rooting Passiflora caerulea

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otorongo
Posts: 1434
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:12 pm
Location: sub-subtropical London

Re: rooting Passiflora caerulea

Post by otorongo »

To clarify and update: I had 4 cuttings with leaves and one without. The reason one had no leaves is that I had stripped off the lower leaves first and only later did I find out you're supposed to cut them up into 4-6 inch pieces... one was much longer, so I cut it in two, which gave me one leafed cutting and one leafless one.

Over the 2 weeks that they sat in the glass of water, the 4 leafed ones grew decent roots, more leaves and flower buds. The leafless one grew leaves and began to put out root buds.

Yesterday I potted the 4 water-rooted cuttings in compost/perlite/vermiculite/peat and they're now in humidity chambers (2 under a plastic bag and 2 in a heated propagator). The other one is still in the water - hopefully it will root too.

Now I'm wondering how long they should sit in the humidity chambers? Shall I acclimate them slowly to the lower humidity of the indoor air? When can I plant them out?
Kristen

Re: rooting Passiflora caerulea

Post by Kristen »

otorongo wrote:Now I'm wondering how long they should sit in the humidity chambers?
Dunno for Passionflowers, but I have always taken my cuttings out of plastic-bag too soon :( "That looks to be growing really well" and then find that the roots weren't anything like enough to actually support the plant's transpiration

So my advice would be "quite a bit longer than you think is necessary"
otorongo
Posts: 1434
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:12 pm
Location: sub-subtropical London

Re: rooting Passiflora caerulea

Post by otorongo »

Good news... I planted the rooted cuttings in the ground and one has bloomed today :D It really looks odd because it's just a 3 inch stick sticking out of the soil with one leaf and a large flower... If you didn't know you would think it's a bulb and not a vine.

Image
Mr List

Re: rooting Passiflora caerulea

Post by Mr List »

for the health of the cutting you most likely should have removed the flower bud before it bloomed.
otorongo
Posts: 1434
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2012 5:12 pm
Location: sub-subtropical London

Re: rooting Passiflora caerulea

Post by otorongo »

Mr List wrote:for the health of the cutting you most likely should have removed the flower bud before it bloomed.
OK I understand it's sucking energy from the cutting, didn't realise it would be an issue. But I have more cuttings, with and without flower buds, so all is not lost. Thanks for the heads up.

Is the flower going to slow down the cutting's growth or weaken it in some other way?
Mr List

Re: rooting Passiflora caerulea

Post by Mr List »

well i am just guessing.

they say with all fruiting plants that you grow to not let them flower/fruit for three years as to not put stress on them until they get established.

i should imagine a newly rooting cutting would be very stressed.
Kristen

Re: rooting Passiflora caerulea

Post by Kristen »

I agree, I would want to help the new plant to concentrate on growing. Even if not stressed it is using energy [flowering/fruiting/seed-setting] that could be making the plant bigger instead, in the early stages.

Similar concept to dead heading flowers to redirect the energy from making seeds into building a bigger bulb for next year, or whatever (although that can also be to make the plant continue flowering as once seed has been set the plant may think "job done" and not bother flowering any more)
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