Moonflower went to seed too late

I have a question about moonflowers. I planted some this year, they were incredible but none of them made it to seed before the first frost. If I had set them out earlier, they would have been killed by a late frost. All the seed pods were too green when they froze. I read somewhere that they need four months to bloom from seed.

How do most people get the seed to ripen before frost?

Thanks

Badger

Hi Badger! Welcome to the MG forum! I can't answer your question, but if you need more seeds d-mail me. Mine did take a long time before blooming and the seeds took quite a while to ripen once they set pods. I wonder if growing them in a greenhouse to start them would give enough time for them to bloom and produce seeds before frost hits your area for next year?

Badger, a lot of different kinds of morning glories, including the moonflower (I. alba), do not set much seed, if any, before frost for me, too.

On the advice of Ron_Convolvulaceae, what has been working for me in the last couple of years has been to cut stems with pods on them and to continue ripening them indoors in jars of water (with a tad of hydrogen peroxide (H202) to ward off slime) under grow lights (the stems continue to photosynthesize, thus contributing to the continuing development of the pods).

Personally, I like to take off the leaves when I do this, because a host of insects come in with them. For those that use chemicals, that may not be a problem.

I don't know how much difference starting seed as early as February might make to the ripening of seed north of this moonflower's tropical/subtropical habitat, since some members of the morning glory family do not flower and/or set seed until the cooler and/or progressively shortening days of fall.

If I had more space indoors, I'd love to experiment with wintering seedlings started in the fall to see what difference that would make - some have had success growing moonflowers over the winter indoors hydroponically. Also, you could lay a vine over a pot and get it to root that way for the same purpose.

And then, we could do what Ron said Mr. Clark did to create his improved Ipomoea tricolor 'Heavenly Blue': for a few years, he always grew the seed that was the earliest to mature in the following year to obtain a cultivar that bloomed early enough for more northern latitudes.

Hope this helps,
Karen

Oops - sorry Becky - we crossed in cyberspace

ps - Badger, did you perchance take any pictures of your moonflowers? We never have too many of those around here - especially this time of year

Hi all,

I've posted before but its been awhile.

This was a disastrous year for gardens in my area. First, we had record heat in Jan and February so plants started to grow and some were in bloom in January. Next, we had a record late frost on Easter Sunday--it was a hard frost and killed many tender plants, shrubs and even some weak trees. Then it didn't rain all summer - we had the lowest amount of rain on record. Then it started to rain about a month ago and the plants think its spring so they put out new growth. Even though this is December, some of my plants are still in bloom. What global climate change- right?

So, the extreme heat and dryness, IMHO, slowed the moonflower down. It only bloomed in Sept/October.

I didn't get pictures--sorry - my digital camera was AWOL- found it in a file cabinet.

I had them in a pot--would that have made any difference to their rate of growth? I understand that they are like morning glories - they do their thing after the summer solstice. But, that said--their seeds took forever to fill out and were still green when it froze.

I will try the cutting and bringing in method this year - thanks Karen.

Becky - I am wondering if I brought a large pot in the house and started them in Feb--that way they would not have to be transplanted--if the vine would be more mature and be ready to flower and go to seed quicker.

I think that might be a good idea to try. I grow almost all of my MGs in pots! :-) But since I am in zone 9b, I haven't brought any in yet. :-)

If you have no way to bring your MGs (and moonflowers) inside, the next best thing is taking cuttings with pods. It really does work quite well in my experience.

Badger, your weather sounds like what we had - balmy in winter, but come April - after leaves were greening and flowers blooming - winter showed up with tons of ICE not snow not rain but ICE followed by high winds that whipped the larger roses around so hard that inverted funnels of air going down into the roots were made. And then later on - just like you - we got 10" below normal precipitation.

Fortunately, our soil is basically clay-based and years ago I spent the better part of my youth double-trenching in humusy stuff like rotted leaves, weeds, compost, etc., so there were no losses, and I suspect the rust disease that attacks MG leaves was not as bad as it might otherwise have been due to such low rainfall.

Well, I certainly would not give up on moonflowers - hope you have better success this summer. I'll be interested to hear how much difference starting in February will make, and pots can never be emphasized too much around this forum.

I'd always strat the seeds inside just after the new year.. and they would be so big by the time they went out.. they would be all over the place.. blocking the light for everything else..they would grow nicely and have pleny of time to set seeds... Oh.. mine are all in planters...
I now get greenhouse pllants of about 4' tall... and set them out when it's quite warm ... this gets super early flowers... and they go till after the first cold..
I got my aunt growing them... She said they made her laugh when she would watch them opening..
Planting Early is the secret...
Gordon
oh if you want seeds... just write