excited !!! morning glory from seed

[bonsaidude]

I recently got a bonsai and always been intrested in plants, ordered some desmodium gyrans seeds and they gave free sample of heavenly blue morning glory seeds and planted some and couple glorys have broke the surface !!!! first time i had a seed like me haha no gyrans poped yet but got 9 of them goin ill have some pics soon !!! got exited had to tell someone woot !!

http://yfrog.com/6upicture014quj first glory
http://yfrog.com/0rpicture013gbj second guy bigger than first
http://yfrog.com/j9picture012gtj Set up ( the light is a plant light nice for warmth for gyrans)
http://yfrog.com/0dpicturegcj Gyrans ( non poped yet ) praying

Today is the 3rd day since i planted all of them after soaking for 12 hours. Had sandwhich bags over gyrans but removed today in fear of sufficating them.

Not to bad for my first set up ever. ( i hope ) eventually moving from corner to a table set up near window once i got it all set. Let me know what ya guys think thank you.

Also does anyone know about how long till id see flowering on the glorys ?

[syntheticbutterfly]

Morning glory is gorgeous. Lucky you!

[GardenerKid]

Hopefully it's warmer where you live because I started growing Morning Glories at the beginning of the month and they were to big to keep indoors within a week and a half and I had to move them outdoors but it was to cold outside so they died.

[a0c8c]

They don't like it cold and they don't like it hot either. Mine died all summer and then flourished in fall.We had a really hot dry summer though.

[bonsaidude]

haha ya i diddnt realize these things grow huge hopefully i can keep them in till spring i live in ct so its comin soon !!! do any of you know how long or how tall it has to be till it has first flower ? and say if my top soil of the gyrans dried up a couple times :/ accident i swear ! there hope or they prob died and diddnt germinate ?

[a0c8c]

As far as size goes, it depends on what you let the Morning Glories climb on. I grew them on a 5 foot tall chain link fence, and the fence was getting overwhelmed with vines. Once they get established, they start growing furiously and are hard to control. But, if you need a fence covered, they'll do the trick. Our fence is 15 ft long, and the whole thing was covered(with the exception of where the two 2' wide mexican flame vines were) before it flowered. The fence then had around 30-40 flowers at a time, and it bloomed constantly for 3 months. 3/4 of the fence were pink flowers(probably bindweed) and the last 1/4 were heavenly blues. I'll find a picture for you.

[bonsaidude]

lol i was gonna just try and let these grow in my house and hope to see a flower heres some update pics Also in picstures is flowering cabage and strawberry fields. As for the seedlings i need advise it seems they all might might not wanna support themselves is this how it always is ? in case i threw some support for them plant velcro things. ( glass in backround is desmodium gryans soaking)

http://yfrog.com/5znew4003j
http://yfrog.com/5cnew4002j
http://yfrog.com/e9new4001j

[a0c8c]

They're definately getting leggy, you should move the light closer. Once they start growing, the morning glories will need something to climb, otherwise they'll grow out and down. I wouldn't try growing them indoors, that sounds like a recipe for disaster. You can keep them small with pruning, but you'd have to switch lights to a warm flourescent to produce flowers, have a large are for them to grow, and keep everything in the house away from them. They "spin" their ends to find something to grow on. They'll rotate and rotate until they touch something and then will grow up it, furniture and all. Mine took over and smothered an 8ft sunflower.

[bonsaidude]

by leggy you mean that they are growing and not producin leaves right ? cuase i noticed they are getting super tall but not much happin. Also i need to use a flouresecent to get them to flower ? im usein a incodesecent at the prescent time to keep the area warm for the Gyrans. Today was first day all of them got close to window but not infront of it but u can tell they were stretchin for obv the natural light, i had the incodsecent on but not to close to burn them ya know. Did i start these all off funky? ( going to leave them infront of window tomorrow since they obv liked it better.[/quote]

[a0c8c]

An incandescent bulb will flat out not work. You definately need flourescent bulbs. You wanna start out with a "cool white" bulb which fill focus on growth, and then when they're close to flowering switch to a "warm white" to produce flowers. But like I said, DON"T GROW THEM INDOORS. If you do, you'll be spending every day trimming it back, and you'll get very few flowers.

Here's the pic I promised

This is my latest picture, a week before they died in the winter. The two greyed out areas are my Mexican Flame Vines, the rest is just four morning glory vines. They wanted more room to grow as well.

[bonsaidude]

Awsome thanks for info, and i like how they look in your backyard pretty nice but i can see how ppl say they infest lol.

[a0c8c]

Infest doesn't do it justice, consume is more like it. They need their own dedicated garden so they can't consume things, like a fence not connected to other gardens. They even tied the gate shut a few times.

[GardenGeek]

Nice pics but i wish the quality to be better

It had been almost 2 weeks since you planted!
Can you see buds or blooms now?

