When to Plant Daylilies? Detailed Guide to Planting Time and Methods

The daylily is a vegetable grown specifically for its flowers, and there is a saying that goes "you've waited so long the daylilies have gone cold." In fact, daylilies are generally more flavorful when served cold-tossed, and they show up when you're eating pickles. Daylilies are especially beautiful when in bloom; a large field of daylilies is a gorgeous sight, and their nutritional and medicinal value are both fairly high. So today let's learn about the planting time and planting methods for daylilies.

Planting Time

Daylilies are still a seasonal vegetable on the market, with daylilies only produced during certain seasons. The production period for daylilies is generally from June to August. Daylilies can generally be planted in two seasons, so spring and autumn are the normal planting times for daylilies. Their growth period is divided into seven stages: the sprouting stage, the leaf-unfolding stage, the bolting stage, the flowering stage, the leaf-withering stage, the leaf-unfolding stage of the following year, and the dormant stage. This also shows that planting daylilies allows harvesting to continue for several years, which is very economical.

Planting Methods

1. Site Selection and Soil Preparation

Daylilies are not very strict about soil requirements; their tolerance of poor soil and drought is extremely strong, and their lifespan is fairly long, generally growing for five to eight years, so they are quite suitable for being planted alone on hillsides, mountainous areas and similar sites. But if they can be planted in places with looser, more fertile soil, they will grow better, yield more, and their useful lifespan can also be extended. When preparing the soil, plow as deep as possible, which can help avoid the threat of some pests and diseases and also prevent lodging.

2. Planting Methods

There are two ways to plant daylilies. The first is raising seedlings by sowing seeds, placing daylily seeds in a seedbed to raise seedlings, then transplanting once the seedlings have grown. However, this method has two drawbacks: yields are not high and quality is poor, and secondly, after planting, they only flower in the third year and reach normal yields in the fourth year, so the first method is generally not recommended. The second method is propagation by division. After harvesting daylilies in autumn or after dormancy, separate the newly grown young roots from the old plants and plant them. Planted this way, they can flower and be harvested the following year, which is much more efficient. If you don't have old plants, you can also buy them from others.

3. Field Management

Daylilies should be planted at a reasonable density, generally with a spacing of 35 to 40 cm per plant. The most suitable temperature for daylily growth is around 15 to 20 degrees, so temperature regulation is needed during their flowering period, which can promote flowering and improve quality and yield. The most important thing for daylilies is fertilizer management. Generally, we apply topdressing three times. The first fertilization is at sprouting, applying a mixed fertilizer of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and urea to promote sprouting and shorten the sprouting period. The second fertilization generally uses urea and potassium fertilizer to promote new branch growth. The last fertilization is at flowering, which helps shorten the flowering period for harvesting.

4. Disease Prevention

Daylilies have relatively few diseases, with just occasional aphids or leaf spot disease. So when few aphids are found, they can be removed by hand; when there are many, dimethoate emulsifiable concentrate should be sprayed, and harvesting must not be done within half a month after spraying. As for leaf spot disease, chlorothalonil is generally sufficient.

5. Harvesting and Processing

Daylilies generally bloom at night, so harvesting is usually done every morning; once noon comes, they wither. If rainy weather is expected, harvest as early as possible the day before, as growth is very fast then, and if you still follow the usual timing it will be too late. After harvesting, daylilies need to be processed, generally by first steaming them dry, then sun-drying them, and finally packing them up.