Snail vine germinated! Now what??!?

I got two precious Vigna caracalla seeds in a recent trade. I just got one to germinate by nicking the seed coat, soaking overnight in hydrogen peroxide water, then putting in sealed moist paper towel in my electric oven (turning on the light & keeping the door slightly ajar produces a nice, even 79-80 degree temperature).

Woohooo!

I have no idea what to do next. Can I pot the seed up in something small (dixie cup size) and put in in my morning room already? Temp. there is 65 to 75. Or should it go under the lights in the basement? Basement temps are about 10 degrees cooler, but I have a heat mat coming in a couple of days that I will set to between 75 and 80 degrees for pepper seeds.

How can I best coddle this sprout so it will turn into a nice little plantlet?

My thanks to Mystic, who has been advising my first time efforts with these seeds!

See, I told you Mystic could help you. :-)

Donna

hahaha! and you were soooo right! Thanks, Donna!

Why not post her reply here, so everybody can learn from her experience?

Right! Thanks, Ursula, I should've thought of that! I didn't mean to be keeping Mystic's advice a secret.... :-)

Regarding either variety of "snail vine" (P. caracalla or V. caracalla), she said they should be soaked for 24 hours, then kept warm to germinate.

I soaked my first seed, potted it up, put it at 80 degrees, and nothing happened. After a couple of days, I nicked the second seed, soaked it overnight in half strength chamomile tea, then put it in a scrap of paper towel moistened with tea and sealed it in a baggie. The sealed baggie went into an 80 degree environment (eg, my electric oven with the light on & the door held slightly ajar with a towel), and it sprouted in 3 days! I potted it in a dixie cup filled with moist medium, sealed it in another baggie, and put it back in the warmth of the oven. By the time it pokes up above the soil, I hope my heat mats will be here, and then it can have both warmth & light.

Meanwhile, I dug up that first seed, nicked it and soaked it overnight. It definitely swelled up significantly, and now it is in sealed, moist paper towel, at 80 degrees. We will see if that does the trick.

I asked Mystic about what to do once the seed sprouted. She said to pot it up & keep it warm, and she advised care in handling so the little sprout didn't break off from the seed during potting.

The above experience is with my 2 Vigna caracalla seeds. The same procedure should apply for the smaller P. caracalla seeds, but I'm waiting until my heat mats arrive before I start germinating those!

Thank you very much!

Please keep us posted on the results. Even better: add your comments to the respective Plant File! Remember 'for Gardeners .... by Gardeners ....'

Good luck!

Ursula

I received 5 seeds in a recent trade. I nicked them with fingernail clips and put them in a cereal bowl of very warm water (this was about 6 P.M.) left them sitting on the kitchen counter until about 4 P.M. the next day. Planted them using potting soil in 4" square containers, in one of those plastic seedlings starters , with the cover, and sat this on my seedling heat mat. Three days later, I have 3 seed up. Will see what happens with the other 2. Today, I put a 75 watt light over the seedlings.
charlotte

Congratulations on germination! Charlotte, what temperature did you set your heat mat to? And are you continuing to grow them on the heat mat?

Way to go!!

BTW, you should give your newly potted seedlings a drink of chamomille tea, at least until they get a set of their first true leaves. Tannin in the tea helps to combat "damping-off".....just my 2 cents worth!

Hi critter, well I bought my matt from Parks a couple years ago and it doesnt have a setting ! :)
Yes, I still have them sitting on the matt - its cool and I dont think they will get too hot. And I'm scared to change anything :) I planted 5 seeds and 3 came up.

I hate to ask this but I HOPE I hope vigna carcalla, the corkscrew vine which is the fragrant one. I thought snail vine was the other one .

If you're not using a thermostat, your mat temp is probably about 15 degrees above ambient. You can always use a thermometer to check soil temperature & raise the flat above the mat a little if it is warmer than you want, but it sounds like yours is doing fine!

Both V. caracalla and P. caracalla seem to be interchangeably known as "snail vine" and "corkscrew vine." There are some notes about this in PlantFiles. The cream one with some purple/pink in the bloom is the fragrant one, Vigna caracalla.

I nick and soak mine for anywhere from 24-72 hrs (depending on when I get around to potting them up). I plant the seed in regular potting soil and put under my lights. When they have 2 sets of true leaves, I move them to 6 inch pots and they go outside. I have been lucky in getting nearly 100% germination on the seeds I have started. I have several 6 inch pots, 6 new seedlings and have just planted 10 more soaked seeds and I will see how the germination goes on those (1 seed was a floater so I'm not sure if it's viable although it did swell_.
Jan...

budgielover, I did mine the same way, they are not outside yet as it is too cold, they are in a pot in my plant room, and doing good.

Doris

anyone out there near or in zone 6b?

what did you do with your vigna caracalla in the fall? I planned on digging up the 'tuber' and overwintering it like I do dahlias. I went out today to dig it up and it was so well rooted and tight to the ground I just left it there and tossed on a pile of leaves. HELP???????????? COMMENTS?????????

I'm obviously not in zone 6, but since you're 3 zones too cold for it, I would be shocked if it survived the winter in the ground unless you have a heating element buried in there next to it. If your soil freezes, I don't see how there's any way it could survive.

I had the same problem but I did dig mine up and placed it in a container. My cellar was heated with alittle heat but it never made it thru the winter. Did you save any of the seed?
Linda

I do know there are people who have overwintered them with success indoors but don't know the conditions they did it under. Like Ecane, our ground never freezes so even if we get an occasion frost or freeze, it dies back to the ground and comes back in the spring.

