L@@K! Unusual mutant F2 blooms/vines!

LOL! I always wanted to start a thread using L@@K! Rather funny to see those eyes! Anyway ...

Of the 4 seeds that germinated out of 15 (of the F2 Blue Speckles) that I sowed in cups, 2 have bloomed this weekend for me.

The vines are small and the one vine dropped all it's leaves from rust treatment, but new ones are growing back currently. Now granted, they are being grown at this moment in 8 oz. cups. So they are extremely dwarfed. Both were unexpected.

This first one shows a pale blue bloom with a few scattered darker speckles. It was taken early in the morning before the sun was bright enough to light up the sky, so it is a little dark. The blooms are the same size as the parent plant. I did not cross any of the blooms on the Blue Speckled vine. I self-pollinated all them. These two vines are picking up some recessive genes or some mutant genes. I was told that it does have the kikyo gene in it, so I am seeing something similar in the second plant.

This is the funny part of that vine. No leaves when I took the photo on Saturday. Late today, I see leaf nodes forming, so it will regrow those leaves soon.

Here is a side view which is most humorous! Looks kinda bare except for that bloom! LOL! This photo was taken later in the day and the bloom had turned a little pink!

This message was edited Sep 12, 2010 7:34 PM

This is the second vine or rather plant ... it certainly doesn't seem to be vining. Just growing straight up! LOL! The leaves are all curling under and it has probably as many bloom buds as it does leaves! LOL!

This is the bud before it bloomed.

And here is the bloom. Once again, this is one of the seeds from Blue Speckles.

At the time the Blue Speckles vine was growing and blooming, I didn't have any Kikyo vines growing. So it's not a cross. Recessive kikyo genes showing up in this F2 plant.

I counted a total of 5 buds on it including the one that just bloomed. And it had a lot of pollen, so of course I self-pollinated it! The F3 from this vine might really be interesting!

And here once again is an earlier photo of the mother vine.

Very pretty blooms Becky. I'm partial though to your mother vine,
so special. It's been my favorite all summer. :-)

This one :
http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/2010/09/12/beckygardener/8beef6.jpg
This gene is "cactus gene" as called by Dee (MGJapan)?

Interesting thread, Becky and Dany - thank you

Thank you Jackie and Karen!

Dany - Thanks for the name of the gene form for the dwarfed plant. Your pink bloomer is pretty neat, too! How long did yours live?

Awsome Becky, those are cool plants. I really liked the first one, a lot. It is cool to see them "rejuvenated"

Thanks, Debra! Me, too!

I have about 40 seedlings growing under lights. Looks like I may have blooms through the Fall and Winter months!

Have you ever seen a MG sprout without cotyledons? I have one that did just that! LOL!

This is Meremia tuberosa. Probably a thug down here in Florida! It sure was determined to survive. The cotyledons were not able to free themselves from the hard coating of the seed, but that didn't discourage this fella ... it just grew the vine without them! LOL! Imagine my surprise when I saw this straggly thing emerging from the dirt!

And then of the opposite extreme, I have this monstrosity with huge cotyledons! This is Ipomoea sepacutiensis from Belize. I have no idea about what the blooms on this one will look like. I found very little information on this species on the internet. Supposedly purple blooms with a yellow throat. Should be interesting!

Oh wow Becky, anxious to see the blooms from both of these.
Very exciting.

Very interesting!

Can't wait to see further results.

Becky, you have the curiosity of a true scientist!

I agree! My tuberosa was fun to watch sprout and vine over the winter, but I still have no blooms. It is still in it's original cup. I can't wait to see the one from Belize!

Thanks! I, too, find it most interesting!

The Meremia tuberosa should have the typical bright yellow blooms. And the Ipomoea sepacutiensis has the dark purple with yellow eye ... or so I've read. Both may take two years to bloom from what I have read because of being basically wild!

The tuberosa is a giant grower and will need something bigger than a cup,. Debra, Mr Hudson's catalog used to say that it is root hardy to zone 6 so you
probably need to plant one outside next spring that you've already got to a good size.
That way it can get off to a good start next spring after danger of frost.
It is a fall bloomer like ochracea which doesn;t bloom in the heat of summer
Heres' a pic of Ed's giant vine

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/69978

Jackie - You are absolutely right! It is on the thug list here in Florida, but is not prohibited like the Ipomoea carnea MG bush. I will be moving it into a bigger pot, and not into the ground. LOL! It would swallow my house probably!!! LOL!

It actually grew so much today that it was wrapped around the grow light. I had to untangle it. I can see that it has an aggressive growth habit.

The Ipomoea sepacutiensis might be a large and aggressive vine as well... But I do want to see the bloom on each of these species, so they will be grown in pots outside. Only the I. nils will be kept indoors. The rust would kill them in record time if I dared put them outside right now.

I will be moving it to a pot this Fall.. it has the bottom cut out of the cup and is rooted into the ground. It
doesn't get as much sun as it should where it is located, the tomatoes shade it. which is good, i want it to hold off until next year.The other monster vine I have is all over the patio and the tomato patch.. that is the one I am waiting to see bloom.

Sounds like it will take off wherever it is planted! LOL!

I am really enjoying growing some vines indoors under grow lights. I can actually study them up close and personal. This is even more fun than growing them outdoors! And I don't have to deal with the heat, the humidity, and the mosquitos! What a dream!!! LOL!

