means that the environment that the pod parent experiences both before it is pollinated and while it is producing the seed as well as the environment that the seed experiences while it is developing in the pod have effects on whether the seed will be dormant or not.
That means I might cross cultivar A x cultivar B in my field and the seeds are dormant but someone else might cross cultivar A x cultivar B in their garden and the seeds are not dormant. Or five years from now under different weather conditions I might make the same cross and the seeds are not dormant. Or if I water more next year and provide optimum fertilizer and make the same cross the seeds might not be dormant.
It also means that each person growing daylilies from seed may need to find the best way for their own situation.
