I get ants on my passis but I don't see any aphids are the ants bad. I was at a nursery that had caerulea on a mini-trellis with about 20 fruits on it. One had hit the ground and there were seeds. Could I grow a plant from these?
What will this get me?
Yay! Glad to hear it, Don! You will love the fragrances that those three release in the evening.
Rich, yes, you can definitely plant those seeds and grow a P. Caerulea hybrid. I don't think the ants are bad unless they are feeding on baby catepillars or farming aphids.
Would I be a thief if it was just lying there? So tempting!
This message was edited Jul 5, 2004 3:53 PM
Heya Guys. Those are some killer photo's you all posted. I too have several Passi's with those little leaflet's(I was afraid those were on 1 genuis only and that meant I had soo manyu of 1 kind) and I too have many ant's on my passi's and tropical hibiscus. IMO, the ant's are feeding on the nectar. Several years ago, my dog and I began picking flowers off different hibiscus as soon as they began to fade and found atleast 2-3 drops of super sweet liquid nectar. It's clear and tastes great! We noticed that as soon as we moved them outdoors and the ants jumped on, there wasn't hardly any visible nectar left! The ant's stole almost all of it darnit! we both enjoy sucking on the ends of the fresh flower's, my little buddy follows me around whenever I'm plucking off the older flowers so he can eat them. You can tell which 1's have the most nectar in them via my dog too!LOL My double red bloomer doesn't produce anything compared to all the other's, he will only eat the very end of the flower at the base. He love's the Passi's too and likes sucking on the slimy seeds inside.
Have you guys ever found a Passi that has fruit with something inside other than the seeds covered in the slime sacs? I've yet to find anything that produces a fruit you can actually work with to make a juice or anything for that matter.
Don. What are you using to hand pollenate? I have used everything from miniature model paint brushes to sticks with 2-3 horse hairs taped to the end. The brushes carry more pollen for sure but it seems like they don't have a gentle enough touch when placing the pollen in the other flower. The horse hairs seem best for that for me. People sure think I look silly sitting out there with my tiny brushes rolling flower to flower, they quickly change their tune when they see the result's!
Don, How do you grow out all those seeds?!? I've only harvested Incarnata fruit thus far and it must have 50 to 150 seeds inside if not more. I couldn't imagine trying to grow them all out to maturity/flowering. I'd think it would take a farm's worth of land to grow them all out. PHEW! Sounds like a lot of work too! I'm going to try it on 3 pieces of fruit I have on a Lavender lady, P. Caerulea and a P. caerulea hybrid rylaff sent me. I was lucky that those 3 all bloomed 1 flower each at the same time early this spring when the weather was all crazy making everything bloom so soon. No other Passi's were blooming at that time and these 3 were all on the deck beside 1 another so I'm 99.9% sure they didn't get pollenated by any outside source locally. Plus nobody but me grows Passi's in these parts. Cross your finger's for me and I'll do the same for you!
JD
Hey Jeff,I use the wife's water color brushes until she found out,now I just use the flower and pollnate one flower at a time.
Mitjo sent me abunch of seeds,that was what I had germinate this last fall.
I've yet to get a fruit this year yet.
T-Man! I have at least 4 of these on my P. violacea "Victoria" I don't know how. I pollenated one I think with a flower from another passi but not 4. I think there are more coming. I have a carpenter bee that loves that and the rest of the passis. Could this be how it happened? Vanderplanks book says that fruit is very uncommon.
Wow Wee!!
By chance have you seen any pixies flying around!!
Bee's are a good source of pollinators,do you remember what you crossed them with?
Please keep us updated.
Thank you
Tman
Wow monterey, that's amazing! I'm excited for you. You asked earlier about ants on your passi's and I get them all over too. Is it ok? They dont seem to be harming anything...
I posted a couple questions earlier and didnt see any answers, does anyone know the answers? Thank you so much- this thread has gotten so interesting!
Art,wish I could help you but I'm still new at this,maybe Clare might know.
I don't think ants are ever good. They farm aphids on many of my treasured plants so I always hose them off.
Yikes! I have ants and aphids on my elephant ears, and I thought the ants were eating the aphids.... which I guess was exactly the wrong assumption. Oops. I'm gonna go get those buggers off there.
Are the passion fruits usually very delicately attatched to the stem? And do caerulea and incarnata make fruit?
I am adding this thread to my watch list- very very interesting stuff. Such pretty pictures!
Art, I think the aphids give the ants food or something that they need, which is why the ants farm them. They put them all over my artichokes too. I don't have P. caerulea or P. incarnata, but I think they both make fruit.
They milk them like cows. My vitifolia has shiny little something on the buds .It must be necter or the like. They must ingest it and the ants milk them, at least that's what I have read about the ant-aphid connection.They like Hibiscus and they have a lot of sweet something in them too.
So T-Man how did my plant get in a fruity way. I did not pollinate 4 plants which means I probably had nothing to do with it. I have L. Lavender ,Blue Horizon, right next to it is alatacurela(it's sterile I think)and Allspice. The bee lands on all of them. They all have flowers.I also have blue bouquet.vitifolia .coral seas, and ruby glow, they do not have flowers at this time.Imust find out who did this to my little vicky. The passion flower book says that this varitey does have fruit ovoid,green,but very uncommon-usually sterile. Do you think that means that the plants are usually sterile or it won't produce seed I can plant? I would love to have these to trade.