The growth on the two plants above was nothing short of amazing! I think both plants grew 4 - 5" in one day!

Here is a close-up of Ipomoea sepacutiensis! Reminds me a little of the Brazilian Morning Glory (I. setosa). This one is really a neat looking vine!

The tiny leaves are starting to form on the Meremia tuberosa.

Here is a photo showing the full growth of I. sepacutiensis in just one day. Compare it to the photo taken yesterday further above in this thread. Amazing!!!

Close-up of a small I. purpurea vine.

Close-up of a young I. nil vine.

I love this photo as it shows the speckles on the main stem, which of course means that the blooms will be speckled also! Something I learned from Antoinette (who is a wealth of information)! Thank you for the education, A! :-) It's been quite the joyride!

awsome shots, Becky!

Becky, what are you using for indoor lighting?

I'm not an expert, but I researched this subject 5 years ago for my own knowledge, and I can give you a few tips on indoor lighting (at a reasonable price), if you need them.

Yes great pics Becky. I had read that the tuberosa might grow up to a foot in 1 day. An amazing grower and the yellow blooms are just beautiful. You will absolutely love this one.

I was just getting ready to head to bed and saw some posts come up on this thread, so ...

Debra & Jackie - Thank you! I am getting a kick out of growing my plants indoors! In air conditioning, no bugs, and low humidity. Though the room is a bit warm. I have the lights on continuously right now until they get a little bigger and then will start turning off the lights to let them rest like they would in nature.

Susan - I am using the inexpensive 4' shop lights. I have one bright daylight bulb and one plant grow light bulb in each hanging light. Two bulbs per light. I had read where someone else did this and got good results from using one bulb of each per fixture. And it was relatively inexpensive since I already had the shelving unit which I re-assigned indoors as my new grow station.

I can lower the shelves as the plants get taller which was another plus. And I will be potting them up this weekend into bigger styrofoam cups. I have a spray bottle with a tiny bit of H2O2 and some liquid foliage fertilizer mixed together that I use to mist all the plants several times a day. And I rotate the plants under the two different bulbs once a day, so that they all get equal time under the grow light. So far, so good.

Any advice you care to share here would be appreciated by myself and others! :-) Feel free to post any suggestions you have!

Jon - You are too funny! I guess I better be careful of any Pandora's box, huh? LOL LOL LOL

Great thread Becky! Good to see your progress, I grew mine under lights last winter and true it's a lot of fun having them growing inside the house!

Becky, you seem to have the lighting situation well thought-out.

I also "juice" (light) my plants for 24/day from germination to about 1-2 inches, then swich to 12 hours on, 12 hours off to let them rest.

The moon vines germinate so quickly, they come out in under 24 hours (in wet paper towel).

The seed company where I ordered my MG seeds sent a free packet of YELLOW MG seeds; they were the only seeds with zero germination.

(Maybe the seeds were old, leftover from an earlier season.)

Thanks, Susan! I did some reading up before I decided whether or not I should try the artificial lighting. And Antoinette was wonderful at encouraging me with her knowledge, too! I love when folks share their own experiences and detail information with all of us! I say, pass it around for everyone to know! Most folks can grow MGs in all kinds of environments! And anyone can get some amazing crosses, surprise recessive genes, and some awesome vines. I always say, "Go For It !!!" You have nothing to lose and everything to gain! :-) :-) :-)

I will be turning my lights off for half a day starting next week. :-) The "juice" is great for getting them off to a fast start! Thanks for your suggestions! :-)

I wonder if the yellow bloomer seeds you got were the one that I am growing "Meremia tuberosa"? I have tried to grow that one every year for the past 3 years with no luck until this year. I tried a nick and soak method this year and it worked!!! Were your seeds large seeds?

No, regular size, but paler than usual.

Since those seeds were a freebie, I didn't mind the zero germination, but I was curious what it would look like.

Hmmm ... I am not familiar with a yellow bloomer that has pale colored seeds. There are so few yellow bloomers in the MG family. Sorry you didn't have any luck getting them to germinate. Did you keep the seed bag for reference?

I never throw them (the seed envelopes) away; I date the outer package, and each individual seed packet the day it arrives in the mail. I'll take a look around for it.

This all took place last year, the 2009 season, so I hope my memory isn't faulty, I wouldn't want to accidently give you false information!

Oh, not a problem. If you still have the baggie, I'd be interested to know what was sent to you.

Becky,
I put the following phrases (including quotation marks) into my search engine, http://search.yahoo.com

"summer hill seeds" "yellow morning glory"

The result was: ipomoea hederifolia

On Wikipedia.org, the color was all wrong; but it had a link to:
ipomoea obscura

I suspect that what I got was very closely related to 'obscura.'

Summer Hill Seeds doesn't carry it currently, and when I looked for it on their site in April 2009 when I received the free seed packet, it wasn't on there at that time, either.

I suspect they haven't carried it for some time due to a low germination rate.

I will keep my eyes open for the original packet; there are still several seeds left in it, which you can have if I locate it.

edit: there was no photo on their seed packets.

Also, there IS currently a photo on their site for 'Convolvulus Ensign White'; it contains some yellow, but the site says "it's a relative of morning glories", implying that my packet label would have not have used the phrase "Morning Glory" for I.D. if it were "a relative" of a MG.

2nd edit for typing errors.
This message was edited Sep 19, 2010 4:37 PM

This message was edited Sep 19, 2010 4:41 PM