I will make an attempt to grow this Ipomoea nil indoors this winter. It is my effort to create a little heaven on Earth. The seeds are 8 years old, collected from my own garden. All 4 seeds germinated in 2 days time.

I should be able to get at least one thriving plant out of the 4 seeds.

Nice Joseph, looking forward to seeing the progress.

Joseph, great to hear examples of how long Ipomoea seeds can last.... did they spend the years in a refrigerator?

Inspired by your previous pictures of your winter-grown Ipomoea's I have started some seeds on the doorsteps of winter.

Its supposedly I. tuberosa and I. muricata - and flowers are presumably many sun-filled hours away... hope to see some before next autumn :-)

When growing indoors what is your light source?

Carsten_DK said:Joseph, great to hear examples of how long Ipomoea seeds can last.... did they spend the years in a refrigerator?

Inspired by your previous pictures of your winter-grown Ipomoea's I have started some seeds on the doorsteps of winter.

Its supposedly I. tuberosa and I. muricata - and flowers are presumably many sun-filled hours away... hope to see some before next autumn :-)

Carsten, good luck with those species, I do not recall growing them before. It will be exciting to watch them grow. Feel free to add comments and photos of your plants' progress.

I stored the seeds in plastic bags into which I placed a silica desiccant packet to keep the relative humidity low inside of the packet. I store seeds in cool room temperature, not the refrigerator.

gardengus said:When growing indoors what is your light source?

I grow the plants in a sunny windowsill, where they have a westerly exposure.

Thanks Joseph - hopefully there will be some progress to post about :-).

And thanks for the info on the silica.

In relation to light my location does not currently have much to offer - and it just gets worse the coming months (Denmark is at 56° N - which is north of Newfoundland) - so I have bought some readily available LED "growth" lamps.

However, the I. alba (3-4 weeks old) and Dioscorea alata (also in the the Convolvulaceae family) below have so far survived/grown solely on light from a westerly oriented window.

Joseph, seeing all your great pictures of Ipomoea albivenia I had to give it a try.

Especially as it is also on the fragrant list from Ronnie - and you have mentioned the presence of (strong?) fragrance.

So the little plant bellow is packed with my expectations.... :-)

The LED lights should help very much. Your plants look great, healthy and full of life. You will have fun with the Ipomoea albivenia. Enjoy!

Thanks

Carsten, I did some inside one year under regular fluorescent lights with great results!
I think I may get inspired to do it again

Glad to hear Ronnie Please keep us informed.

When you write great results - does that include flowering in the winter time?

As I am sure I don't need to tell you - it's easy enough to get the seeds started - I am more "worried" about being able to provide condition for flower development at this time of the year. I am assuming all(?)/most Ipomoeas need short day condition AND able light to flower. These are not the conditions in the rooms in our home (I don't think I will be able to convince my wife to spend the evenings in the dark...at least not yet.. ) - so that is presumably the biggest challenge. How did you manage that part of growing MG in winter?

Yes Carsten I had flowers. I put my lights on a timer from 7AM to 8PM

You can also use the small clip on lamps with a fluorescent bulb and clip it right near the plant. I did that also and saw flowers within 3 months. I think they sell them as heat lamps, you can get them at home Depot or Lowe's cheap.

Ronnie, okay...great to hear you managed to get flowers. My expectation to the seeds are growing.... :-)

Was it Ipomoea nil or/and other species?

One more question in this regard: where the plants isolated from other light sources when outside your 13 hour light period?
In other words - how sensitive are the plants - based on your experience - to interruptions of the dark period? In your opinion, will a few living room lamps some meters away "interrupt" the plants dark-period and prevent flowering?

Carsten, I grew I.nil. I didn't notice any problems with other light sources. If you think about it even when outside they are never in complete darkness. Just the brightness of the moon alone is light. I have lots of lights that are on until midnight around my yard.

Okay. Thanks Ronnie for sharing your expertise and experience

You're welcome but certainly no expert Just a morning glory lover

Cotyledons were just breaking ground today. The seed leaves should be fully opened Monday.

All 4 sets of cotyledons have emerged! I was thinking I would have 50% seed failure. It's a joy to see them all.

That's great Joseph!