I was hoping it might overwinter if it was well mulched....now I have to decide if I should get a bigger shovel and try again :)

I would really get out the shovel--there is pretty much no way a zone 9 plant is going to make it through a zone 6 winter in the ground. If you were in zone 8, mulching would give it a fighting chance, but in zone 6 that's not going to be enough so you're taking a big risk by leaving it in the ground.

I usually pot mine up in 4" pots after the first set of true leaves appear. I think the key thing is to get them enough light---they're real sun lovers, and will get gangly very quickly in the shade. They also like warmth, but if you can't supply both, I'd go with the light. Gives you a stockier plant. Putting a reflecting shield of tinfoil in a wide arc around the plant if it's in a window has seemed to help me in the past. I still use tinfoil now that I have a greenhouse, but I put it under the plant.

Thanks all for your input...after I read your post ecrane I knew we better get it out! I'm in the midst of finals so my husband dug it up today for me :) packed it up in peat moss with a few other late dug cannas and e.ears for the spring. We only got one clump of blossoms from it and I didn't see any seeds. It was in a good sunny spot too. I like the leaves and will try it again next yr if it survives storage with the hopes of more blooms.

I had lots of seed pods on mine,but the were only about half ripe,the pods were just starting to turn yellow and brown,but still had some green on them,when they first frost came,it got down below freezing,so I picked them the next day,for the weather was going to get colder.
They continued to turn brown,but I don't know if they were going to be any good or not,has anybody experienced any seeds in this condition,and have tried to germinate any ?
Don

Yes Tm I did this past season when we had a freeze ...I don't know how bad your freeze got but you can test the viability of the seeds by floating a couple in water to see if they sink. Mine germinated anyway ...I think your cold comes in way too soon sometimes ...if the creeper was mine I would pick long branches and hang them upside down somewhere and see what happens ...I would not plant the seeds right now. Don't forget that big tuber under the ground.For anyone pushing the zones try planting the snail creeper so it can scamper through a tree or tall shrub ...they find their way up to the light ...somewhere where they get radiated warmth from brickwork is a good choice , meanwhile I have to hack mine back as the pods popped open and flung the seeds in all directions ...results triffid vines :) good luck everyone

Hi Mate,
I'll try floating a few seeds,I have several pods.
Thanks

What a beautiful picture of it climbing the tree. It is welcome to fall anywhere in my yard!

Chrissy
Do you fertilize. Yours looks so healthy next to mine last year. Also, what are the objects in the red circles. Are they leaves from a different plant/tree or seed pods?

Now brace yourself budgielover ...this is what the angelic little darlings do after weeks of rain ...no sun and huge storms!
The grounds here are heavy red clay but I have always used the no dig garden principle here and in raised beds.(I think you call it lasagne gardening, however these vines are legumes and so they don't really need fertilizer as much as compost and warmth ...if you look here they are over the top of almost everything and most of this growth is almost everywhere as the seeds flung out last Autumn have come up everywhere, but due to awful weather I haven't gotten to them in time.This presents me with a difficult problem, I love these things but if I allow this excited growth I won't have anything left in the garden! Even if you cut it out ...it will have made tuber things that will spring back.This is just the beginning of our Summer so we will have hundreds if not thousands of pods
(which look like a green bean ...only hard and deep shiny green) it is too soon yet for these ...they seem to come in late Summer into autumn.By the way don't use high nitrogen fertilizer ...that just gives you lots of vegetation and not many flowers.

Now stand back

and this

up here

First blue sky in weeks! the Nicholi is 30 ft tall

I am so jealous that you are having summer and those blooms! Maybe someone else can rescue you on what to do about the pods...........great looking!

Agh! it is into the roses

You are really not kidding about it being invasive! A big wow for those roses, too!

Never mind your Summer isn't really that far away! don't fret too much with these things, in a way they are almost a weed but oh the perfume and the pretty shells just have to have them!
Look another triffid the beautifully fragrant but rampant honeysuckle ...here have a cyber sniff :) sorry ...just one more thing I would hold on to seeds and plant in the warmer temps you know when you can put your hand on the earth and it feels warm ...not hot and you can soak if you like but it does not really make any difference, I think you may have trouble trying to get it going in cool earth. Well that's it ... good luck
chrissy

WOW Chrissey100! Had no idea that thing could be that pervasive (as opposed to "invasive")! I've had the same thing happen here with Ipomea and Thunbergia...I'm not even sure the V. caracalla will come back here next year, but I'll find out soon. Meanwile, I'm planting a bunch of seeds. Your place must smell like a perfume factory!

Just out of curiosity I looked up the meaning to both words. Invasive said, "tendency to spread" and pervasive said, "having the quality or tendency to pervade or permeate".

Right, gessie! And that that snail vine definetly "pervaded" her garden! It seemed to take over everything within reach! Suspect those were the older vines (the "pervadining" ones), but also suspect she may have an invasive problem, too ...all those young 'uns sprouting by seed... That can be a nightmare, as I've found out with Ipomea here...

I was being serious as I really didn't know the difference in the two words.........(I knew somewhat but wasn't sure)

Only two are from the tuber (old) the rest are from the seeds! if you don't keep on top of these things (pouring rain for the last two months) it is like the Amazon here.Most of you won't have this problem ...have a go at this ...the plants grow up to a metre overnight once the temps get 70+ for 24hrs a day ...just like the passionfruit.
Look here I chopped stuff down three days ago in the 1/2 hr it was dry ...back again today!
It does smell like a perfume factory, I wanted it that way as we are surrounded by horses and cows and while I don't mind the good honest smell of manure, I prefer my triffids:)