HELP! ID a Passiflora Problem

Heya friends.
This is a picture of a Passiflora Lutea that was mailed to me earlier this summer as a small cutting. It had signs of this odd bark looking growth around the stem from day 1. I thought it was growing out of it as it put on tons of new growth with no signs of the odd bark. Then I look today to see this stuff has began spreading 3/4ths the way up the vine. I have never seen anything like it, I would describe it as being cork like in looks and texture.
PLEASE let me know if anyone has a clue what the heck is going on with this guy. It hasn't spread to any other plants growing right beside it. I've never seen anything like this before and it has me totally baffled as well as bummed out.
HERE IS THE 1ST PHOTO.

And another angle

Just 1 more after this;)

Well I hope those 3 will help me figure out this mystery.
Thanks to you all for taking the time to look and give me some input.
JD

Looks like a fungus of the sort I cannot determine, but a fungus none the less. I'd cut the plant down to the base and hope for the best. If some of the branches look like they aren't infected I'd try and take cuttings and burn the rest of the plant. Your soil looks very wet too. I'm sure there is someone else who knows more about this problem, but I wanted to throw my two cents in first ;)
Where did you get your P. lutea plant?
I have a plant growing in a large container right now.
Dennis

This message was edited Sep 18, 2005 6:16 PM

This message was edited Sep 18, 2005 6:17 PM

A friend of ours here at Dave's sent me the P. Lutea and sadly it had that fungus from day 1. I plan on doing like you said and root some cuts from the very tips.
The plant was really wet as I had just watered it. That fungus acted as if it were dormant almost all summer. We had a very cold/wet spell over the last week+ and that stuff spread like wildfire in a matter of days.
I've had more problems with pests and fungus this summer than in all my other years combined! I've never seen or experienced anything like it and I hope to never have another summer like this 1.
Thanks for your input.
JD

JD - I can empathize with your problem. Some of my plants this year got hit with a virus fortunately I isolated the plants early on and re-planted them. Some I had to burn and that hurt since I cared for them for months, but alls well that ends well many are doing great now and flowering like crazy. I grow all my plants from seed so to have to do that was a hard thing for me. I sold some P. lutea plants out of my nursery early in the year and some were sold on eBay that's why I was asking you were you got the plant. I would never sell plants in that condition. The plants I saved for myself are doing well, but for us it's been a dry season without much rain at all. I have to use well water and boy do I go through the softener salts trying to keep my water neutral. Hard water is bad for Passifloras I found out. Anyway about your plant I'd cut some of the healthy branches off and try and root them. Cut them just below each branching segment. Try and get the most woody part as you can. The soft immature parts don't like to root very well. If you aren't successful look me up again maybe I can send you cutting or a shooter from my plant.
Dennis

JD, before you kill it, many of our smaller Passiflora develope this cork like bark and it is normal. In fact, P. Suberosa is nicknamed "the cork barked passiflora" .Don't kill it, it is ok.
Mark

Dennis, Thanks so much for all your input and offering a replacement if need be. So you sell seedlings online and retail? That is very cool and something I've been entertaining on a very small scale.
I can't imagine all the time it must take starting all of these from seed to sale. Do you do any cloning/rooting cuts? I've been cloning Passion flowers and many many other plants from proven parents for years with great success. Now that I stumbled across a rooting cube called "Rapid Rooter's", man I'm having 99-100% success rates for the 1st time. I take cuttings that are only 3 nodes long. I strip the leaves off the bottom node, make my razor cut just below it and dip it in "clonex" rooting gel. Here is a picture of 2 hardy hibiscus cuts almost 3 weeks after making them and ready to transplant.
I would think that could save you tons of time with your selling plus you'd be selling a proven product with out the variations that can come from seedlings. I can fit about 40 cuttings this size per flat then I have enough to fill our flowerbeds and gain major favors from nieghbor's and friends.
Do you have a website or any info about your operation? I would really like to see it as I've been entertaining the idea of selling clones/cuttings via Ebay. For some reason, I'm a little intimidated to open up shop and I don't know why.
Man I can't imagine all the work your having to do dealing with well water! And I complain about the 8.3PH of our city tap water and dealing with it. LOL
Check out another new Passie I lucked into via another trade here.
http://mpeixoto.sites.uol.com.br/passif/loefgrenii-corupa.html
I have 2 of them now and I'm told they're quite rare.

Right now I'm starting to pannick as Summer has "officially" ended and I need to find a place for all my new plants to winter. I'm gonna set up a 1000watt growlamp and see how many I can cram under it, Lord I hope I can get most of them under it. Things are truly out of control with out a greenhouse and all these new tropicals.

Mark, I'm going to isolate this plant just incase your right and take as many back up cuttings as I can off the rest of the plant.
Thanks to you both for your help;)
Jeff

Dennis, I just now found your website and will be looking it over. I don't know why I asked for your info with out just clicking your nickname. DUH! LOL