I put my alba s in a 3 gallon pot each. they can get an extensive root system going as they are a thicker vine. I would not go less then a 2 gallon pot for one vine.

Got to fully disagree with you dragonmist.

I've been growing them in 10 inch pots, 1 vine in each pot for years, at least 10 years without a problem. The vine twines up the railings on either side of my back stairs, blooms without any problem and is a delight with the scent coming in the back windows into my dining room.

Come late fall when the frost has done in the vines, I've pulled the vines out of the pots, and found that the root system only goes half way down the pot.

If the root system was as extensive as you are claiming it to be, then the entire pot would be full of roots and I've never found that in all the years I've had them in 10 inch pots every year.

OH those pots I use are 10 inch across the top of the pot and about 10-12 inches deep.

Fran

I have grown 3 together in 5 gallon self-watering buckets. When they die and I pull them out, the roots are all throughout the potting soil! I get lots of blooms and seeds! Mine have huge white scented blooms with thick vine stems. IMHO,I think the bigger, the better!

Peter - Your container w/trellis set-up sounds very nice! I think a 2-3 seeds in it should do well for you! :-)

Thanks much for the responses.

I'm hoping to completely cover a wooden trellis that is 1 foot wide by 5 feet high. Will 3 individual plants placed in the container really do? The seed packet says that the plant spacing for these is 6 inches, and indeed it says the plant height is 12 - 18 feet. I'm assuming in a container it won't grow that big. As I say in my first post, I was thinking I need maybe 10 in a container. That will be too much and crowd the roots if I want it to completely cover the trellis and have the plant make it to the end of the growing season?

I thought in general it's better to "crowd" most plants in containers (for the sake of aesthetics not necessarily plant health), and wouldn't you do that with a vine rather than have two or three sparse looking branches coming out of a large pot? I guess that's why I'm wondering just how big is the root system for Ipomoea?

I just wanted to post a few pictures of the Moonflower vines now that we're nearing the end of the growing season.

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Here's one pair of trellises.

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Here's a closer look with a few blooms. I didn't cut the leaders of the vines. I just kept wrapping them back into the trellis to get more growth at the top of the trellis.

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Here's another trellis that's in a moveable container.

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Here's a pic from a couple days ago of the top of the trellis with some blooms.

You can see some holes and disfiguring of the leaves. I'm pretty sure that's because of the low humidity and windy weather of the southwest. Aphids have been a problem too, requiring a daily hosing down of the plants. I'm hoping I can sustain the vines until the nights start dipping into the 40s, maybe October.

I should have mentioned that the pair of trellises each have 4 individual Ipomoea plants in the container, along with a few petunias. The individual moveable trellis was planted with 10 plants. (As you can see I didn't follow the advice about planting only 1 vine in a container.)

That first pic made me say, "Wow!" What a lovely balcony. I'm glad things worked out well for your vines, they look great. I'm curious where you are and which direction this balcony faces?

I'm in central New Mexico. The balcony faces west, but because the trellis projects over the railing the Moonflower vines were getting a southern exposure from about noon onward.

peterk312 - Could you please click onto my page and send me an e-mail as I would like to communicate with you privately regarding some Morning Glories.

Thanks (!)