Pineapple and Passion Fruit seeds sown . . . .

[TheWaterbug]

I read that these two are on the slow and difficult side to grow from seed. But what the heck; I had the seeds, and have some little pots.

So they're sitting in the kitchen window bay now:



I put them in Miracle Gro Seed Starting Mix. Passionfruit seeds reportedly can take _months_ to germinate, so I lightly sanded a few of them, and left the others as-is. All these seeds came from fruit off my Mom's incredibly-productive vine, about 5 miles away ATCF. I ate the pulp and dried the seeds for a few months:



The PF seeds are about 3/16" deep.

The pineapple seeds came from store-bought fruit (from which I also attempted to root the crowns). Two of the pineapples I ate had a lot of seeds, so I just put them aside for a few weeks to dry. The pineapple seeds are about 1/8" deep.

These little pots have littler holes in the bottom, perhaps 1/8" in diameter. Should I bottom-water? Or should I mist the tops with a spray bottle?

How long do I wait before I give up?

[rainbowgardener]

don't know about pineapple seed. The passion fruit, they usually say to plant the seed fresh from the fruit, not dried. If you have dried seed, after you sand them you should soak them for 24 hrs in water or juice or peroxide. And they are tropicals, they want a soil temperature around 80 degrees for germination.

[applestar]

I realize the fun is in trying to grow from seeds, but it might be easier to propagate your mom's passion fruit vine from cuttings, especially now in the height of growing season.

Holes in clay pots are pretty easy to enlarge.

I would keep them in a humid area or cover with plastic bag. A cake cover might be more decorative. Another way might be to fill the base tray with pebbles and fill with water to just below the bottom of the pots. One of those plastic condiment cups might fit exactly inside each pot.

I suspect you would grow pineapple seeds in similar way to cactus seeds. I read about it a good long while ago, but don't remember much.

[TheWaterbug]

don't know about pineapple seed. The passion fruit, they usually say to plant the seed fresh from the fruit, not dried. If you have dried seed, after you sand them you should soak them for 24 hrs in water or juice or peroxide. And they are tropicals, they want a soil temperature around 80 degrees for germination.

I've always wondered about this. What tells a seed not to germinate inside its mother fruit? I know some do, but in general they're supposed to wait until they're on the ground somewhere.

Some seeds have coats that get dissolved by stomach acids when they're swallowed, but I didn't really feel like processing any seeds and then . . . finding them.

So I did sand a few before planting.

But I thought there were also some seeds that needed to dry first, before sowing.

Anyway, I've done it both ways, so I'll just hope that something comes up.

I'm nowhere near 80 degrees in the house, but I do have a heater mat that I'm not otherwise using.

[TheWaterbug]

I realize the fun is in trying to grow from seeds, but it might be easier to propagate your mom's passion fruit vine from cuttings, especially now in the height of growing season.

Holes in clay pots are pretty easy to enlarge.

I would keep them in a humid area or cover with plastic bag. A cake cover might be more decorative. Another way might be to fill the base tray with pebbles and fill with water to just below the bottom of the pots. One of those plastic condiment cups might fit exactly inside each pot.

I suspect you would grow pineapple seeds in similar way to cactus seeds. I read about it a good long while ago, but don't remember much.

Yeah, I'm a belt-and-suspenders guy, so I just got another cutting from my Mom's vine, and they're in a jar of water right now.

I might even go belt, suspenders, and Velcro and buy an entire vine from Armstrong.

[TheWaterbug]

And lookee here!!



My first passionfruit sprout, approximately 1 month from sowing seed. I have this tray of little pots on my heat mat now, too, which may be helping.

I didn't keep track of which seeds/pots I sanded and which I didn't.

But it only takes one to make a vine.

[TheWaterbug]

My sprout has graduated into a seedling, and now I have another sprout as well:

[applestar]

Both from the same pot? So they were treated (or not treated) the same way?
One month is typical for a lot of woody plant seeds. Congratulations.

[TheWaterbug]

Both from the same pot? So they were treated (or not treated) the same way?
One month is typical for a lot of woody plant seeds. Congratulations.

Yep! You can see the tiny little sprout, bent over still, next to the seedling.

Today it freed itself from the soil and has two pale leaves.

So what should I do now? Should I give them some dilute fertilizer?

Should I back off on the watering? Should I take them off the heat mat?

I sound like a new parent!

[applestar]

I KNOW the feeling....

IMHO -- I wouldn't feed it yet... Maybe a weak used coffee grounds water -- if anything, you'll need to water more often ... If using humidity cover, just slightly increase ventilation, but keep on heat mat.

[TheWaterbug]

I repotted these about 6 weeks ago. Three months after emerging, here's the largest one:



According to this guide, the single-lobed leaves are normal at this stage, and the normal 3-lobed leaves will show up when the plant reaches 2-3 feet in height. This one's only about 5" high right now, so I have a while to wait. I should probably stake it next time I repot.

The second one is still alive, but growing verrrrry slooooowwwwwly:



It's only about 2" tall, and the leaves don't look so great. But I'm going to let it keep going, just in case it gets inspiration later. You never know!

[TheWaterbug]

I'm closing in on 7 months since I sowed seeds, and the big one has really started accelerating:



It's about 30 inches tall now, and it seems to grow faster every day. I'm tempted to put in the ground, though I think it might be happier if I wait until spring. I have no danger of frost here, but it's still damp and chilly at night outside during December-February.

I've also got my first three-lobed leaves (top three sets), right on schedule.

It's getting too tall for this kitchen window bay, so I'm thinking about moving it to the floor, next to a sliding glass door. It'll get sun, but it can also get hit by a 9-yr-old's soccer ball.

The little guy is still . . . little. I'm not sure he'll amount to anything, but I'll keep watering him as long as he doesn't die.

[imafan26]

If you are in zone 11a it should not be that hard to grow them. They grow wild here, but I see them mostly in summer. Not too many passion vines at this time of the year.

[TheWaterbug]

My vine is doing well! About 2 weeks ago I got my first lateral branches. The main vine is now about 8 long.

image.jpg (35.2 KiB) Viewed 2482 times

It's tipping over the tiny little stake I put in the pot, and I'm sure it's going to get root bound soon.

So I'm thinking about transplanting into the ground now, despite it's January. Night time lows are projected to be 48.

I've been leaving it outside during the day for the last week.

I'm worried about how to remove it from its clay pot. The base of the vine still is thinner than a pencil, and it's very green and soft. Not woody at all. Should I just sacrifice the pot and break it open?

[TheWaterbug]

It was getting too tall to bring in and out every day, so I finally started just leaving it outside, and after 3-4 days of that it was still doing very well. So today I put it in the ground:



I tried digging it out of the pot, but the root ball didn't seem very substantial, so I just cracked the pot with a sledge, removed the bottom shards, slid it into the hole, and removed the sides. So I think I got it in without disturbing it too much.

Fingers crossed!

[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.