Hardy Tropicals UK

I've got 3 cuttings from the same plant (in all likelihood a flowering one; it had no flowers today when I took the cuttings, but it was all green).

If someone could please give some advice... which rooting medium is better - water or compost? Room temperature, heated propagator, unheated greenhouse, outside? Shall I use the rooting hormone? How long does it take?

Thanks.

Not had a great success with stem cuttings of these, mainly because they are so easy from seed.
When I have done them this is the method I've used.
Fill a pot with 50/50 sharp sand mpc mix.
make the cuttings approx 6in long,pinch out the growing tip just above a leaf node, remove bottom two thirds of leaves
Dip cuttings in a rooting hormone, insert round the edge of the pot so just a third of the cutting is shown
stand in a saucer of water until the growing medium is damp on the surface, leave to drain excess water.
Place in a propagator or put a clear bag over the pot. stand out of direct sun
I've never used bottom heat on these but could help.
Rooting should be 4-6 weeks, make sure soil doesn't dry out, it'll kill them quicker than anything else

edit
Just remembered some things.
Make sure the bag doesn't touch the cuttings or they'll start to rot
I've had more success taking semi ripe cuttings in july/august rather than soft tip cuttings earlier in the year
DON'T keep pulling the cutting to see if its rooted!! Wait till you see roots out the bottom of the pot and good top growth

Many thanks, flounder.

I'm hopeless germinating the seeds - they're covered in mould before anything interesting starts to happen, and I've heard they may take up to a year... not worth the precious propagator space! I was hoping rooting would be easier and indeed it sounds so... 4-6 weeks is not too bad. I'm going to try to root some in water and others in the sand-mpc mix in clear plastic cups. I have 5 cuttings now.

You must have trouble finding fresh seeds, the seeds I collected from supermarket fruits sprouted in no time and I actually thought they were very easy.

If they're so difficult to clone then perhaps it's worth going the extra mile. I know a glass of water often works well but the reality is that it's a bad environment for roots, which need oxygen. Unless you can keep the water aerated then I would skip that method.

I would do similar to flounders recommendations but in rockwool cubes.

Take cuttings into a glass of water, prepare medium etc, make a fresh 45 degree cut on the bottom of each cutting (with sharp, sterile implement ie a scalpel), dip in hormones and insert into pre moistened rockwool. Leave a few leaves per cutting, snipping any bigger ones down to a smaller size if necessary. Put in propagator, somewhere warm (20-25) with fairly bright but definitely not direct sunlight.

When I have little material, and a special keenness to get something rooted, I use Gel2Root:

http://www.nugel.co.uk/gel2root-rooting-gel

You don't need the little propagator thing that they sell, the individual containers snap off, like yoghurt pots, and you just make a small hole in the foil lid, and push the cutting through into the gel below. I then put them in a plastic bag on a windowsill out of direct sun like normal cuttings.

Vagetarian - are you sure it was P. caerulea and not P. edulis? I don't think you can get P. caerulea fruit in supermarkets... it's technically edible, but not as good as passion fruit, from what I've heard. I know it's easy to germinate seeds when you have the fruit, apparently the pulp helps germination as the acids in it act as a dormancy breaker. My seeds are from ebay and they might be old.

My cuttings are sitting in water for now and I've just ordered perlite and vermiculite. I reckon a mix of the two, and perhaps some compost, would be even better than sand and compost?

Thanks for that link, Kristen. I'm not sure if the cuttings are worth the price of Gel2Root and delivery (around £12 in total) as I can get rooted caeruleas off ebay for £6, but I might consider it in the future for the more obscure plants and seeds.

Normal germination of caerulea I've found to be about 21-28 days, 35 tops. Longer than that and I'm looking for more seeds
Edulis can germinate from 7 days on in my experience with these(shop bought fruit)
It has been noted, mainly by me, that I'm extremely careful with my money and theres no way I'd go down the route of specialist rooting gels or the like. You don't even need rooting hormone if the cuttings are prepared correctly and taken at the optimum time. You could if you wish strike most cuttings just in damp sharp sand to save even more pennys
I might even start a cheapskates blog.....or maybe not. I'm quite lazy as well as tight fisted though

Sorry otorongo, I was talking about edulis and it seems that edulis is just a lot easier...

I do actually have access to caerulea fruits though and have tried eating a few but they were very bland.

If you're going down that root ( ) I'd just go for perlite and vermiculite, the leaves should contain all the nutrients they need to develop a root system, compost may just invite rot.

otorongo wrote:Thanks for that link, Kristen. I'm not sure if the cuttings are worth the price of Gel2Root and delivery (around £12 in total)

Yeah, I know what you mean! I used to be able to get them in my local garden centre, which saved the carriage, but I haven't seen them in any local garden centre recently.

I can say they are very effective, and you can get 5 or 6 cuttings per "pot" (like you would in a normal 3"-4" pot)

A quick update... I put them in water 7 days ago with fresh willow twigs as a natural rooting hormone.

Today, I was changing the water (I had been doing it every 2-3 days) and noticed the willow twigs had grown impressive roots

But the passifloras, too, have put out roots They're small still, but they're growing really fast. It only took 7 days to root them in nothing but a glass water (all 6 cuttings in one small glass). I wish I had 1/10 of that luck with the seeds...

i always find I'm pulling up self-sown seedlings of Passiflora caerulea from around the garden, along with trailing stems that have rooted themselves to the ground, like weeds in unwanted places.

If all else fails, trail a few shoots along the ground, and mound up a little well cultivated soil [or compost] around it and peg the stems down and forget it for several weeks and you'll find it should do the trick.

Nothing has failed so far I think they're even putting out flower buds? All that in 100ml of water...

Shall I pot them up now or wait until the roots are longer? They're from half an inch to an inch long now, each cutting having 2-4 roots. Or shall I skip the potting up and plant them out in the ground?

I think those "water roots" need to transition to "soil roots" and that is a stage where it is easy to lose the plant. I would pot-on and put the pot in a bag, in deep shade (under table in conservatory, or at the very South end of a East or West facing window) for a week or two so they have maximum humidity and minimum stress.

Thanks, Kristen. Would it be safer to pot them on in an inorganic medium first (e.g. a perlite/vermiculite mix) to prevent rot?

Good result. For a brief second, I thought to myself I'll try that method....as in root in glass of water....but then I must agree with Nigel. The last thing I need is more passion flowers to find homes for
Might try other things this year though, to see what will take in water