I think I found the answer, according to Vanderplank, carpenter bees are the chief source off cross-pollenation. Check out the pollen on this bee's back. she was mostly going from the Allspice and the Blue Horizon to the Victoria. That's the flower in the shot.
well the songs says the bees do it!!!LOL!
Clare,
I would be happy to wait til then for shipping of the alata. I may already have the mollissima. I got it from another DG'er in Everett Whashington while I was on vacation. We'll see how it does. I look foward to hearing back from you when you are able to send the alata. Thanks for sharing and keep in touch.
BTW
Sorry about my delayed response. I wasn't watching the thread.
Hi BugFreak, that's okay. I went ahead and started both of them for you anyway! The P. Mollissima is rooting in water, and the P. Alata is already rooted but has no foliage yet. Please email me with your address, and I'll let you know when I'm ready to ship and how much shipping will be.
Monterey,
I don't know if you've not been getting my messages or if you're just not interested. I would like to trade with you if you are at all interested in doing so. If you're not interested that's fine too. Hope to hear back from you.
Tropicman,
Please excuse me for posting here. It's just that I've tried many times with no luck to get in contact with Monterey.
Hi all, this has been a very interesting thread so far...
I've noticed that Clare seems to have good luck rooting cuttings of Passiflora, which I simply cannot seem to do. I've only managed to root one despite many attempts. I've used rooting powders, gels, liquid dips, and get nowhere, or have them croak after a few weeks of looking like they might actually survive:-(
Is there some trick to it I don't know about yet?
I just stick mine in water in the shade. Having good luck so far- they even bloom like that.
Indigoez, Don (Tropicman) started a thread about this exact topic awhile ago, and it got to be a very long thread because it generated a lot of interest and because it went off on some other tangents. Then JD started a new thread with the same subject matter. We all tried some different methods. Here's what I learned:
1. Some Passiflora cuttings will root easily in water and some won't. Some will rot in water.
2. Time of year is important when rooting cuttings. The Passiflora should be in a growth mode, which is usually the spring and summer.
3. The cutting should be between six and ten inches long, approximately, and should have a cut right below a node. All bottom leaves should be removed. All attached flower buds should be pinched off.
4. Humidity is important during the first couple of weeks of rooting.
5. A rooting hormone is helpful.
6. My best success with the difficult ones was when I used an Oasis cube, rooting hormone gel, and a humidity dome. The Oasis cube keeps the end of the cutting moist, but not soaking wet, while the humidity keeps the stem and leaves moist and green.
Hope this helps:-)
Thanks Clare, I am going to take more cuttings tomorrow and try the various methods. I'm not familiar with Oasis cubes however, where did you get them?
Indigoez, Actually, I had never heard of Oasis cubes either until JD sent them to me in a trade. They are wonderful. I think you can buy them online or through any hydroponics shop. I just did a google search, and this was the first one to come up: http://www.gtghydroponics.com/store/xq/asp/idCategory_Parent.119/idCatalog.14/qx/viewcategories.htm
Thanks Clare. I will have to order some of those soon and see if it helps.
As for now, I am trying the water method... fingers are crossed.
My fingers are crossed for you too. I think if you change the water every day or every other day, you will have better luck.
Well, I have cuttings of serrato-digitata, sublanceolata, and violacea form #3 in water. I changed it today, no signs of rotting or mushy stems, but also no sign of roots. I added a tiny amount of liquid rooting hormone to the new water to see if that would have any effect.
I'll update again if anything happens, good or bad.
Indi,are using a plastic bag over them for extra humidity?
Yup Tropicman, a gallon ziplock propped over the jars:-) Looks kinda weird, but if it works...
Well zip lock ought to give gardners like us a discount,for finding other uses for there product!!LOL!
Say There's an Idea,A professional propagating plastic bag,we'll call it zippy pro grow!!!LOL!
Make a fortune!!!
The humidity dome (plastic bag) isn't really working for me now that it is so warm out. I think the plastic bag just keeps the heat in. I'm trying some in the plastic and some without it now that it is warmer, and I mist daily.
Clare,do you have some holes in the bag to release the heat?
You can even keep the bag off the pot for an inch or more,still gives some humidity but keeps it a lot cooler as well.
It seems they need the humidity in order to root more quickly,without the bag it takes a couple weeks or more to root.
Hi Don, no, I don't have holes in the bag, but I do leave it partially open. It gets pretty warm inside the bag even with it partially open. I have only Oasis cubes inside. If I don't keep them inside the bag, they will surely dry out. I agree with you that the cuttings really need the humidity. I think maybe spring is a better time to root Passifloras when it isn't so hot.
Yeah spring is better,after all they are programed to grow then,after a long winter of rest,and he I have a couple dozen trying to root!!!
Well, my cuttings seem to be doing ok... nothing is rotting yet, and the stems are getting little "nubs" on them, so I'm hoping it could be the formation of roots and not fungus or decay setting in...
Indigo,
The "nubs" you see are a good sign. Keep us posted on your progress. Good luck.
Sounds great,are you giving your cuttings any sunlight?
Not really sun, but bright morning light. They're in an east facing window, but there's a large tree that blocks direct sun.
I would think that direct sun would tend to overheat them in the ziplock bag tents, or would it help things along somehow?
ROOTS!!!
I just went to change the water after posting the last message, and one of the P. sublanceolata cuttings has roots:-)
Still not much from the others outside of the previously mentioned nubs, and P. serrato-digitata is starting to look a bit yucky on the ends:-/