HI,
I am relitivly new too. I read somewhere that misting keeps spidermits away. the more advanced growers seem to use hiligon (sp?)lights. Also check out Ebay, there is a starter kit of 6 plants. I got one and was very pleased.

Thanks, can you give me a hint on who is selling the starter plants? I have been to ebay actually bought all my new passies there but didn't see any starter plants of 6. Thanks
Anela

Ok here is what I have bought...

'Incense'
'Lady Margaret'
' Purple Haze
'Blue boutique'
'Caerulea'and
'Clear sky'......

Are these fairly easy to care for indoors over winter? A friend of mine takes in alot of plants and she said that giving the plants a good 'washing'(water and lemon dawn) before bringing them inside will help alot in preventing spider mites...But I'm not sure if this is ok to do with Passiflora's? There is so much information on here if it wasn't for all the encouragement I see I would have never even attempted this :)
Anela

dogwooderitternet is the seller, I think he put the add in yesterday it is dutch and consisst of PASSIFLORA AMETHYST,PASSIFLORA 'BELOTII, PASSIFLORA CAERULEA,PASSIFLORA EDULIS (PURPLE TO BROWN-VIOLET EDIBLE FRUIT), PASSIFLORA 'PURA VIDA',PASSIFLORA VITIFOLIA. zosteropz is another good seller.
Have you gone to the passiflora section of Ebay? that is were I spend a lot of time but not everything is listed there, you have to look on individual sellers page. I like the people who send the plant in its container as I haven't had a lot of sucses with plant that are transfered to baggies for shipping.

I have bought plants from both the sellers you listed above. I just want to say that they are both EXCELLENT merchants. Honest people and good plants. Do not hesitate buying from either.

Patsy

I got my purple haze and blue boutique from Zosteropz. I'm seriously considering the sample package though! It has a few in it that is on my 'to get' list but I'm just not sure if I should start out with so many *yikes*...I haven't been to the passiflora section on ebay but will check it out..I have been and am terrible with houseplants so still would love any advice anyone can give when it comes time to take these babies in. :O)
Anela

Spider mites like warm, dry, non-moving air -- the kind found in most houses when winter keeps windows and doors shut.

Yes, you can and should give them a hosing down before they come in, with insecticidal soap -- storebought or homemade -- and misting does help once they're inside, as does anything that raises the humidity level.

A fan or other device for moving air is the most beneficial, and routine inspections to make sure the little buggers aren't taking over.

The fact is, though, unless you've got greenhouse conditions, passies are not at their happiest indoors in winter, so you shouldn't expect them to look or act their best -- cut them back before they come in, and don't give as much water or any fertilizer unless they're a year-round blooming type, and they'll get through winter OK.

Incense will have trouble indoors -- why bring it in when it's root hardy in your area, if you have a place to put it in the ground? The rest I don't know as well, tho caerulea should be fine.

Good luck!

Jim

Thank you Jim and everyone very much,
I bought 'Incense' because it was root hardy in my zone. But the person I got it from said they don't think it would make it here. I'm in zone 6b wichita ks. We had a heck of an ice storm last year but that wasn't the normal. I think maybe I will give it a try in the ground. The other's I don't think they will make it though I added 'Bilotti' and 'Amethyst' to the list ended up not getting the clear sky.

How far should these be cut back b/f I bring them in? My basement (at least that room) stays about 65 through the winter so I figured that would be a good temp. I will definitely do the fan thing also. Plus I'll keep reading as much aobut this as possible lol...Thanks again
Anela

Hi Don, I think at some point I may take you up on that :) but for right now I'm wondering if I overstepped my bounds as a beginner with the 8 I bought lol! BUT it's nice to see someone here is in my zone area if I get even one bloom on each plant and they overwinter well I'm going to be so hooked! So I will probably take you up on some cuttings or maybe we can trade....where abouts are you in zone 6?
Anela

My passionflowers sulk much of the winter. My Vitifolia does give me a couple flowers and Lavender Lady also brightens up the winter with flowers. Incense attracts every spidermite in Mi and is very unhappy (at least this winter it was). Incarnata didn't care, it was the best grower indoors with the exception of Edulis and an unknown (both of which I grow at work, in my room). My edulis has 10-15' vines and leaves almost a foot across. it has never budded or shown any signs that it wants to (its over 2 years old). The Unknown one has very small leaves 1" tri sectioned leaves and its never tried flowering either, its the oldest of my passionflowers and like the Edulis was grown from seed.

