By the way.. There is obviously no biased/discrimination when I was emptying the seed pods as the seeds are invisible through the skins. So it isn't like I was going for white ones. It's the natural ratio of seeds my vines produced. The beige-seed pods were every bit as ready as the black-seed pods, and dried the same and all. Thanks!

Hi, from one purple to another. I don't know the answer to your question, but have observed the same thing although I never tried to sprout any to compare how each color germinated, just saved them for spring. Don't remember noticing the next year if they were still different colors or if all had turned black. I'm sure someone who knows something more will come along soon and share.

I suspect the answer is that as they age, they turn black but are often viable before that happens. Maybe it's exposure to oxygen after the covering cracks open. Good question!

I have some of my seeds that are a light beige also. I believe they are just as ripe as the black ones. I wouldn't have gathered them if the pods weren't brown and ready for picking.

Some morning glory plants make beige seeds as opposed to the black.
But I do want to point out that this is completely different than the color white. You can try to harvest seeds too early and they will be white irregardless of whether they will be black or beige. This is when the seed casing is still soft and does not crumble easily like when the seeds are viable. At that point, the seeds are not mature enough and have not developed their final color, beige or black.
Remy

I know this is a slightly older post but i thought id add! I bought some mixed morning glory seeds from burpee and was concerned to see about half of them very light beige! I did a germination test with some of them and they had almost perfect germination, i think out of about 8 only 1 did not germinate, which i got a similar number for black!

If they are I. purpurea seeds, then it sounds like they are Caprice aka Sidney.Sidney is a light blue flower with a purple star.Really nice. They have light colored seeds. There are some I. tricolors that sometimes produce beige seeds. These would be Flying Saucers and Blue Star.Usually these two varieties have black seeds.

Dr. Purple sounds like you have a new cross. Some MG's seeds come in beige colors. Check the Vine Forum.

A strange-leaved and odd flowered-morning glory i found on the side of the road and saved the seed of has very light beige seeds, too. The leaf isn't heart shaped and the leaf is smaller and the vine seems to ramble on the ground more than climb high. The flowers are smaller, too....and lavender...profuse, too.

i just went out and started to harvest the seeds from my morning glorys. i noticed they were a light tan, almost like a popcorn kernal color. what i dont understand, is when i bought my morning glory seeds two years ago, they were black. the blooms were a deep violet blue. they came back on their own this year but they blooms were more like a light lilac color and much smaller then the year before. my question is, can morning glory seeds mutate like that on their own? i know the seeds are mature enough to harvest, as when i pull off the pods, i can pretty much just blow the hull off , leaving seeds in my hand.

I purchased Morning Glory seeds for my 4 year old daughter the spring of 2015. Purple, Blue, and white with contrasting throats, they did well in a couple large pots on a retaining wall. The seeds we harvested were a 50/50 mix of black and white. This spring she and I seeded a large amount of those collected seeds in two smaller pots (admittedly creating a cramped root ball), and they had pushed through and were standing in about four days of early summer heat . I just finished collecting the seeds and have about two-thirds black and one third beige seeds... it will be interesting to see what next spring brings us.

I did the VERY same thing!!! I planted the blonde seeds thinking they would grow the pink morning glories... it seems to work JUST as I planned! :) I had a beautiful mix of purples, pinks, indigos, blues... every color possible for a morning glory to be, I have in my garden! I took lots of photos, I will post them in my own comment. :) Just wanted to share my experience with the blonde seeds, because they seem to do very well for me! And yes, I have seen in lots of sites that they are supposed to be duds. Go figure! ;)

Here are my seed results from a few years ago. All the seeds (654 beige, 1081 black) were harvested ripe and ready for the picking (more like falling), nice and crispy. Whilst counting these seeds, the ratio of beige:black seeds remained pretty stable after 100 seeds, 500 seeds, 1000 seeds and so on, despite having been taken from various parts of the Morning Glory wall. That said, it would seem my plants produced approximately a 6:10 ratio (or, more precisely, 654:1081) of beige:black seeds. Although a bit late, I will plant some this season (separately) and whether they bloom or not, I'll follow up as to which seeds produced which flowers. I will do the same next season as well (earlier). Cheers!

Elijah's ideas · More Info

This might all be pointless but I love putting seeds up against each other. So, let's continue...

I just realized that all those years ago, I had written that I had about a 40% turnout of beige seeds. I just did the calculation of my above numbers [654/(654+1081)], and the beige seeds actually are 37.6945...% of the entire harvest over the few years (see below). That's a pretty good estimation, and even more, it remained pretty consistent year to year!

