I took some cuttings of my MG, probably 'President Tyler' some days ago, at first they looked like they were just wilting in the water, I placed them on a sunny window-sill. Today I went to give them a look and they looked very healthy, they had even started to "climb". We'll see if they grow roots, or how fast if they do.
I really would like to try to over winter them. :)
Evert,
take seeds. Cuttings are not the best for overwintering.
I know but I want to give these a try. It's what this is all about.
Whaaat! Are ipomea perennial?
Kikisdad: The perennials I've seen are Ipomoea pandurata (Wild Potato Vine, Wild Sweet Potato) and Ipomoea batatas (Sweet Potato). Both produce tubers that they come up from year after year, but the Wild Potato Vine is the only one that I know of as cold hardy. Looking on the Internet, there seem to be quite a few perennial tropical Ipomoeas, but around here, a good frost would turn them into annuals.
Evert: From what I can find, I don't think your is one of the species that will root from cuttings too easily, but it's worth a try. Anyone else had luck?
Thanks Agrinerd,
I didn't realize the potato vines were part of the genus. Obviously some are perennial. DW and I are blessed by being able to spend winters in a more reasonable climate than the zone 5 listed on DG and so are familiar with what you're talking about. I just think "morning glory" a la Burpees catalog offerings when I see ipomea. GOTTA expand my horizons (before its too late?).
Agrinerd - you are right, they still haven't grown any roots, but look very healthy and keep growing their leaves. Hmm. :)
The cuttings have started growing roots! It wasn't so hard afterall.. :)
Way to go! Sometimes I'm glad to be proven wrong....always the skeptic!
Oops, mispelled skeptic. Had to fix that.
This message was edited Oct 15, 2003 9:23 AM
I think most plants can be propagated from cuttings.
I snipped off a tip of a marigold a couple of weeks ago and shoved it in a pot of soil. Then I checked it a while later and it was forming roots.
Like you, Evert, I like to try things just to see what happens. Glad your morning glory made it! I think I will try to do that with some of mine.
I planted morning glories last feb and by late march I didn't know where to lead them. Well I went ahead and cut them down to about 1' in Sept. and they are already growing back so I kinda think here in Tucson they might be perennials. The stock is heavy about 1/2 to 3/4" thick. Same thing with moon flowers. And boy do they get seeds. You probably all know that you have to "score" the seeds and soak them in water over night to get them to start fast. I planted some seeds about 3 days ago and they are already "peeking" out of the ground.
way to go Evert!!! Thats exciting!! How did you do it? Just water?? Please do share!
I just put them in water yes. They've got a lot of roots now, they're still in the water.. they weren't doing too well for a while as they had spider mites, and still have, but I am trying to keep them alive. They have even put out three blooms :)
Wow! Thats great! Not that you have the mites, but that it was that easy! Maybe you should get a couple ladybugs to get the mites. I think I read a link some place that said they knew someone who let the ladybugs fly around the house... lol kinda funy, but IMHO much better than flies! :o)
I am looking for more seeds for heavenly blue morning glories, I ran out and desperately need some for my drive way and I really want to get them and the moon flowers in before november, anyone have any extra ones?
LittleShima, I have Heavenly Blue MG seeds. They are from last year's harvest, but they should do fine. Just let me know if you still need them and I'm happy to oblige.
Hey Evert! How are the cuttings coming??? :o)
Spider mites have seemed to kill, them they are still light green, but without leaves. :( I'll try with better luck next year..
Thats too bad! Im glad to know you can do that tho! Good luck for next year! :o)
Evert,
I am so sorry about the spider mites. I'm a beginning gardener so EVERYTHING I do is an experiment. I do have a question, and I am definitly not trying to be judgemental but, isn't there a pesticide one can use to control spider mites? Also, what did you do with the water? Did you add anything or change it daily? I want to try propagation using water and am not sure whether or not to change the water?
Well yes, but I didn't have anything handy pesticide to spray at the time.. I found out that cold water and sauna works well, I have a plant that had spider mites in it, I took it to sauna (hot steam and temps over 90°C), kept it there for a while, then I washed it with cold water, and did it again a few times. I haven't checked if it has mites again.. I guess not?
And yes, the water of the cuttings should be changed, otherwise if becomes cloudy. I changed it every, or every other day.
Re. Spider Mite fixes: These are some of the toughest pests to get rid of if you don't have enough beneficial predator insects. I've been watching the behavior of insects on my plants before assuming they were up to no good, and I've noticed several that are clearly searching for prey and are not there to eat the plant. Ladybugs and lacewing larva (I think it's the larval stage ...) are supposed to be the best. Some of the most persistent hunters I've seen have not been lacewing larva (?) but look somewhat similar. Spiders of all kinds have also been great helpers. I've never killed spiders intentionally, but that was out of superstition. Now I see how great they are. I've seen so many kinds now that I've been watching my garden insects that I could never identify or list them, but they range from tiny ones that you can hardly see to the big "garden spiders" that have a white and yellow pattern on their backs and are about 3" across (from the tips of their legs). I've noticed that, when a certain spider takes up residence on one of my plants, that plant is virtually pest-free for the whole season. I wish I could figure out exactly which spider was the most effective, raise them and assign one to each plant!
