need help with green Zinnia seedlings

[Eeyore]

Morning Glories are not related to Zinnia's. Morning glories are a vine and cutting them off won't do anything except encourage them to send up 2 shoots rather than one. If you recycled soil from somewhere else or if there were morning glories growing close to where your zinnias are planted the seeds could have been left in the soil from last year. I have MG's growing everywhere in my yard because for some reason they just seem to migrate!

[nel3]

thnak you very much. i dont recall re-using soil for that pot though if anything it would've been soil full of celosia seeds. it can either be 2 things for MGs to come along. i bought 1 cubic foot of spagnum moss and 5l of perlite for my VFT. ive used the soil mix with black earth for my own mix of soil. if anything its in the soil (black or spagnum). the other option is that a MG seed was put into the Zinnia packet. i dont have much interest in MG but im willing to keep it alive. i'll be agressively cutting it to my liking to promote growth of the existing stems and removing unwanted ones.

i'd like to try my green Zinnia again but i dont know if its too late in the season to enjoy a matured Zinnia. should i hold it of until 2013 or plant another seed immediately?

[Eeyore]

I would wait until next season now.

[nel3]

thank you Eoyore. its unfortunate for me to tell the truth. i had limited space for seedlings to start and presumed it was a Zinnia all along. i only planted 1 seed and made cuttings from that MG. i dont have anything big against MGs but i guess i'll have to make the best of them this season. is there any indication of colour for this particular MG bloom or are they all pale yellowish green to start?

the Zinnia last year did have minor stem issues as a seedling but it didnt wrap around very much at all. once the stem was decent i removed the support and it did wonderfully.

edit: just checked out the MG. one bloom opened up.its mostly which but pink or purple highlights are on the way to showing.

[Heidi S]

I suspect your zinnia seed just died and this came up coincidentally. Zinnias and Morning glory are not related at all. So either your soil was contaminated by a morning glory before you planted in it, or the seed packet was contaminated by the MG. Cultivated morning glory seeds are about the side of radish seeds - not small at all.

Now if the morning glory bloom is not a mainly blue flower, it is most likely the weed form - aka bindweed and it should be discarded but not into your compost. The vines, and roots are able to root and start from almost 1 cell to become a weed again. Google Morning Glory blooms to see what it should look like, then check out bindweed to see if that is what you have. Bindweed is considered an invasive species and should be eradicated. If that is what you have, toss out both the plant and the soil in the garbage and start with fresh soil and seeds next year. The fact that the cuttings took and grew well leads me again to believe you have bindweed.

Gardening is like that though - this is the ultimate learn by doing process!

[Heidi S]

By the way, a zinnia grown in adequate light should not require any staking to keep it upright. These are very sturdy plants, but not ones that are grown is too little light as they get and always are quite spindly. Zinnias grown outdoors just germinate and become stand alone plants without any assistance at all.

[nel3]

the only reason why i supported the Zinnias last year was for the 2-3 inch tall seedlings, once they hit 4 inches i took the support out. it was a vey strong stem nearly half an inch thick at the most and solid. that only reached 4ft at its peak.

the following pictures are the MG. the open bloom is this morning and the others were taken just now. i suspect a stray seed got into the pack but im ready for the fact it may be a bindweed. if it is, wheres the best place to scrap the soil? ive never has any issues with the black soil i used but might it be possible for spagnum moss to have that weed? it only seems to crop up in my attempts to get a zinnia. ive used the same soil mix on the other pots ans no MG came up. the biggest leaf on the MG wa 4inches wide and 4.5 inches length.

[Heidi S]

Yep, that is bindweed, also known as morning glory, but is not the 'nice' morning glory. Invasive weed, don't keep it, the soil or the cuttings - it will be with you forever if you do.

Oh, well, your one zinnia is quite charming - I like them too! But, I do find they do have a bit of a spotty germination record for me, so I am not surprised that you had some failures. Keep on trying, you will be successful in the long run.

[Heidi S]

Sorry, forgot to say - to dispose of the soil, just drop it in a garbage bag and put it in your garbage collection system. It must not go in the compost system as it will infiltrate everything.

The reason it is so hard to get rid of, is that it has rhisomes which will root anywhere. Breaking the root/rhisome just makes a new germination point. It is so hard to get rid of, even with herbicides.

[nel3]

well that sucks. though i only need to dispose of soil in 2 4 inch pots and 1 6 inch pots. the interior of the bell does have some yellow tint to it. i'll dispose of it properly, thank you for the information regarding bindweed. i'll try another seed in the zinnia pack next year and hope for the best. the other Zinnia attenpts had different seedling behaviours.