How to Breed & Grow Daffodils

Growing and Pollinating Daffodils

• 1

  Purchase daffodil bulbs varieties that you are interested in breeding. In the fall, place bulbs, pointy side up, in a hole three times as deep as the bulb height, in either a raised bed or in flower pots. Cover with soil and water well; these should bloom in the spring.

• 2

  Select "seed parent" and "pollen parent" plants in the spring, when daffodil plants have formed buds. Choose strong, healthy plants for each. The seed parent plant should have a prominent pistil and a sticky stigma. The pollen parent should have heavy, yellow pollen on the anthers. Select plants that also exhibit your desired features, such as color, markings and petal shape.

  Choose your plants immediately when the flower opens, or you can open them by hand a day or two early.

• 3

  Mark your selected parent plants with some identifier, such as different colored yarn or twist ties. With tweezers, carefully pinch the six stamen from the pollen parent, with anthers attached, and place them in a ziplock bag or film container. Pinch and discard the stamen from the seed plant. This process, called emasculation, prevents flowers from self-pollinating. Secure plastic bags over the blossoms of the parent plants so they cannot be pollinated by other plants.

• 4

  Hold a stamen from the pollen parent with tweezers, and brush the anther across the stigma of the seed parent. You should be able to see yellow pollen stick to the stigma.

  Replace the plastic bag over the pollinated seed parent.

• 5

  Look for a seed pod once the flower has faded. Seed pods are lumpy, brown and hard, and are located behind the flower. Harvest the pod when it has shriveled or shrunken slightly.

Planting New Daffodil Seed

• 6

  Remove seeds from the pod and store the in a plastic bag or film container in a cool, dry place for a month. Fill a plastic bag half way with damp vermiculite, and add the seeds. Store them in the refrigerator for 90 days.

• 7

  Fill pots or a shallow seed tray with seed starting media, and scatter seed and vermiculite mixture across the top. Sprinkle seed starting media over the top, barely covering the seeds. Place at room temperature, preferably in a sunny window, and water regularly with a spray bottle until sprouts appear.

• 8

  Transplant sprouts when they are 2 to 3 inches tall, and look like baby onions. Handle the sprouts carefully, and plant outdoors in a raised bed or pots, at the same depth. Keep soil moist for a year, and protect small sprouts from the hot afternoon sun. Water with a solution of compost tea monthly for added nutrients. New plants will flower in three to five years.

Recordkeeping

• 9

  Label your parent plants, as well as the offspring, when they are big enough. The standard labeling is: Seed Parent Name X Pollen Parent Name; Date of Pollination.

• 10

  Keep a notebook of your cross-bred plants. Include type of plant for seed and pollen parents, date of pollination, traits of seed and pollen parents as well as offspring, how many seeds were harvested, amount of time to the first bloom, and other descriptive information.

• 11

  Assign numbers to the seed plant, pollen plant and different offspring you select to use for further breeding. This will help to organize different cross-breeding done in the future, and keep track of specific plant lineage and genetics.