You've jumped right in! The way I understand it,they bloom sooner if left clumped together.Maybe someone with more experience will clarify that for both of us. I separated all of my seedlings I planted last fall and none have bloomed yet.A few have increased though.

Betsy

Hi deangreen and Betsy! Chris in CA here, and here is a picture of my seedlings also!! I would LOVE to get advise as to whether to separate the seedlilngs, or leave them 'clumped' together either in pots or in the garden??

deangreen-how are you doing on keeping them straight?? (whew)

I can tell you that my seedlings had big root systems in 10 months...at least 1 foot wide, some much more. I would seperate them so they will have room to grow. Also, if one seedling gets rust, it will spread rapidly if they are close together. Not trying to jinx you...just speaking from my own experience.
Kathy

Hi Kathy - thanks! Yes, I think I will try to seperate them as much as my small yard will allow! I'm presently asking everyone about rust and trying to learn..........!

Chris in CA

Chris. My advice is to put all of the seeds of one cross into a one gal. pot whether there is one seed or 100 seeds. When they sprout and have roots about 2" long separate them out and plant them in a row in the ground. That way you are only planting the seeds that have sprouted. You will get better germination by planting them all together at least it worked well for me and my mentor Robbie has used this method for years.

Hi Jackarias! I'm glad to hear I've been doing the right thing so far as the seedlding are in 1 gallon pots together for the most part - I dug a lovely bed in the backyard for them and wanted to ask you, when you go to separate & replant them, can they be handled without soil around their roots (as you would large fans), i.e., actually separating them from the soil and replanting or will this shock them?? Also, how tall are they when they have roots 2" long -mine are about 6" tall right now?

Thanks so much for all the advise!

Chris in CA

I'm tilling up a bed this weekend near a pecan tree, which I understand is good for seedlings. (?)
so they will be there in little rows hopefully growing growing growing, and I'll be killing killing killing and moles coming near. ha

I have very few goals with my daylilies (for now) and have not marked my crosses. I'm not going into this seriously only for a little hobby to see what may come of my favorite few daylilies.. but I keep studying the procedure and understand what I'll need to do if I intend to seriously try and reach a goal.

for example I may want to keep records someday so I can breed back with the parent or grandparent in my garden.
thanks for the comments, great discussion.

I am in Oklahoma so I'll also have to see which ones come back over the winter.

I'm tilling up a bed this weekend near a pecan tree, which I understand is good for seedlings. (?)
so they will be there in little rows hopefully growing growing growing, and I'll be killing killing killing and moles coming near. ha

I have very few goals with my daylilies (for now) and have not marked my crosses. I'm not going into this seriously only for a little hobby to see what may come of my favorite few daylilies.. but I keep studying the procedure and understand what I'll need to do if I intend to seriously try and reach a goal.

for example I may want to keep records someday so I can breed back with the parent or grandparent in my garden.
thanks for the comments, great discussion.

I am in Oklahoma so I'll also have to see which ones come back over the winter.

I have a bunch of little seedlings just about the same size,and some has just sprouted and came up.They about 2 inches high right now.Its exciting to watch them grow.

Jean

Jackaria's way is similar to mine except that I let mine sprout in zip-lock baggies with moist peat moss or potting soil. I am careful not to let the roots get longer than one or two inches though because they can get very tangled if lots of seeds are in the baggie. I store the bags in a box outdoors in very early spring (after frosts) so they get acclimated to the cool temps before planting them in the ground mid-may.

The baggies are nice because you can see through them and know how the sprouting is progressing.