Advertures in Hybridization: Starting Seeds

After a few weeks siting in our refrigerator our daylily seeds had been chilled enough that we could attempt to germinate them.  In the southern part of the country refrigerators are commonly used to trick plants into thinking they have had a winter season.  We did a lot of research on how to collect and germinate daylily seeds.  We concluded that there are approximately 1000 different ways.  Most follow a similar path: chill the seeds, germinate the seeds in a liquid (mostly water, but usually with something added), put into pots and let the plants grow.

We put each cross and used a peroxide water solution (with a little soap to break the surface tension) to germinate the seeds.  The seeds stayed in the water until we saw a radical some out of at least one of the seeds.  Once one was ready, they were all ready.

The seeds are small, black and wrinkly.  Diploids have smaller seeds than tetraploids.  They also produce more seeds in each of their seed pods.

Each cross gets planted in it's own pot.  We use a potting soil with mycorrhizae and a bio-fungicide, but that isn't necessary.  Now they are out in the greenhouse and we wait again.