Dany's MG 2011 - 08

THAT is very cool.. it is fun to see what happens when we plant a seed, no?

♪♫♪♫crying me a river ♪♫♪♫
http://www.papiercrayon.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/cry-me-a-river.jpg
Everything is frozen!

We'll miss all your beautiful blooms Dany.

But we don't want to miss YOU, Dany - your sense of humor and unique perspectives are so welcome. I loved your history of Ipomoea nil, and sharing that technique of perserving mg flowers was fascinating (I can't find the link to that one grrr)

I hope this encourages folks who may be in between mg flowers to post here anyway - There's mysteries in morning glories to muse over and aspects to appreciate, while we wait to sow seeds for next summer's morning glory flowers.

Awwwwwwww noooooo... gosh dang it. The sad song of Winter..

fussing right along with you, Debra, Jackie & Dany - but no frost here, yet

However, might anyone who is growing those higes (feathered, double I. purpureas) be able to take a pic when frost comes of a hige encrustred with ice or frost, before the sun hits it? A hige "beard" sparkling with frost would make an incredible photo. hint hint Mekos, how about you? Maybe leave a flower out for the frost, but bring in the pot?

So sorry to see that Dany!

Thank you everyone!
In fact, I still need three weeks.
I've collected a lot of seeds and for my hybrids .... I ordered a second life! ( so many )

I took cuttings .... but with leaves of bad quality the seed maturation continues?
For those, there are no more than that:
http://jenlars.mu.nu/crossed-fingers.jpg

LOL u r such a hoot, Dany.
Great photo op suggestion, Karen!

Dany, I;'ve had sds finish maturing without any lvs left on the vine or what ever sds were left were yellow from
spider mite attack.

Dany, I agree that you need a magically crossed fingers to mature seeds on those frost bitten leaves. However, I would still try to ripen them on their stems in glasses of water (with a dab of H202) under grow lights - being careful to change the water every 3 days. Since I had 100+ vines in 2007 that were up to 20' long, I did very little else with my life for 6 weeks, during which I rotated the vines in 3 groups when renewing the water with H202.

To squeeze 20' long vines into a small space, I wound them around sticks about 18" long, since that was all the vertical space I had between the boards and grow lights. I tied them with twist ties and checked them daily for mature pods.

No, you don't need leaves, because the stems continue to photosynthesize without the leaves.

In fact, you might have fewer bug problems if you don't bring in the leaves. In my case, there weren't any leaves anyway, due to rust. But I had about 3 or 4 cycles of leaves falling off due to rust, but then new stems would grow in the leaf axils with new leaves. I had the best luck ripening seeds with the vines that were the quickest to grow new vines, since the rust only attacked the older leaves.

Nick has posted some fotos of flowers he grew from the seeds I grew that year, and the only seeds I had left to share with him were caved in on one side or otherwise not the best. You will get some great seeds and some duds, but the duds might amaze you.

I began bringing in my vines about 2 weeks before the earliest expected autumn frost, so I did not have any frost bite on them, but yours still look pretty good, and I see some seeds in your foto about the same stage of development as mine were.

Good luck and let us know what happens.

karen

I agree, I have done almost the same thing, Dany, only mine are in big tubs of bubbling water, and it seems to make them last a long time. I found the light also keeps them trying to vine. I have a lot of bare stems right now, with new leaf growth, that have been cold, but not frosted. Last year even with the frost, I still got ripened seeds. I hope you see some pods undamaged. Knowing you, tho, u prolly have gallons of seeds somewhere .. LOL
aren't we crazy?

I do the opposite with good results. The yr my kitty broke my stem laden with seed pods I learned that the
seeds would mature even faster when deprived of their water source. This yr I had to
pull up that huge mg vine growing in the floor of my g house. It had millions of white flies on it.
I kept 30-40 sd pods and placed them in a plastic bag to ripen still attached to a section of dead stem. They were finished in about 2 and 1/2 to 3 weeks
If you're afraid to try it, just test a few stems. This is a lot easier than messing with all those water cups.

Debra and Jackie, thank you - your techniques look very interesting and I'll definitely give them a try, hopefully next year.

