17/05/2018 - Early flower buds!

The greenhouse today

I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I noticed three flower buds on this young Bluji Fade (Ipomoea nil). The flowering season doesn't officially start until August and having Ipomoea nil flower on time has been my biggest worry so far.

Buji Fade with flower buds

I don't know why it decided to flower this early but I have some suspicions.

This year I started my plants about 2-3 weeks earlier compared to the last two years. I started my first seeds on 29/03/2018 compared to 14/04/2017 and 17/04/2016.

My location receives 9+ hours of darkness up until the 5th of May. Ipomoea nil has a critical dark period of 9 hours (the critical dark period is the length of darkness a photoperiod-sensitive plant needs to induce flowering).

The weather has been very nice as well this early spring so the plants have been outside much earlier compared to previous years. This year they also did not receive any additional artificial lighting (on a long day schedule) after germinating.

So the early plants have been getting their critical dark period for about a month after germination. So it may not be too surprising to start seeing some plants react to this.

This Bluji Fade was planted on April 1st. It is only one of two Japanese morning glories I have found flower buds on however, so my hypothesis is not yet proven true.

I also found a single flower bud on an Ipomoea pupurea as well (variety: Shiva) . It was the first purpurea variety I sowed this year so this one is 49 days old already. Although early it is not as extraordinary. Some purpureas can be quite early in my experience.

Shiva with flower bud

Sunday night I gave this small Kikyo Quasar plant a 16 hour dark period. Today I spotted what looks like three very young flower buds. I'm not sure if this a reaction to the dark period I provided (if so it would be ridiculously quick) or caused by the same reason I explained above.

Kikyo Quasar flower bud

I would not expect such a quick reaction. The plant did have a sudden growth spurt in the last few days. Possibly caused by the warmer temperatures it received as I took it inside for one night to give its dark period. I'm not sure.