Moonflower Seeds

I finally got some moonflower vines to grow this year and they were incredible. I have many dark seed pods and I'd like to save some seeds for next year, but I'm not sure when to collect them. I opened a pod a couple of days ago and the seeds were white and soft.

Does anyone know if it's o.k. to dry them now or should I wait?

Also, I'm in Minnesota and we will have a hard frost before too long. Will the cold damage the seeds if they're outside during a frost?

Thanks!

Pam

I have never been able to get seeds off this plant.The season is too short for the seed pods to mature.I have great success with morning glory seeds.Moonflowers,however,I buy new seed each year.

Pam, last year my MGs were sown too late for seed to ripen before frost, so per Ron_Convolvulaceae's advice, I cut stems from the vines with pods on them and put them in jars of water with a tiny dollop of hydrogen peroxide (H202) to keep down slime. The water should have been changed daily, but I did it every 2 or 3 days. And I put those jars in my sunniest window under grow lights.

Well - it worked! Eventually the pods turned brown & crispy, at which time I turned the seeds out of the pods and air-dryed them in cupboards for a few more weeks (keeps down mold in storage).

I think this might be worth trying with your most mature moonflower seeds. I understand this technique has worked on many other types of flowers.

ps - yes, frost will turn them to mush - interesting when you consider how well other species of Ipomoea can be successfully wintersown, including I. purpurea cultivars. The success of wintersowing different flowers varies by zone - http://www.wintersown.org/wseo1/DataBase.html

Thank you both for the great information! I have always had more Morning Glory seeds than I can handle and I didn't even consider that the season would be too short for Moonflower to fully mature.