I don't know if this is ideal or not, but I successfully grew 5 morning glories the year before last in a rectangular planter about 7" wide x 30" long x 8" deep. They did fine.

The next year, their babies sprung up all over the planter! I thinned those, but there were still far more than 5 (closer to 10 I would guess). And those did fine, too, until I killed them by overwatering.

How much trellis you have for them to climb is, I think, as much of a consideration as how much pot you have to plant them in. My 5 morning glories made an almost solid mass of leaves on a string trellis that reached about 7' up and fanned out to about 5' wide at the top. I haven't grown moon vine yet but apparently it's even more vigorous, so too many on insufficient trellis space might result in a tangled mass. There's a balance to strike between "lush" and "overgrown".

Kristin

Thanks Kristin! Moon Vine seems much larger, so I was worried about having a big enough pot. I hope to wind the vines around my balcony railings, but I may grow them up and down a wooden lobster pot. I'll be careful with the water.

The bigger the pot, the bigger the MFs will grow (particularly if you get alot of sun). They are perennials down your way. The MGs can grow just about anywhere, including out of cracks.. I too have many many that pop up every year and reseed themselves every year in my containers.

But.. But.. Jenny... You have grown such beautiful glories in 6" pots.

Is THIS why my MG's always look.. well, bored? I tend to grow them in small pots with the lousiest soil I can find, in full morning/noon sun (balcony faces east, but gets a LOT of heat in the mornings) and try not to overwater. Do I just need to change the pot size to get enormous blooms?

Because I should add that I've done the same with larger pots and never really been satisfied with the blooms. :(

I gotta chime in here. Im a HUGE MG/ MF fan, and have grown them for about 5 years now out of those big green (maybe 12" long by 8"W by 10" deep containers.) As jenny can probably attest from photos,( and HEY Jenny! great to "see" you again) my MG's and MF's got about 25' or so, from the above mentioned conatinaers, with about 3-5 plants per container. With good soil, and good sunlight, they will GROW and GROW and GROW.

MGs and MFs dont "LIKE" poor soil, however they will produce more booms, much earlier in poor soil. When there is an abundance of nutriants available for the plant to grow, it will do just that FIRST, GROW. Thus producing blooms later in the season. You will end up with very LARGE leaves on very LARGE vines until about July, t hen you will start producing blooms. In Poor soil, the vines can be somewhat "spindly" or small, and the leaves will be smaller as well, however you will produce more flowers, earlier.

It all depends on why you are growing them. If its ONLY for flowers, grow in poor soil with little nutriants, and youll get lots of blooms on fairly young plants.

If it is for foliage ( and blooms) grow them in good, nutriant rich soil, and feed them miracle grow once a month, and youll have HUGE plants with HUGE leaves ( for privacy) that will stay that way most of the year. BUT, they wont start really producing massive blooms until half way thru july.

SO you see, you are largely in control of the types of vines you get, and the amount/ timing of the blooms you get. rest assured though, that in the end ( late summer into sept) you will get massive amounts of flowers on both vines irregardless of the poor or nutriant rich soils you choose to use.

Hope that helps!

NPG

novaplantguy_z7b_8a - Thank you for your contribution to this subject and the relevancy of the growers interested results as per soil conditions...(??'irregardless'??)...

There are a number of different substances that are considered to be nutritive to plants and that could very generally be called 'fertilizers'...

The different nutrients that are considered as essential for plant growth are referred to as Macronutrients(Major or primary),Minor Nutrients(secondary) and Micronutrients...plant growth and behaviour is also affected by elements,compounds and hormones not considered essential...the useage of the terms 'fertilizer' and 'rich' or 'poor soils are relative fuzzy non-specific terms that can sometimes be misleading...

The Macronutrient Nitrogen is the nutrient that is most likely to result in 'delayed' flowering in the Morning Glories most commonly seen in garden cultivation...the Macronutrient Phosphorus is often bloom stimulating and can sometimes overide the effects of a Nitrogen rich growing medium thereby causing the induction of earlier flowering ...Phosphorus is often a main component of bloom boosting fertilizers...there are also bloom boosters that are vitamin and plant hormone based that will not stimulate excessive foliage growth or delay flowering...

Hoping this information may help to clarify the literal and rhetorical useage of the terms fertilizer and nutrients as related to plant nutrition...

TTY,...

Ron

A basic reference link on some different plant nutrients...

Here is a link that might be useful: Some Different components of Fertilizers and role in plant response

can someone help me?,my morning glorys are turning yellow on the bottom leaves. I have covered the roots and made sure they are watered enough,they have lots of room no over crowding. Just turning yellow on the bottom leaves, the rest of the plant is growing and doing fine.Any info would be great , also should I fertilze or not , scared they might burn. thanks, micki

Hello mrs.micki.

A couple of questions first. How large are your vines? Also, is it just solid yellow leaves? Or are they yellowing just between the veins? (IE the veins are staying greenish?)

If it is the first one, just solid yellowing of bottom leaves only, I dont think that is much to worry about, especially on well established, older plants. Mine have now surpassed the top of a 7' fence, and they were started from seed around memorial day weekend. They have lost some lower leaves, though not LOTS. It is common as the plants mature and grow, for them to drop some lower leaves. The main cause of this is, at least to my knowledge is the the lower leaves get less light because they are now being covered by the vigorous upward growth of the vine, thus making those leaves much less efficient and valuable to the plant, which in turn makes them expendable to the plant. The plant is focusing its energy on growing the leaves that are producing the largest return of energy to the plant, and on either growing new vine lenght towards the sun, and/ or producing flower buds.

Nothing to worry about if that is the case with your vines.

If it is the latter ( just yellowing between the veins) that could be any number of nutrient deficiencies in your plants / soil. The most common one I have run across is an IRON deficiency. However, this will usually cause the yellowing between the veins up and down most of the vines length, not just on lower leaves.

I hope this helps you out! Good luck!

NPG ~