Pineapple and Passion Fruit seeds sown . . . .

[TheWaterbug]

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.

[Molly_Lenore]

I've never tried pineapple. One summer here though during a pool party, someone threw down their passion fruit by the pool, and I kid you not, every year now we have passion fruits growing like weeds all over our pool fence! I'm guessing every year the seeds from fallen fruits just keep burying their selves into the dirt, so they keep coming back. That being said, you might not have too much trouble growing them It's been 100% no effort here lol!

[TheWaterbug]

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?

[TheWaterbug]

Actually, I think I'll continue this discussion over in the Fruit forum, as this isn't really about seed starting any more.