More Morning Glory questions and general viney things questions ;-) I'm in Zone 8a - North Texas, Clay soil. This is my first year trying vines and like all things garden I went full blast. I planted Grandpa Ott MG's first in starter trays - I know the authoritative sources (one web article mercilessly copied and pasted 100 times) all say they don't transplant well but I guess they can't read very well as they are growing like mad. I have several other varieties that I just stuck in the dirt and they are coming up just fine so looking forward to lots of vines soon. I've planted: Morning Glories Moonflower (2 seeds, I soaked them as advised and they appeared to have 'blown up' so I don't know if they will still germinate but only planted a couple days ago. Cardinal Climbers Cypress Vine Cup and Saucer (neat neat neat growth habit) Hyacinth Bean Vine So I am starting to get my first flowers on the grandpa Ott's. One five days ago, 3 the next, 20-30 blooms this morning. BEAUTIFUL. The other stuff is just starting to climb but the MG's 'eat' another 6"of string daily. I have some of each in pots, along a fence, along brick wall and climbing up from hanging baskets on my patio. Questions: 1. I've read that MG's will grow in any soil and that they don't need much fertilizer (too much Nitrogen means lots of vine and leaves and few flowers). They seem to be growing REALLLLY nicely though and flowering just fine after I mulched with a few inches of a pretty rich compost (2/3 finished, aged, homemade compost and 1/3 "moo-Nure" from home Depot which is a little hot out of the bag if used straight. Any of you longtime MG growers care to comment on whether MG's really LIKE crappy soil or if they TOLERATE crappy soil and like everything else do much better in good soil? 2. I found this thread while looking for info on how to get them to spread - it seems like some are throwing off secondary growth tips so I am wondering what is typical??? If I can get them to spread sideways I won't plant as many/close. Using string for support but after reading the above stuff I realized I have poly bird netting in the garage that would be easy to pop up with a few staples. Narrowing the question - right now the vines are mostly one growing tip racing for the sky - will they start throwing off more growing tips I can angle off to the side then up to fill in the gaps? Looking to cover the fence. When they get to the top will they grow back down (trailing)??? 3. On those moonflower seeds, I soaked them overnight and they were swollen and split - still viable or did I blow them up? 4. Anyone else have tips chewed off and do new growing tips emerge pretty fast? Turns out we have roof rats that run along the fence rails and it must be them but boy was I pissed. That 'path' is now spiked with nice sharp nails but rats are resourceful - anyone try hot pepper spray or anything that doesn't bother vines but makes rats unhappy? 5. I have several vines growing out of hanging baskets and they ran straight to the top of our pagoda over the patio... will they spread along the roof or does growth stop when they can't climb? Some of each vine here - MG, Hyacinth, cypress, cardinal climber and cup/saucer. Tips, advice, lessons learned appreciated. Right now I am feeding and watering frequently - don't mind if I get a lot of foliage and few blooms until the patio and fence get covered. Appreciate any advice of the "well if you want vines to go entirely little shop of horrors on you then just...." sort.

Ironically, until this last year Morning Glories were one of those plants that wouldn't grow at all for me. I'd plant several packages of them one summer, get maybe one vine with a few blooms, then nothing after that. I know, most of you wish you could have such problems! Just last year, I gave it one more try in a partly shaded spot with some Grandpa Ott's dark purple morning glories and some species sweet peas up a 6' black aluminum fence. They seemed moderately happy last year, though very few blooms again, but something is just now coming up around that fence. Too small to tell if it's the morning glory or sweet peas or both (I'm guessing the sweet peas given my history) but they're so far pretty well-behaved. I do know that morning glories will survive and reseed in my zone, since my neighbor had the standard blue morning glories all around her vegetable patch every year. Unfortunately, what survives and grows rampantly here is the nasty white bindweed, which is enough incentive to take it easy on the morning glories until you can tell the difference. As the same neighbor aged, she had bindweed growing everywhere in her large backyard, and it would constantly weave into their grapes on our shared fence (the grapes were most welcome) as well as Virginia Creeper (another unkillable thug). The new neighbors that bought their house have been trying to pull it out all over the yard, and I had to tell them how hard they're going to be working at that over the next few years, but how grateful I was that they were trying. I have visions of a garden newbie putting up trellises to support the white bindweed as an ornamental plant, since the white blooms are pretty persistent all summer and attractive for at least a nanosecond before they start looking like The White Death that Ate Cleveland. Sympathies to all for which this plant is a ruthless thug Cynthia

I planted moon flower seed about three weeks ago and some of them came up grew to about two inches high and turned brown and died before i got a chance to plant them in the ground. the other seeds did not grow at all. what did i do wrong i soaked them and nicked them kept them in the house in the little greenhouse you get from walmart and took the cover off when the leaves touched the top. Should I check the seeds that didn't grow for rot or should I just leave them alone. I think i need to start over with new seeds if i do should i do anything different? I started morning glorys at the same time and they seem to be small and only half of those came up. I live in zone six in CT i don't know if that makes any difference.

Karyn - I'm attaching a link to an older thread where soaking the upper parts of the plants in jars of herbicide worked... There is also a thread where people shared various ideas about eradicating and / or controlling bindweed and offhand I wouldn't be able to state with any certainty as to whether everything that was shared on the threads was accurate or not... dabbing method http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/natives/msg0608200221684.html various http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/rmgard/msg0510060716313.html Regarding the injection method : You need a small needle, no bigger than a 20 gauge, preferably a 25. Cut the stem short first, let its juices drain for a few minutes, then inject down into the cut...this injection should be done close to the roots rather than at the distal vegetative ends... It IS tricky with the little stems. wear a leather glove on your left hand so you don't stab yourself, lay the vine over your finger tips, steady with your thumb, and slide the needle with your right hand into the vine with the bevel facing up just like nurses would do to hit a vein. Then you have to run the needle up into the stem a bit to open it up , then back up leaving an open pocket to inject the herbicide into so that from the open pocket area the herbicide can be gradually absorbed into the plants tissues. I have a raw compilation of methods that have been used to control rapid spreading bindweeds but need to organize it at some point so it is more presentable... There was a study that I read a few years ago that indicated that a particular extract of Calystegia sepium and Convolvulus arvensis had been effective at controlling the reproduction of mosquitoes and in inhibiting cancerous tumor growth but unfortunately I lost those particulars in a hard drive crash...to everything there is a purpose... Hope that helps... TTY,... Ron Here is a link that might be useful: Calystegia bindweed control by soaking in jars