petruske said:This is going to be my first time also to start growing daylilies from seeds that I collected this year. I've been reading all I can here on ATP and this is the first I heard mention of gnats. What's up with that??? What should I watch for (or avoid)? Do they come from the soil that is used?
Fungus gnats can be in the potting media you buy but it's not inevitable. The adults can fly in from the outdoors through opened doorways or windows without screens (perhaps even through screens with wide mesh since they're teeny, certainly possible if there are holes in it). They can already be in houseplant pots and can come into the house with houseplants that were outdoors for the summer. Another possibility is previously opened bags of media or ones with tears in the bag that were left outside or in a greenhouse. I only once had problem with them and that's because they came with a potted plant from a big box store. Letting the soil surface dry between waterings helps because the adults like to lay their eggs on damp organic media. While the adults can carry diseases it is the larvae that do the feeding damage below the media surface.
petruske said:I was going to start them in late January. I thought I read that if you start them too early they will get spindly. Is that a concern?
Getting spindly from being started early is caused by too low light intensity in relation to the temperature/moisture/fertilizer. Fluorescent lights lose brightness over time and plants are affected by this before our eyes can detect it and also the height of the lights above the plants can be a factor. If the conditions cause floppiness then you don't gain much from starting them early, especially if they flop enough that you feel a need to cut the leaves to shorten them. Cutting back then gives the seedlings a "double whammy" by reducing their food making ability still further and slowing them down.
(Edited to quote Sue's questions plus an afterthought on the window screens)