Okay, so, I started about 70 seeds of each color — 50 of which, from each color, I started by soaking in wet paper towel for 36 hours at room temperature, and the remaining 20 of which I started in wet paper towel for 12 hours. No pressure was applied. That breaks down like this:
50x black — 36 hour soak
20x black — 12 hour soak
50x beige — 36 hour soak
20x beige — 12 hour soak

IN THE PICTURE BELOW, you'll see 4 rows and 8 columns. The first 2 columns from the left are the beige seeds that were in wet paper towel for 12 hours. The next two columns were beige seeds that were in the wet pt for 36 hours. The next 2 columns were black seeds that were in wet pt for 12 hours, and the last 2 columns on the right side were black seeds that were started in wet pt for 36 hours.
From the seeds of both colors soaked for 36 hrs, tails up to 20mm grew, with about 5% showing no tail. From the seeds of both colors soaked for 12 hours, tails up to 5mm grew, however, with about 90% of them showing no tail. In both cases, the beige seeds were a little bit slimier (?) and more tender to the touch than the black seeds that were after soaking.

All seeds from both colors and soaking times were planted in soil at the same time, and thus far, the black seeds are out-performing the beige seeds, particularly when it comes to the 12 hour soak group. With that said, I have to say, to me it looks like the 36 hour soak beige seeds (3rd and 4th columns from the left) are the most uniform of all. The 36 hour soaked black seeds (last 2 columns at the right) seem to be doing well, especially as far as numbers go, but are less consistent/uniform in their health and size. What do you think?

Based on the way I had my seeds stored, I now realize that they are a combination of harvests from between 2011 and 2013 inclusive. I collected/harvested the seeds randomly from all parts of the plants each year, meaning neither color of seed, in general, is older or fresher than the other.

I will, of course, post photos as they begin to flower and then produce seeds!

Regarding the question about tan morning glory seeds, the color of the seed depends on the color or variety of the flower. The tan ones are indeed ready to harvest if the pod is dried out. Many people believe that you can only harvest them when they are black, not true. I hope this is helpful to those who are not sure. I plant the tan ones every year with great success. Best of luck and happy planting, Liz Flowers

Thanks, Elisabeth! You're right: the overwhelming response to these tan seeds has been that they're not ready to harvest, but this obviously isn't true.
I separated my seeds by color once again at the end of last season. I planted them this year, and here are the results thus far.
As I had mentioned previously (in this thread, I believe), it appeared that the tan seeds have produced more vigorous plants in the past, while the black seeds have produced more uniform plants, though not as vigorous. This trend appears to be holding true this year as well, once again... see the photos.
I will continue to update this thread every few weeks this season, to keep tabs on the differences :) so be sure to check back... cheers!
EDIT: I realize that I didn't update the thread last season, so I promise to do my best this year. I had planted all of my seeds in the same planter last year, albeit separated, but they became so intertwined that I lost track. This year, they're in separate pots, several meters away.

TAN seeds

Here is an update, y'all! These photos were taken on June 5th, 2018. As you can see, the trend continued to seem to be holding true, where the tan seeds appear to be producing more uniform leaves, while the black seeds are producing more erratic highs (big leaves) and lows (tiny leaves) at both extremes, and less uniform leaves as far as consistency in shape, smoothness, etc. goes.

Will update in another few weeks!

These are from the white [tan] seeds:

These are from the black seeds:

Sorry, I missed a few months, but got pics from a few weeks ago to upload, and now they're in bloom!

In both pics, black seeds are on the right, tan seeds on the left. Not to be confused with Moonflower planted inland of the Morning Glory, which is at each end.

As you can kind of see, I used cubes of foam board wedged between the bricks behind which the vines pass through.

JULY 1

Off to finish harvesting my beige seeds! Thank you, Houzz contributors!

I LOVE the update photos Elijah!!! I love how you did the ten and black test grows! I had my first garden this year! Everyone said I was obsessed. And just when I thought I couldn't be anymore obsessed with nature... I discovered seeds... Lol it just blew my mind that from one old flower blood could come so many new plants. So amazing!!!! So I can not wait to see how my seed harvest worked out for me next year!!! :) keep up the good work!!

And to the person who was talking about the morning glory that isnt like a morning glory, Wynnho, its called bindweed. 2 very similar plants. The bindweed is just a bit smaller and grows it roots wayyyyyy down deep so it can rear its pretty little head again next year. People call it perennial morning glories. And I think only come I pink and white.

I’m not sure if anyone still follows this thread...but I am thankful I found it. Also, interesting to note: I started a pack of morning glory seeds store bought (All black). I started all indoors and then planted half in a few hanging baskets and half in the ground. The ones in the basket produced smaller leaves, the flowers were typical of the morning glory. The ones in the ground produced giant leaves, same typical flowers, and it turned into an amazing beast. When harvesting the seeds, all the seeds from the small leaved (leafed?) pots were black. The majority of “sweetums” ( the giant muppet monster/what my large morning glory resembled) have been white. I am separating the different seeds to see what they produce next year.

I love the experiments, thanks, Elijia, we collect beige and white seeds this year from mixed morning glory as well. was just curious about the differences. the posts were very helpful, thanks thanks.

My mg got a hard freeze. I thought I could pick the unopened pods (not burned), let them dry in the garage. Will the seeds be viable

I also hsve the white seeds . i think o read that kinda rare … i never seen them behore this year .. it is mot because they are premature ..