[cynthia_h]

Nice pics but i wish the quality to be better

It had been almost 2 weeks since you planted!
Can you see buds or blooms now?

Please do not harass other members of the forum with regard to

1) when they will post photos next
2) whether they have posted photos at all
3) the quality of photos they have posted, unless you are being asked to identify a plant based on an inadequate photo.

Thank you.

Cynthia
Moderator

[bonsaidude]

No blooms yet, they are very leggy like a0c8c said and at about 7 inchs tall with only the one set of leaves and very top heavy. On the other hand they finally started pushing out the second sets of leaves slowly since i have them just going off the light they get from the window. Ill have new pics soon !!

[a0c8c]

The good thing about morning glories, is that you can stake the bottoms, or even carefully wrap them around a stick and they'll be very grateful. They wanna grow on things anyways.

[Sage Hermit]

Hey Bonsai dude.

I have been growing pink purple white and blue morning glories indoors for 2 or 3 years. The best part about morning glories is they produce large amounts of seeds and each seed is incredibly quick to germinate. I noticed your stakes are too short. Where the plant shoots into 2 leaves you want to have a steak supporting at the bottom of the V and have it extend a couple inches above that point. This seems to trigger growth in my experience. I have tested that out and I am assuming the plant has sensors or some form of way to detect something to cling to.

Watch out for spider mites. they are very suceptable to spider mites so I would advise you clean the leaves regularly and get a mist bottle. They really like the mist.




My pet wasp and the morning glories.



After the plants were full grown I trained them to wrap around a funny shaped stick. Outside I grew a couple in a pot near a pillar near my front door. Once it was fully mature I wrapped it in a wreath style around the pillar and they formed a ring of beauty. What ever shape you want you can just unwind them and rewind them. This doesn't hurt them at al but the folds shouldn't be to sharp meaning they reach their breaking point. close to but not as flexable as string.

[bonsaidude]

Awsome thanks for tips !! heres some pics ( mine were very leggy since my first try ever growing these let alone any plant at that matter) always loved plants they amaze me.

Heart shaped leaves other one is about the same

[Sage Hermit]

The white morning glories have more spade shaped leaves. Ihave a couple but haven't trie em' yet. The shells casings there are from the purple and pink. I understand altering the soil pH can change their color.


Sometimes when I remove the seed it tears a piece.

[a0c8c]

That's an interesting plant you're growing it with, but I hope you know it could possibly die. They overgrew my 8ft sunflower and chocked it of light. You'll have to prune it constantly, and hope it doesn't grow too fast. It spins it's end in circles until it hits something, and will send off feeler shots daily, and will take over every branch, ever leaf, every thing it can "feel."

[Ozark Lady]

Okay, morning glory question:

I have an "arbor" entry into my garden... it needs something to grow there, the intent is to have grape vines grow on it. But, I have not planted any there... I think the morning glories just might like climbing it, an being over head...

If and when I get some grape vines to plant there... will I have issues of them competing? What if I put the grapes on the south and glories on the north and just let them meet up top?

Could it work?

What do morning glories like to climb on? This arbor is just the corners and the cross pieces, no fence or cross beams on the sides... should I put wire or string there for climbing?

[applestar]

Don't worry about your grapes, most morning glories are grown as annuals unless you're in zone 9/10 or something. They like same kind of supports as pole beans: something they can wrap around, not too thick in diameter, but you can always train them -- manually wrap them around stuff as described above.

I hope your arbor is sturdy because the flimsy arbors I had over my Kids' Garden started to fall over in the wind storm. I had to run out and put up supports . I thought I had a photo of the arbors covered with flowers but I can't find it, so this one will have to do. There are two arbors connected with bamboo poles. Both arbors were covered and the vines also grew across the bamboo. These are 'Heavenly Blue'


The blue color isn't as fresh in this photo but here's a close-up:


This arbor was strapped to the fence and handled the weight better -- with 'Heavenly Blue' morning glory on the right and 'Purple Podded Pole' beans on the left. (ignore the clutter, they're blocking the gap at the bottom of the gate where neighbors' cats kept sneaking in)


Here's another arbor with just the 'Purple Podded Pole' beans (can you tell I like them? ):


The morning glories didn't start flowering until late -- past mid-August. It might be better to start them indoors a little earlier. I think you can plant them out (hardened off) with peppers, or maybe a bit earlier. I'm thinking later than tomatoes though. I had Moon Flowers (evening blooming morning glory-like flowers) on the fence elsewhere. They have gorgeous huge FRAGRANT blooms, and attract big nectaring moths like Luna moth. It might be fun to grow both on the same trellis.

Sage Hermit - I LOVE the living wreath idea! I think I'm going to try that this summer.

[Sage Hermit]

If you started them in the spring they would be ready in only a few weeks given the right amounts of shade and water. I'm sure by summer you could have already harvested a small handfull of seeds. trust me on that one.