Salvaging seeds from frosted vines?

I thought that somewhere I had seen a suggestion for rescuing seeds from vines that had been frost damaged, but I can't find it. I wanted to collect seeds from a really nice I. purpurea cross, but the seed pods hadn't matured before the frost hit last night (grrr, grrr). Does anyone have any suggestions or am I just out of luck?

Woofie, from my experience, frosted immature MG seedpods don't have a snowflake's chance in you-know-where of ever germinating. Now, if they had ripened to that nice, crispy stage, they might have been okay, especially if they were vines belonging to Ipomoea purpurea - I. nil seeds less so.

My advice is to get thee to a pot right this minute and sow another morning glory seed. Joseph started a wonderful thread for growing MGs indoors over the winter here - http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/928732/ . I think there are lots of great tips in there that should getcha going, not to mention having company while you nurse your sprout along in the months ahead.

Joseph, if you're reading this, I've noticed your DG subscription ends in a few days on November 12. I hope you change your mind, you are going to be missed with huge regrets. I will always feel badly about what happened - wherever you go, my best wishes will go with you.

I'm going back into my silence, too, but will be around to answer dmails, however slowly.

Good luck, Woofie, and keep those glories blooming.

Karen

Thanks Karen. Guess I'll dig through the remains (it's wrapped around my pergola's post and several other unsuspecting plants) and see if there are any mature seed pods hiding out. Failing that, I'll take your suggestion and try growing the suspected parents of my pretty cross indoors. At least that way, I'll know who pollinated whom and have some seeds from the cross to try next spring. Assuming I can keep the aphids from taking over my back porch. sigh.

woofie - I would definitely dig through your vines for seed pods. Chances are that some were protected. If the vine is killed, cut off the stems with unripe seed pods and stick the vine in water. Change water daily until those pods ripen. Hopefully, you will find a bunch of ripe seed pods!!! Fingers crossed! :-)

Woof, I have found that a dollop of hydrogen peroxide (H202 at 3% strength) added to the water works against the formation of slime on the stems.

Another thing that happened when I brought the stems indoors like this was that aphids came in too. I squished them as I found them and eventually got some nice seeds in spite of that, but if you can, I would try to keep the stems away from any other indoor plants you might have.

I think Joeswife has ordered lady bugs to control aphids for her indoor plants, so she might have some good advice on that. Ya gotta allow some aphids to stick around to be food for the lady bugs, so I've been curious how that worked for her.

There are horticultural soaps you can treat the leaves with, but in my experience, those work best on leaves that are part of a plant with roots. Rootless stems I have treated with one of those soaps were not very happy about being treated that way.

You may find that the pods most developed at the time you bring them in will yield the best seeds with plump sides with this treatment, whereas the last ones to ripen might yield "iffy" seeds with sunken sides.

The whole experience inspired me to grow at least one seed of any kind in a pot this year so that I could ripen those seeds indoors after frost.

Hope you find some pods that'll respond to this treatment. More fingers crossed :)

Karen

Ok, these stems are a messy tangle with another MG. How much stem do you think is needed? I marked some of the ones I wanted, but it's difficult to trace the vines very far because of the way they're wrapped around. There are some fat looking pods that might, just might, do something (hope, hope). And I did find a few ripe seed pods low down on one of the plants, but can't tell if it's the right vine! Not EVEN going to make that mistake again, darn it; one vine to a pot from now on! These were just some left-over sprouts that I stuffed into a pot rather than let them die, and wouldn't you know it, one of them turned out to be an unexpectedly nice looking cross. RATS! This is the pretty I'm trying to salvage. Thanks for the suggestions; it's supposed to freeze down again in a day or so, so I got to hustle.

woofie - Ooooh! That is a very pretty bloom! Love the striated markings on the petals! VERY nice! I can see why you want to get seeds from it! :-)

I would say at least 6" or more of each vine stem with forming seedpods. If they get hit with another frost, you are right ... that will probably do them in for sure. Good luck!

Woofie, I found that I had the best results with longer sections of vine, although whatever you can get - even as little as 6" - will be better than the alternative.

I used a thin 18" piece of bamboo, although it might be easier to go with a longer one. Some of the vine sections that I wrapped around those sticks were as much as 15' long, when I did this in 2007. I used twist ties to anchor them here an there as I wound them around. You need to be careful and not bend the vines while doing this. And then the wrapped stick goes in water. Try and wrap your vines so that none of the pods are in the water, once the stick goes in. The stick made it easier for me to work with the vines and keep them separate from each other indoors.

By the time I wrapped my vines like this, rust had already taken most of the leaves, so that made this technique easier. The stems still photosynthesize. And there are fewer aphids, too. But the quality of seeds might be better with leaves.

I love those delicate blues contrasted with dark bars of fuchsia - very much worth saving, if you can.

Karen