morning glory

Hi,

can anyone give me any advice about potting on morning glory seedlings?

I have tried with some of them but they wilted minutes after coming out of the seed tray.
I need to do this soon as they are busting out of the propagator and look a bit as if they are suffering some nutrient deficiency.

Also, does anyone know what size pot I would need to grow 3 or 4 to climb up a wall?

thanks,

Emily

 

I haven't grown ipomea for some time but as far as I remember some varieties have a variegated leaf which would give the appearance of a deficiency. Were they germinated in pots in the propagator or in the tray itself? Root disturbance or damage could cause wilt. A 10/13cm (4/5 in) pot would be ok with a small split cane for support.

 

Can we assume that you watered them 10-20 minutes before transplanting and immediately after? I always put my potted in a sheltered spot for the first day or two as well.

 

Chan, I plant mine very deep, to hold the stems upright. I assume you are watering them in as soon as you have potted them up. When I water mine in, the compost settled down a huge amount implying that there are loads of air pockets.

 

I've tried Morning glory in peat pots this year to avoid having to disturb the roots when planting out. So far 5/5 'Heavenly Blue' have germinated but 0/5 'Grandpa Otts' Same pots, compost and conditions. Maybe Gramps just takes a bit longer to show but I'm a bit mystified as HB have been through for a couple of weeks now. :confused:

 

thanks for the advice - unfortunately they were in a seed tray and not in individual pots, but needs must etc...

I think it was probably the root disturbance that did for them as they were kept moist throughout the process - will try again with as little disturbance as poss, and grow in pots next year

frogesque - mine were ipomoea tricolor, and I got them as a freebie from secret seeds and I had nearly 100% germination,

thanks again...

 

Hi Frogesque

My Heavenly Blue, like you , have all come through. My G Otts stared to come through, but after the first rush, I have only (had) perhaps 10/30, now less due to those darned snails..... ... but I keep the tray watered, just in case - as it is still BL**DY FREEZING!!!!!!!!!! I'm hoping when the summer finally arrives, and eveything warms up, a few more will venture through..... bit like my Canary Creepers...... and my Bananas....

 

Great site this is, I tried some morning glory seeds in a big plant pot and kind of followed the instructions but I didn't have a polythene bag so I covered the pot in clingfilm and put it in the greenhouse (if you could call it that, it's one of those little 3 tier things with zips) anyway maybe the sunshine over the last few days brought them om but today I transplanted 7 of them (using a teaspoon !) because they were big enough to handle into 8" individual pots, I was really careful with them (after reading this site last night) and they still look happy! So fingers crossed

 

Hope some of chan's have survived for growing up the wall! You will need quite alarge pot as althoughthey are annuals they can grow quite thich and woody, so I would think about 12-18" diameter. Any smaller and you'll be watering and feeding them all day!

 

I've had a good result with my dark purple coloured morning glory, can't be bothered to go to greenhouse to find out proper name!

I've just potted on into 3" pots about 15 very healthy plants.

Don't know where i'm going to plant them all.

Are they best planted into big pots or straight into the ground?

 

I bought two of the new varieties grown for leaf colour in the garden centre, one is lime green, and the other is nearly black [called blacky] it's grown a tiny new leaf which is green. Anyone else got it? It looks really odd, big dark leaves enclosing tiny green ones!
Last year I grew several pots of morning glory and also planted the weaker seedlings with my green beans. The ones with the beans in the soil grew biggest, but all were over 6' so I think you can plant them where you want. Bear in mind that potted ones need prodigious amounts of water!

[ 10. May 2006, 08:18 PM: Message edited by: Liz ]

 

Chan, I am not quite clear if you were potting them up into indivdual pots, or planting them direct into the ground.

I started mine in a tray, then moved them to individual pots - leaving them in the shade for a day or two. So far without any loss. If you put them from a seed tray direct into the ground, life is more difficult for them. They will be left in the full sun in coar-ser compost than they would be in a pot, and left out at night without any hardening off.

 

Unfortunately mine are still in the seed cells. I am in limbo at the moment. The landscapers were supposed to start two weeks ago, but now won't start for another 3 - 4 weeks!!! ARGHHHH!!!

So this weekend - I'm off to buy yet MORE big pots and another couple of sackfulls of compost.
The bog standard blue ones have all come up, but the Grandpa Otts were very dissapointing - less than 1/4 have come through.

MF - the white ones looks fab!! If they do come out as the picture, you'll have to collect loads of seeds, as I think there will be a few of us after some!!!