Had a good time collecting seeds from our prodigious Anacapa Morning Glory this past summer - hoping to get some started to fill in a fence line and share with others. Advice? This would be my first attempt at starting a plant from seed (intentionally and besides sowing wildflowers), and I'm not sure if there's any difference between our native Morning Glory and the more common type.
Thanks in advance!
I don't have experience with this particular species but I've grown many Calystegia with a hot water soak for 24 hours, flowed by direct sowing in sterile potting media. I highly discourage the use of organics
Excited to try this - does this take the place of scarification? Also, is it put in hot water at the start and soak for 24 hours, or is it swap out the water every couple hours to keep it hot? Thank you!
Oh pardon me, I didn't scarify. The hot water is just get the kettle to whistle loud, put seeds in the mason jar, pour over hot water, and put a lid on for 24 hours. No reheats, or additions.
Interesting to hear your method. My method is to fill a gallon-size pitcher with the hottest water my kitchen sink can provide, and let the seeds soak overnight in that - no kettle, no lid, no reheats. Seems to work just fine!
As the old saying goes-"there's a million ways to stack a sandwich".
The only variation I see is you don't boil water, and the lid. Thats awesome though, sounds easy.
I had zero germination when I tried 😕. Based on the seeds coat being very tough looking, I think scarification may help.
I haven't had luck with germination myself. In fact, I haven't seen any of my plants seed successfully. The hot water soak may be your best bet!
Just in case you didn't know these are very toxic and hallucinogenic. And not the fun kind of trip either. Just make sure animals or little kids wouldn't have access to these in any way. Bad news there.
Are you thinking of our native Datura? Morning glories look similar but are in a totally different plant family. I wouldn't recommend eating them, but I don't think they're hallucinogenic.
Both of them have this issue but Datura is a nasty hallucinogen. Only the seeds of the native morning glories (and all morning glories) are hallucinogenic. I believe they have a similar compound to LSD in them. A lot of seeds that are sold have a coating on them to induce vomiting. But yeah, both plants are hallucinogenic but only the seeds of morning glories are the concern.
I also had zero germination when I tried. I didn’t do anything special, so maybe a hot water soak as others are suggesting would help. If you figure it out, let me know!
Another thread says this:
"I’ve also had success lightly scarifying the seeds with sand paper and/or doing a 24hr water soak before sowing. The seeds don’t seem to have difficulty germinating though, I’ve had pretty good germination rates just putting untreated seeds in moist soil. It just seems to do a bit better after some sandpapering or a water soak."
Maybe you've seen this already, but if you go to the 'Forms' section of this page, CalBG has a spreadsheet with some excellent detailed info for germinating different species. Not much on C. macrostegia, but might be helpful?
https://www.calbg.org/conservation/seed-conservation
This was a pretty incredible spreadsheet, but I couldn't understand all of the abbreviations. Is there something that decodes them?
Yes! In that same document there is a separate tab/sheet with the key
Thanks! I see it now. This is awesome. Can't wait to apply this. My cuttings game is strong, but seeds are still a mystery for me.