~Chills

I'm forgetting one, I'm sure...

Ok, now your the 3rd person that's said Incense will attract a large amount of spidermites, will sulk, and I have also heard that it is prone to virus. With all that, I'm not sure I want to bring it in with the rest.
What about cutting it back and putting it in a unheated garage over winter? The only light it would get would be the shop light in there.
Anela

Here's what I've done:
NOt the best pictures as it's rather early & dark in here.. But if I turn on the lights it'll wash out the plants.

Quadrangularis ~> $7 shop-light & 2 40 watt bulbs ($2 each)
{{gwi:1127125}}

Platyloba -> Under a $10 'circline' bulb- 32 watts. PVC pipe holds the light & allows for raising & lowering as the plant grows & I retrain it's climbing.
{{gwi:1127127}}

Both lights are on $10 'appliance' timers- The plants get indirect light during the day. The lights come on at about 9pm & stay on untill 3 or 4 am.

I have a room (formerly the office) where I start clones & seedlings- I now have them under 1 400 watt halide,(the white-blue street light type light) 1 400 watt high pressure sodium (the orange street light type light) & 1 250 watt high pressure sodium.

I had been using a light mover I made- but the bulb (a 1000 watt halide) created SO much heat it caused the 1&1/2" PVC pipe 'rail' above the light to become soft & bend. Now I just hand the bulbs above the plants. They are all on timers & run 8 hours each, so it is never dark in the room but the light comes from a different position so the plants don't all grow toward one particular point source.

With the arrival of summer I hope to move everything outside (need to find some room for that, sigh..) in order to trade the electricity I'd been using for the lights to run the AC instead.

The moral of the story? You don't really need a whole bunch of light to grow a few plants indoors. Both are quite happy under their flourescents- The high wattage bulbs in the grow room are a bit of overkill- I could do just as well with a bunch of flourescents, but I would have to have them much closer to the plants. Marijuana growers aim to have 50 or 60 watts per square foot- but you can get away with 15 to 20. I've found the marijuana growing sites to be a good resource for indoor growing- It's what they do, and they want the best quality & happiest plants.. Using the information isn't illegal, just make sure you're growing the "right" plants if the cops show up. (I can't wait for that one.. I can see it already.. Strange colored lights on 24/7, I'm in california (medicinal dope is legal here) and I'm in a wheelchair. Eventually someone will put 2 & 2 together, get 5, and call the cops on me. Anyway..)

Krstofer,
Thanks for the pics and taking the time to post :)

The plants look great I've read alot of your posts sounds like you put alot of time and effort in your plants. I'm not so much worried about the lighting just hope not to get infested with spidermites. I know they are small and minute but....EEWWW LOL! As far as taking hints from pot growers..Born and raised in Hawaii I know what you mean but unless these babies grow something out of the ordinary for me I don't think I'll go to those lengths ;o). Although the more I read about certain varieties of passiflora it might not be a bad idea lol. Thanks again
Anela

I have a few plants in the green room who are fighting active spider mite infestations as I type... An incarnata & an amathestina.. 2 incarnata seeds sprouted so they're right next to each other. 1 is covered, the other is perfectly fine.
*shrugs* I don't understand that one.

I bought some "Safer" indoor insecticide spray & I hose the bottoms of the leaves every night, but some nights I forget.

Those ones *may* survive, but I bet as soon as they start to recover something else will be attacked. I've some starfruit seedlings in there I'm a bit nervous about.. The mites love them & it's nearly impossible to save them once infected.

Really the only thing you can do to keep the pests out is stay vigilant- at the first sign hose 'em with something.

