Frequently Asked Questions

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Among the many questions asked about daylily cultivation is "How does one germinate daylily seeds?".  Here is some advice from NCDC member Jonathan Poulton on March 28, 2023:

Three weeks ago, I planted my daylily seeds.  They'd been stored over the winter hidden behind the lettuce in the crisper drawer of my refrigerator.  For 15 years, I'd been using starter mixes that contained peat and, as a result, there were fungus gnats everywhere!  It's hard to play the piano, watch the next installment of "Yellowstone", or eat dinner when you have fungus gnats disrupting your vision!  So, I took the sage advice of Mary Baker, a daylily hybridizer friend from ADS Region One, who had posted on her Facebook page a seed starter mix consisting only of coir and perlite.  It is fantastic!  I highly recommend it!  She uses Miracle-Gro Perlite (8 quart bags) and Gardener's Eco-co coir bricks.  (Mix one bag of perlite with the coir obtained by letting one brick expand in just less than a gallon of lukewarm water).   Germination rates were in excess of 90%, and the seedlings look really healthy.  I use multicolored LED lights to promote growth.  I use 72-well flats, planting seeds in 71 wells.  I chop the bottom off the 72nd well to allow me to easily bottom-water through that well. Thank you, Mary!

Many of my daylilies have leaf streak, which is caused by the fungus Aureobasidium microstictum.  The advice I have found is to remove the affected leaves, and then consider anti-fungal treatment.  

Here are some resources that I found to be helpful: 

•    https://ag.umass.edu/greenhouse-floriculture/photos/daylily-leaf-streak#:~:text=Daylily%20leaf%20streak%20is%20caused,entire%20leaves%20can%20turn%20yellow.  
•    https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/daylily-leaf-streak/  
•    https://daylilies.org/?s=leaf+streak&button=  

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