Glenn - are your seedlings in individual pots when they fail? I'm wondering whether you sow the seeds in flats first, pot them on, and then you say they never make it through the summer... Are the pots in a sunny place? My guess is that the little bulbs are rotting during the summer months due to high temperatures and too much retained moisture. This can be a big problem with black plastic pots. Depending on your conditions you could also have an associated sciarid fly larvae problem (fungus gnats) that are attacking the roots. My experience is that many of the standard potting mixes retain too much moisture. And although perlite being porous does improve drainage, the perlite can also retain moisture. I have stopped using perlite and vermiculite entirely in my seed growing for this very reason (too much moisture retention) and have switched to ground pumice, and even then I add sand too. My mix would be roughly 50% potting soil (I prefer G&B Organics brand), 25% ground pumice and 25% sand. I typically measure these out by the handful, so the quantities are never exact. Even then I still lose some small bulbs to rot. I would switch your potting mix (maybe miracle grow has too much nitrogen fertilizer, and this could leave you with lush but weak growth), add some sand, and pumice if you can get it. Or try a mix of potting soil and cactus mix, which would probably have the same end result. If you have new Asiatic lily seeds then now would be the right time to start them... Hope this helps, Steve