Spider mites.. White flies... Scaley somethings...Nematodes... There's No End. I tried Bayer Systemic last year- I think it's a rose food / critter killer, but it didn't seem to have much of an effect on the mites. Those guys are quite hard to kill.

Last year one of my Quads became infected (mites again) and I almost lost the whole plant. It went from 'huge ball of happy vines & leaves absolutely covered with flowers and the beginnings of fruit' to.... (looks outside at it) 3 leaves right now. Seems like some varieties are hilariously succeptable & others are never touched. I've had some forgotten caerulea & pura-vida clones outside all winter.. Just found 'em. Slugs have been munching.. No water.. They were under a bench so I have no idea how they got enough light.. 3 of 10 were dead.

I guess it's a balance between rabid vigilance & forgetfullness. I don't do much to them except forget to water them unless they've caught something. People always wonder how I can grow such things.. "I'll kill anything" they say. I think they 'baby' the plants too much. Look at 'em, make sure they're not sick, and leave 'em alone. Works for me.

The mites don't bug me much, I have sprayed and sometimes it is effective and others not. This winter was bad, but only for a couple of my many plants. Particularily the Incense and a Haywood Kiwi. My Vitifolia, Lavender Lady, Incarnata, Gardenia, Jasmine and many others were untouched, or given one application and no further problems. The Kiwi and Incense are 6 feet away from eachother with many of the aforemetioned plants between them. I think the mites liked the kiwi best, and the Incense was just a second choice.

I covered Lavender Lady 2004 winter and spritzed it and beat the mites quickly that winter, but all my passionflowers and kiwi are much too large for that this winter (most are over 6 feet).

Maybe I'll trim everything back hard next fall and cover for a couple weeks to keep the humidity high to try and beat the mites for next winter.

~Chills

I have a Passiflora caerulea, incarnata and a new edilus. I started all of them from seed (I pregerminated them wrapped in pwet paper towel in a ziplock bag). The caerulea seems to be immune to spider mites but the incarnata gets them regularly during the winter. I have found if you spray it with insecticidal soap then water it well then stuff the whole thing into a clear garbage bag and seal it up, then leave it for about 2 weeks in a sunny spot it will wipe out the spider mites, cause a lot of new growth and give you a lovely crop of mushrooms (well at least strange looking yellow ones in my case). Hopefully spider mites don't like the new edulis. By the way the bag trick works well for all our plants except for fuchias they look very unhealthy/dead if you do that.

When my passies are being attacked outdoors I use Ortho Home Defense on the vines grown for flowers, not food. I have 30+ varieties and some have small, thin leaves. These leaves are loved by potato beetles and caterpillars. Rather than loose my vines and see no flowers, I spray. BUT I do have 2 huge trellises of Incense and caerulea that I let the caterpillars have.
I would take cuttings of incarnata, caerulea, incense, and lavenderlady early this season. Pot them for this year. Grow the parent plants in the ground. In fall mulch heavily but try leaving these vines in the ground for winter. Incarnata is hardy to zone 5 but goes dormant in winter. Incense will do the same. Caerulea and lavender Lady are pretty tough--worth trying outside if you have backup plants.

Well I went ahead and planted the Incense in the yard against a south facing privacy fence. I have so many in pots and just bought 13 plumeria for pots so I will be taking in ALOT this winter and thought if I loose it then oh well *sigh*. But I will mulch and protect for winter just incase. thanks everyone! :O)
Anela

Anela, let us know how it goes, I for one wouldn't mind planting that one outdoors. Though I have had problems with Incarnata coming back, but I have decided that my placement might be the problem.

Still let us know.

~Chills

Chills,
I will definitely let you know. I put it there b/c I didn't think I would get the bed done on the south side of my house. But I finished that yesterday so I might go ahead and move it over there so it get's the heat of the house over winter. That is also where I plan to put one of my incarnatas. Hopefully it will work out....But hey, usually when I worry and think something might not grow right it takes off to the point that I can't get rid of it LOL...
Anela