As for chemicals, the experts here have recommended several sprays, but spider mites propagate quickly and they develop resistance to any one spray quickly also. So you have to alternate what you treat them with. The most highly recommended was Orthene, which is off the market under that name but Ortho's "Rose Pride" insecticide has appeared this year as "Orthenex" and has Orthene as the main active ingredient (the garden shop I was in had both last year's Rose Pride and this year's Orthenex, and the containers, down to the pictures on them, were near identical, and the ingredients were identical. The shop owner said that, as of this last season, he couldn't get Rose Pride insecticide and Orthenex appeared on the order forms in its place.) By the way, Orthene is a systemic pesticide and not all plants tolerate it. It killed a coleus on which I tested it -- albeit slowly.
The worst thing I've done in trying to control spider mites is dust everything with Sevin. This was three years ago, and I've learned a little since then. The Sevin dust killed everything that was vulnerable to it, including the beneficial insects that ate spider mites, but the spider mites survived. The result was an uncontrollable plague of spider mites that killed the entire garden instead of just injuring a few leaves, which is what they were doing when I broke out the Sevin.
Wanting to avoid the really toxic stuff, I have had pretty good success with alternating sprays of neem oil (sold under Schultz's 'Garden Safe' label as "Fungicide 3" [the 3 is for fungicide, insecticide and "miticide" -- a word I think they coined] and Pyrethrins (found under several trade names, but sometimes you really have to search -- sometimes it is actually sold under its own name in farm supply stores). Fungicide 3 becomes prohibitively expensive if you buy it in individual spray bottles (I've used up one bottle on a small lilac bush), but the 20 oz. bottle of concentrate isn't bad. It costs $10-14, but I use about one bottle a year.
I haven't found an inexpensive source of Pyrethrins yet. I thought I had found a good one, but after using up the spray bottle of the brand that I trying, I went back to buy the big bottle of concentrate, and it turned out that they replaced Pyrethrins with Permethrin in the concentrate. Permethrin is a synthetic form of Pyrethrins and has a much longer residual effect, while Pyrethrins breaks down, or starts breaking down, in 20 minutes. Breaking down and having little residual effect is a good thing, though it didn't sound like it to me at first. When Pyrethrins breaks down quickly, it means that the beneficial insects that you don't want to target, but may have been killed unintentionally, have a chance to come back and re-establish a healthy population in little time. An insecticide with a nonselective residual effect (like Sevin) will continue to kill all kinds (well, many kinds) of insects for a long time, including the good ones. Permethrin may be better than most, but it still lasts a long time in comparison with Pyrethrins.
Can only find Pyrethrins concentrate in an eight-ounce bottle for $9-10, and it only makes eight gallons (which goes very quickly around here). I'd appreciate any tips on a less expensive source.
The popular home remedy for spider mites is to spray with soapy water. I haven't found this to work, and some soaps (like "Dawn") can kill herbaceous plants in short order (the voice of experience).
The updated home remedy for spider mites is to mist the plant(s) with water, with particular attention to wetting the bottom of the leaves, every day for three days. This is said to interrupt their breeding cycle. I've had limited success with this, but it may be because I'm too absent minded to remember which plants I'm supposed to be misting and how many days I've misted. Also, misting used to be an exhausting chore when I was using a spray bottle, but with the nozzles for the hose that have dial settings, including 'mist', it's not a back-breaker anymore.
I hope this was more helpful than space-consuming.
Re. overwintering morning glories --
It's great to know that some will root in water. I tried to overwinter the small double picotee Japanese morning glories, and they just died, as if their time was up, like other annuals. By the way, these Japanese morning glories are Ipomoea purpurata like President Tyler. I wish I had thought to try to root them because they (at least the ones I received from Japan several years ago) proved to be pretty unstable hybrids and produced several interesting different forms, one of which was a dwarf.
Most Japanese morning glories are Ipomoea nil, as are a few of the popular morning glories here, like Heavenly Blue. I've noticed that some Ipomoea nil morning glories have flowers with a much larger diameter and ivy-shaped leaves (I don't know if these are reliably consistent characteristics). I. purpurata flowers are never huge and the leaves are heart-shaped. I. purpurata doesn't form a tuber that can be overwintered. I don't know about I. nil, which is often referred to as Ipomoea imperialis in other countries. If anyone has some Heavenly Blue and wants to check, I'd like to know what they learn.
When Ipomoeas do form tubers, they don't always look like the tubers I expected. Especially if it has only been growing for one season, the tuber may only look as if a length of the tap root is a little thicker and deformed (has lengthwise furrows or bulges), but in warmer climates or if it is brought inside, it will grow to be more sweet potato-like, I hear.
In addition to Sweet Potato Vines (Ipomoea battatas), Moonflower Vine (I. alba) forms a tuber that can be taken up and overwintered. I have also heard that the newly popular lilac moonflower vine may have to grow for two years or more before the tuber is large enough for the vine to flower. I suspect this will be the same with the pink (a.k.a. "red") moonflower vine that some of us received from Japan last spring.
I only recently discovered that Four O'clocks (Mirabilis jalapa) are not annuals, but form tubers that can be overwintered. Apparently, I was the last to find out.
I wonder how many of my other common annuals are actually tender tubers.
