03/05/2018 - New I. nil varieties!

I received some mail from the Jacksonville Morning Glory Vineyard today! A bunch of new Ipomoea nil varieties as well as a restock on some old favourites. I managed to grab the very last package of Seiun seeds and bought a pack of all the other ones that were almost sold out just to make sure I wouldn't miss out.

Statistics

Every single seed sown at Ruvan Asagao is closely monitored and documented. In 2018 so far the germination success rate is 127/142 or 89,4% (numbers updated on 17/05/2018). This number could be higher if it were not for one particular issue:

Out of all our varieties there's four in particular I seem to have problems with: Dark Purple Black, Matsukaze, Silver Stars and Ukigumo. The seeds are healthy and will actually germinate but all suffer from severe "damping off" problems. I also bought one pack of scarlett o'hara in 2015 of which none germinated.

Since I changed my germination method I was hoping to finally get some of these varieties to sprout. So I put it in a few more seeds of these varieties in comparison with the rest. I still had a low success rate but actually finally managed to germinate one seed of Dark Purple Black and Silver Stars. I also sowed 2 seeds of Hama no Fubuki which failed to come up but will try some more before coming to conclusions.

In 2017 the success rate was 64,3% (27/42). Again because of those four particular varieties. Excluding those it would actually have been 90% (27/30).

In 2016 it was 58,3% (21/36). Same story. 90,6% (20/22) excluding Matsukaze and Ukigumo.

This problem can most likely be (partially) solved by further tweaking my germination method. Expert opinion has taught me some varieties don't like prolonged soaking and/or germinating in very wet conditions. It was advised to soak the seeds for a couple of hours to half a day instead of waiting until they burst or show a root. After soaking plant the seed in damp substrate and be patient.

My experience with the Dark Purple Black and Silver Stars seem to confirm this as this is exactly the way I planted them. They came up a little slower but actually made it this time. Two others didn't, so this method may not be the perfect solution one might hope for, but it sure feels like a promising improvement so far.

The list

Anyway, here's the new list of varieties I received. I have some plans on what to do with these. But I will be posting more on that soon. Most of these are Ipomoea nil and there's a couple of Youjiro (Ipomoea nil x purpurea) varieties as well.

New varieties:

- Big Blueper (Youjiro)

- Black Queen

- Chiaki v2 (Youjiro)

- Fuji no Murasaki / Purple Of Mt. Fuji (Youjiro)

- Fuji Shibori / Wisteria Tie-Dye

- Heian no Akatsuki / Dawn Of The Heian Era

- Heian no Izumi / Fountain Of The Heian Era

- Heian no Umi / Ocean Of The Heian Era

- Heian no Yuki / Snow Of The Heian Era

- Kikyo Sapphires

- Ocean Mist

- Ocean Silk

- Orihime

- Peach Pie (Youjiro)

- Plum Pie (Youjiro)

- Seiun / Clear Blue Sky

- Silver Dawn

- Silver Shadows

- Suigetsu / Water Moon

- Sun Smile Violet

- Ushio / Tide

- White Dragon Claw

- Yaguruma / Rosita (Youjiro)

Additional stock:

- Keiryu / Mountain Stream

- Kikyo Snowflakes

- Murakumo / Gathering Clouds

- Sazanami #2 / Ripples Sparkle

- Seiryu / Blue Dragon

- Yuuzuki / Evening Moon

Late summer 2016: The birth of Ruvan Asagao.

Tomorrow I'm expecting another package. This time from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. Here's the varieties I'm expecting (+ two new species!):

- Chocolate (Ipomoea nil)

- Dwarf Mix/Sun Smile Mix (Ipomoea nil)

- Hama no Yuki / Snow On The Beach (Ipomoea nil)

- Kurenai (Ipomoea nil)

- Miko no Mai / Sybil's Dance (Ipomoea nil)

- Mixed Kikyozaki (Ipomoea nil)

- Red Picotee/Kikyo (Ipomoea nil)

- Sazanami #1 / Ripples On The Beach (Ipomoea nil)

- Split Second (Ipomoea purpurea)

- Moonflower (Ipomoea alba)

- Cardinal Climber (Ipomoea x multifida)