Getting Antsy?  Plant Some Seeds! 

by Margaret Lauterbach

OK, eager gardeners may start some of their seeds now, if you haven't already. (See plant hardiness zone map link below for last frost dates in your area). Seeds you can start indoors now are peppers, tomatoes, bulbing fennel, lettuce, sweet basil, melons, cucumbers, and squash. I tried transplanting carrots two years ago, and harvested only stunted roots. Apparently they were too well-developed before transplanting. They can be planted outdoors quite early, however, so indoor starting isn't advisable.

Here's the method I use and recommend. Soak pots of planting mix, and later seeded pots in tubs of water larger than a lattice flat. Watering tops of pots may displace your seeds. If your kitchen sink isn't large enough (more than 22 by 11 inches), you can buy a "concrete mixing box" at a building supply store for about $5.50 that's large enough.

Web-bottomed or "lattice" flats that can hold soaking pots may be available for purchase from local garden stores, or check your garden supply catalogs. Charleysgreenhouse.com sells five for $1.90 each, for instance, calling them "lattice flats." Most places sell them in larger wholesale quantities.

Plastic pots are preferable to peat, because peat wicks water from seedlings. I don't know how those "cow pots" (made of dried cow manure) would affect seedlings, but new seedlings do not need extra fertilizer. Some planting mixes contain some fertilizer, but I haven't had adverse results from that.

One flat will hold 18 3-inch pots or 12 small six packs. I thin good potting soil with vermiculite or perlite, but it's not necessary. Fill your pots with potting mix, thoroughly soak them in your container in room-temperature water, then begin sowing seeds.

If seeds are tiny, such as lettuce or brassica seeds, I don't cover them with planting medium. Just wet them with sprayed water, and then cover the pot with a piece of glass to hold moisture. A piece of glass formerly used in a picture frame works fine. Seedlings won't need good light until they germinate. So that you don't lose track of what seeds are in a given pot, you may have to lay an ID tag on the edge of a pot until germination occurs.

Once seeds germinate, remove the glass quickly, to give them good air circulation, and move them into direct sunlight.

About this time, brew some chamomile tea. I use at least two chamomile tea bags in a quart of water. After it's cooled, pour it into a spray bottle with which to water all of your emerging seedlings. Chamomile tea guards against "damping off," a fungus disease that collapses and kills seedlings. Air circulation is also necessary to avoid damping off.

Other enemies of new seedlings are poor air circulation, cold water, drying out, aphids and whiteflies. Neem or soap-based insecticide will kill aphids and whiteflies. Yellow sticky traps also reduce whitefly numbers. Lightly brushing seedlings daily with your clean hand or a vertically-held paper will make seedlings strong.

Some people believe plants grow and produce better if you plant seeds by the phase of the moon: underground crop seeds for carrots, beets, etc., should be planted when the moon is waning, or from the full moon to the new moon; while seeds for plants that will produce food crops above ground should be planted between the new moon and the full moon, when the moon is waxing (growing in visibility). I haven't paid attention to moon phases when I plant, so I cannot refute or attest to effectiveness of this timing.

As soon as you can work in your garden without compacting wet soil, you can plant out peas, spinach, turnips, radishes, carrots, kohlrabi, beets, and chard (if you haven't started that indoors). Walking and kneeling on boards reduces compaction if your soil is wet.

reprinted with permission from the Idaho Statesman www.IdahoStatesman.com/Gardening

 for average last frost dates in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, see USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

Success with Daylily Seeds

by Sue Bergeron

AHS Scientific Studies Committee

Have you ever tried starting daylily seeds indoors in winter or spring and been disappointed with the germination rate? Did you find that some seeds took seemingly forever to come up, and maybe dismissed those as weak seeds because they were slow, or even tossed them out thinking they weren't going to come up at all?

As long as the problem isn't one of viability (non-viable means a seed isn't capable of germination whatever you do because it has some problem that can't be fixed, such as a missing embryo), there is a way to maximize the rate of germination within a reasonable timeframe. The procedure is called stratification, or moist-chilling. Basically this means subjecting the seeds to a simulated winter. The seeds are placed in a container of damp  (not wet!) vermiculite, damp perlite, or damp sand and refrigerated for several weeks immediately prior to starting them (Damp peat moss can also be used but is too dark-colored for easy separation of seeds if you are not germinating them in the same media.) Four to six weeks should be sufficient damp-chilling for most daylily seeds. The media should only be as damp as you would use for starting seeds conventionally and they should not be frozen during this procedure.