It seems like it would be just as easy to tag individual bunches with a tag whether they were in a collective vat with bubbler or collective sack, as in separate water jars. We have such a tiny house, that I might wind up having to dangle the sacks from hooks on the beams holding up our low roof or commandering the bath tub for mgs instead of humans. It's hard to share space around here with mgs, snif snif

If Jackies Idea is true, then I would just make wreaths and hang them up..
hmm
sounds like a great idea!

Karen, I know you're space is limited. I bet you could roll the top of the sack down like a bag of chips and clip it shut with a clothes pin. Then shove them all down in a pillow case. I bet you would be surprised how many bags will fit in the pillow case.
Debra, yes you could but, the sd pods will crack open sooner or later sending your sds flying everywhere.

Last year I put all the vines in a pillow case. Several actually. It works very well.
Thanks, Jackie, I was only saying until time to de-seed. LOL ( seeds already scattering thru the house as it is)
Dany? U still with us?

Thank you for your advice!
Here there is no rust no white flies I just have a problem with caterpillars, but it seems that fight against caterpillars can be organic with an army of spiders !
So i looking for spiders eggs for next year ! perhaps i can find on ebay !.... they sell dry fish eggs... you put in water and you get little fishes. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Notho-flamicommantis-Killifish-killiefish-eggs-/120791513102?pt=UK_Pet_Supplies_Fish&hash=item1c1fbc380e#ht_500wt_949

We had a record of low temperature for October.
When the pods begin to brown there are more luck.

This one is perfect!

This one is perfect too but seeds still very wet but black!
You can see that the foliage is healthy to the end.

That there is a problem!.... big risk !

LOL Debra. I forgot you used the pillow cases last yr. Yes you could enjoy your wreaths for a few weeks
before sd cases get so dry, they pop open
I was thinking Karen could use the pillow cases to save her some valuable space..
Dany, must be nice not to have to deal with the usual pests or rust. The caterpillers ate big holes in my lvs but i wouldn;t hurt them in case they were butterflys in waiting

The ideal tag - I know the Mother plant and here is the Dad number .2011 - 08 and 582 th photo.

Phenomenon ... weird, just aa frozen - the Nils, the Tricolors and all the Purpurea ! Only this plant has resisted ... a purpurea.
Can be the beginning of a collection of MG for the people Eskimos?

At first I thought it was a nest of a rodent composed of MG flowers, but not because the ball is full, and in fact it's the pantry of a rodent!
There are here someone who's loving the morning glories like me .An new Aficionado !

ya hafta watch those mice... they got into my seed stash out in the garage a couple years ago, ate all my prized white giant zinnias, four o clocks and mornig glory seeds I had out there drying.

at work we have had about 6 hondas come in with starting problems, lifted the hood to find mice nests and chewed sires, cost about 600.00 to fix. terrible!
I have mouse traps everywhere. LOL
Getting down to 28 tonight. I went out and got as many plants ( mgs) as possible to save. they are still blooming down in the basement.

Debra, thats the reason I've started sds in my attached washroom the last few yrs. The mice got my greenhouse sds the last time I tried to start them down there.
I had a water moccasin in the green house last week. In Sept, we found a baby copperhead on the carport
near the blankets I keep out for my cats to sleep on. Strange as all summer long, we only encountered 1 or 2 snakes.
36 here last night. My pecans have only just started to ripen and fall from the trees. Very unusual as usually I get to pick up pecans for 4-6 weeks before the 1st freeze which could happen any time now.

I think my mouse has Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. When I used to air out seeds on a shelf in our utility room, some mornings I would come downstairs to find something like 4 seeds of summer phlox lined up in a tidy row a couple of feet from their drying plate. Or another time, there were 3 seeds of Salvia forskaohlii in another tidy row, also distanced from their drying plate. After accidentally dumping my trays, dh doesn't go near them, so wasn't him.

Does anyone else have too-smart, OCD mice?

Only my cumpter mousse !

hee hee - gotta watch those computer mice - I'll bet my computer mouse's nest is where all the words I can't find went grrr

Edited to help with silliness

This message was edited Oct 23, 2011 3:17 AM

Karen, silliness is good. Especially when you get a good laugh out of it.