My morning glories found a way to climb up the telephone and onto the power lines. Should I be concerned about this? I have 2 pics of the situation at:
i absolutely cannot wait for my husband to see your pictures! he was NOT THRILLED with my morning glories (*from last year) strangling his tomato plants! :)
Seems like that could very easily on a rainy day create a connection between two wires that could cause a bit of damage.
-paghat the ratgirl
Cute. You could, of course, ask the power co. And be told this is a terrible situation. However, I can't imagine all utility poles are free of climbing vines. As another poster mentioned, the problem will take care of itself after first frost. I wouldn't worry.
Yes, those are moonflowers in the picture but the morning glories are the adventuresome ones climbing the telephone wire up the telephone pole to the power lines. I also have a couple of purple passion vines in the mix as well but they're not as aggressive either.
I too had morning glories strangle the tops of my tomato plants. In a way, as the tomato plants got bigger and bigger, the morning glory vines provided some support for the tomato plants.
I've decided not to grow tomatoes next year since the plants get too big and unwieldy for the limited space I have and by the time I have lots of tomatoes, everyone else has lots of tomatoes too. So I'm just going to eat other people's tomatoes next year. :-)
Can you spell "short circuit?"
The power company may not be pleased.
J. Del Col
i wouldn't want to take a chance on a short circuit no matter what anyone says :) cause i'm scared sh...... of electicity. soooooo i would cut the vine off well below the lines and allow the part on the lines to die. lee h
Hi Mark,
FWIW all the lines in your pictures are relatively low voltage lines (i.e. 460 volt or less, note that the outside light directly taps one of these. The transformer with the
7500 volt lines must be on another pole?). The hot wires are insulated so there is very little likelyhood that they could be shorted out. It could cause problems with windloading and weight though. There isn't enough shown in the picture to make that determination. I've seen grapevines get to be big and heavy enough to cause the latter sort of problem.The power companies have lots of 7500 volt lines around now that touch vegetation. Take a close look where they pass through thick areas for stunted growth and brown leaves. They don't seem to get too excited about these problems until they start blowing line fuses. Their budgets are just too tight (or so they claim) to trim much anymore, only when there is a glaring problem...
Yes, if the vine finds a way to complete a circuit it could start a fire. If the weed finds it’s way into a transformer it can cause more damage.
Once morning glory gets established it turns from a pretty flower into a noxious weed. It’s nearly impossible to get rid of and will choke out anything in its path. Not only will it reseed itself, it’ll spread by the roots. Believe it or not, yanking the plant out will only make it spread faster via rhizomes. I strongly suggest round up, and lots of it. And for the love of god, please stop planting morning glories!
Good luck.
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