After their "artificial winter" in the refrigerator, the seeds can be transferred to room temperature and started in the conventional way. With this treatment all the viable seeds should have been tricked into prompt germination-mode and be up and running within three to four weeks or less after coming out of the fridge. 

             Seedlings from seeds stratified in different damp media

                 for comparison; left to right sand, perlite, vermiculite,

                 coffee filter. Average germination 96%.

You may be puzzled by all this if your seeds have previously been stored in a fridge but germination was still slow. That's likely because they were too dry internally to respond since moisture is required for chilling to be effective. Dry storage in a fridge is not the same as stratification. Daylily seeds do not need to be soaked in water in order to take up moisture; they can draw in enough through their seed coats from damp media although some people stratify by soaking their seeds in water for a day prior to refrigerating without using media.  

The failure of viable seeds to germinate promptly when exposed to the required conditions of appropriate germination temperature, sufficient but not excessive moisture, and oxygen is called seed dormancy. (Some plant seeds also respond to light, but daylilies do not need light to germinate.)  Seed dormancy should not be thought of in the context of foliage habit.  Not all daylily seeds exhibit seed dormancy and one cannot tell whether any individual daylily seed will show seed dormancy just by looking at it or from its parentage. But you will know from experience if your particular seeds germinate in a sporadic manner over several weeks or even months, in which case future batches should benefit from stratification.

For more information on daylily seeds, their germination, stratification and storage, we're pleased to be able to bring you three articles by Dr. Robert A. Griesbach from the AHS's Journals of the 1950's.  They are available online in the archives of the AHS web site:

http://www.daylilies.org/AHSarchives/Griesbach.html

Ask the Ombudsman
 
Donna Peck has been the Ombudsman for the American Hemerocallis Society for the past three years. An Ombudsman "is an independent, neutral party who is able to look at problems that come up in an unbiased fashion." The Ombudsman also answers questions about Society rules and procedures. Donna has been writing Ombudsman columns for regional newsletters and the Daylily E-News, and now the columns are available on the AHS website. In this series of columns, she will answer a question that may benefit not only the member who had the concern but others as well. If you have a problem, question or situation with which you need help, contact Donna at AHS Ombudsman. 

VOUCHER PROGRAM      

AHS has had the voucher program for several years now, but some new members still don't understand the facts. It is an excellent incentive to encourage gardeners to join the AHS. Not only do they receive the excellent Daylily Journal four times a year, but also a daylily voucher which, in effect, reimburses their yearly membership fee in daylilies. Let's encourage our local members to join our national organization.

QUESTION:  We understand that the AHS has introduced a new voucher program that gives new members $25 worth of daylilies. Our club does not fully understand just what they need to do to join this program. Can you help us?

SOLUTION:  It is really a very simple process that your club needs to do. When you have club members join the AHS, send in their names with the membership checks to Pat Mercer, Executive Secretary,  P.O. Box 10, Dexter, Georgia 31019. The member will soon receive a letter from Pat explaining the program, the voucher that entitles the member to obtain the $25 toward daylilies, and the list of hybridizers who will honor the voucher. Some hybridizers require you to order a certain amount before they honor the voucher, while others will just send you the daylily which is worth at least $25 and in some cases more. The member will probably be required to pay shipping. An important note on the voucher program is that it applies to new AHS members as well as current members with a one-year membership who upgrade to a three-year membership.

Thanks to Slightly Different Nursery for sponsoring this issue of Daylily E-News.

The word "daylily" is properly spelled as one word. Many of today's spellcheckers and media style books incorrectly use the old-fashioned spelling "day lily" instead. The single word has been the preferred spelling for decades.

The American Hemerocallis Society is all about daylilies and people.

AHS is organized into 15 Regions including USA, Canada, and International designations. Each offers a variety of regional and local club daylily activities.

When people join AHS, they also become a member of the AHS Region in which they live. AHS Regions do not charge additional dues. Most AHS regions publish their own newsletter and mail it to all regional members at no extra charge. Members often participate in events outside their own region.

To learn about daylily activities and events near you, visit the webpage:
AHS Regional Activities

International daylily enthusiasts are welcome to request seeds from the AHS International Seed Bank. The aim of this
outreach program is to spread the interest in growing and enjoying daylilies around the world. 
 

For more information, please contact Maureen Strong at

Seed Bank.