My Precious Passionfruit Vine

[TheWaterbug]

I'm going to branch my thread on passionfruit seeds, as this really isn't about the seeds any more.

So I think I got it in without disturbing it too much.

Fingers crossed!

A week later, and it's still alive, so I think it took. No new growth that I can identify, but it's been cool lately.

If it survives and stabilizes over the next few months, it should do fine once it starts warming up in April-ish.

So here it is now, just over a year from sowing seed and ~3.5 months from transplanting (sorry about the lighting):



It did a whole lotta nothing for the first month and a half after transplanting, and then it started growing in April.

The middle vine growing to the right seems to put on 0.5" to 1.0" per day. That's the good news.

The bad news is that the top right-growing vine has a big kink in it. It was either wind or a peacock (they like to stand on the fence and peck at stuff):



The part of the vine beyond the kink is still growing, but I'm worried about it, long-term. Is it going to heal itself and be as strong as new? Or will there always be a weak point in the vine, just waiting to break for good? I could just cut it off and allow the plant to grow a new one in that direction, but that would waste a good 2 weeks of growth:



Options I'm thinking of:

• Splint it, with tape on either side of the wound
• Wrap some sort of bandage around the wound, then splint and tape as above
• Cut it off before the wound and hope it grows a new shoot
• Cut it cleanly before and after the wound and attempt to graft it back on

Passionfruit is a woody perennial, and they graft them all the time to put good fruiting wood onto good rootstock, but I don't know if it would work with "wood" this green. I also have no idea how to graft anything.

Any ideas?

[Northernfox]

Oh I wish I could grow one of those outside

I think your idea of stabilizing the vine is a good one. if the plant looks to get worse past the damage then you could remove it and hope for growth. If I remember correctly you can plant cuttings of passion fruit and get them to root and grow again... That might be a back up plant.

Good luck my friend!

[ElizabethB]

In south Louisiana passion fruit grows like a weed and multiplies like crazy. It can be a nuisance if planted in the wrong place.

If that were my plant I would cut below the wound but just above a leaf node. Trim the remaining part of the vine to just below a leaf node and plant it. You could probably make multiple cuttings as long as you have 2 leaf nodes on each cutting - 1 on the bottom and one on the top. Take all or most of the leaves off. Plant the cutting/s in a gallon pot with all purpose potting soil- 1 cutting per pot. Keep the soil evenly moist and you should have roots in 6 to 8 weeks. Don't fertilize.

From what I can see you should be able to get 2 cuttings.

Good Luck

BTW - your plant is looking good. It should be putting out tendrils so you won't need to tie it to the fence.

As soon as the vine is self supporting remove the ties and stake.

[TheWaterbug]

All my worrying was for nothing. That little bent stem is just a rounding error, now. The entire vine is probably 35' from end to end, and it grows longer every day. It's not very bushy yet, because I keep training it out, but I'm sure it'll fill in next spring.

And then, a few weeks ago, I saw this:



It didn't pollinate, so it didn't set any fruit, but it's my first flower!

There are plenty of other buds along the vine as well, and some of them were swelling up this weekend, so I may yet get some fruit this year, which would be a very pleasant surprise, given that I transplanted this in January.

[imafan26]

They do have beautiful flowers. They do grow wild here. They pop up everywhere and like to climb over trees.

[Rairdog]

Nice. Here is one of mine. The leaves are much different. Is there a difference between passion flower and passion fruit? Are the all edible?