How to Plant Morning Glory Seeds? A Detailed Guide to the Latest Planting Methods
The morning glory (Ipomoea) is an annual twining herbaceous flowering plant of the genus Ipomoea in the family Convolvulaceae. It prefers a mild climate, ample sunlight, and a humid, well-ventilated environment. The morning glory is also highly adaptable to soil and is fairly tolerant of drought and salinity-alkalinity, unafraid of high temperatures and summer heat. It is a deep-rooted plant, so when grown in the ground the soil should be deep. Let us take a look below at how to plant morning glory seeds!
Propagating Morning Glories from Seed
Morning glories are usually propagated from seed. The sowing period is spring and summer, and sowing is best done at 20-25°C; they can bloom in summer and autumn. When sowing, the seeds need to be soaked in warm water, and after 4-6 hours treated moderately with sulfuric acid, then scattered over the soil and covered with a thick layer of soil, about 1 cm, keeping the soil moist. They sprout in about 5-6 days, and once two leaves have grown they can be transplanted.
Sowing Morning Glories in Pots
For potted morning glories, it is best to sow in early April, using a mix of half ordinary potting soil and half plain sandy soil, in a No. 2 tube pot (inner diameter 13 cm), sowing 4 to 5 seeds per pot. Because the seed coat is thick and germination is slow, you can cut a little of the seed coat open with a small knife just above the hilum. After sowing, maintain 25°C and they will germinate in about 7 days. When you observe that the two cotyledons have grown flat, transplant the seedlings; you can remove the whole root ball from the pot and separate the seedlings with their soil. When growing in pots, at the same time remove 1 cm from the lower end of the main root and plant in a No. 2 tube pot with ordinary potting soil, one plant per pot. Note that when transplanting morning glories in the open ground, you must never bruise the main root; transplant seedlings when they are small and early, and the bigger the soil ball the better.
Transplanting and Setting Out Morning Glory Seedlings
When the morning glory seedlings have grown 6 to 7 leaves and are about to send out vines, take out the whole root ball and repot into a greenware pot (inner diameter 24 cm) to set them out. The potting soil should be fertilized potting soil, and apply 50 grams of hoof pieces as a base fertilizer. After planting, water thoroughly. Once the potting soil has settled, insert a thin bamboo pole 1 m long straight into the center of the pot. Then take about 3 m of galvanized wire, tie one end to the bamboo pole level with the soil surface, then wind it upward in a spiral from the pot rim, forming a neat tower-shaped spiral frame that is wide at the bottom and narrow at the top. Fix the upper end of the wire to the tip of the bamboo pole. The morning glory is a left-twining plant, so the spiral direction of the galvanized wire must match the morning glory's habit of twining to the left. When the main vine climbs to the top of the pole along the wire, pinch off the growing tip. Each time a side vine grows 6 to 7 leaves, pinch off its tip; this makes the flowers larger and keeps producing vines and flowers.
How to Save Morning Glory Seeds
For good varieties of morning glory, you must be sure to save good seeds. Once they ripen in autumn, collect the seeds, label them by category and store them; if variations appear, they should be kept with even greater care. For hybridizing morning glories, after selecting the female parent and male parent, cut off the upper end of the flower bud at dusk on the day before flowering, then remove the stamens and wrap it in a wax paper bag. The next morning, remove the wax paper bag, use the stamens of the male parent to pollinate by hand, then wrap it again in a wax paper bag. After one or two weeks the wax paper bag can be removed, but the pollinated seed pod must be clearly marked and recorded. The following year, plant all the crossed seeds well, and after flowering see the results; from this you can study the effects of the various genetic factors.