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kat_wttl

ID for desert grown passiflora and questions

Kathleen W
18 years ago

Hoping some of you passiflora specialists can help me out. I put in a vine in 2002 hoping it would fruit. I am wondering what I have and if it will eventually fruit with edible fruit.

DETAILS:

It has cream white flowers with purple stamens/centers. The foliage is bright green lobed leaves up to 5-6" across. It is planted next to 5' tall non-climb horse fencing which runs along an east-west property line. It's in full sun and has grown in about 2 years to cover over 30 running feet of the fence. The foliage THICKLY covers all the fence except for the bottom 18" or so. The mulitple "TRUNKS" of this plant are now about 5-6" in diameter! Really!

It was planted in late 2002 in well draining desert soil amended over 10 years with horse manure near Phoenix. It's bloomed twice but for the life of me I can't figure out when it might do so again although it looks like buds are forming now. It is drip irrigated about 1x week in summer and less often in cooler months. It has never looked stressed during our heat and it is a mammoth specimen at this point but sadly no fruit.

The fruit I got one year (the year I pollinated with a brush) grew into green hollow globes about 3" long, never colored or got any weight to them though.

I have lost this post 2x now being refused by the GW server when trying to reference links to the photos already posted of this specimen at the AZ gardening gallery. I am going to post this now without photos and reply with links to those photos in the body of the messages which hopefully will work that way.

Thanks for any help.

Comments (10)

  • Kathleen W
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Here is a link to the existing post with the flower photo:
    http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/azgard/gal0423011017746.html?2

    Here is a link that might be useful: flower photo

  • Kathleen W
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    one more try, this GW has some very strange rules about replies and posting of photos, can't seem to figure out how it works.

    Anyway here is a link to my previous photo post of the foliage:

    http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/azgard/gal0423033519150.html?1

    Here is a link that might be useful: foliage of passiflora

  • Krstofer
    18 years ago

    Looks like some sort of edulis... Maybe.

    Sounds as if it's not self fertile since your fruits never changed color & gained weight..

    You might get a little guy from somewhere & try to cross polinate them when your big one flowers... Or trade pollen if available. When my caeruleas open I can prolly get you some.

  • Kathleen W
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Yes I was thinking edulis too. I didn't realize they wouldn't be self fertile - duh. I guess I was just amazed at how big and lush this thing is and yet no fruit. Maybe I just need to get another one and have it grow over the ugly shed :) Thanks for the pollen offer Krstofer. I may yet take you up on that if I can't get another bloomer in time to fertilize. Still not sure when flowers will appear.

  • patsy_b
    18 years ago

    I have lots of caerulea blooms now. If you want some pollen let me know how to harvest and pack it and I will be happy to send you some.

    Patsy

  • Kathleen W
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Reporting back....

    Well over on the AZ forum, someone sent me to this link below, a huge photo gallery of them! Mine is definately edulis -- the photo looks exactly like my photo.

    Now for those who have offered me pollen - first, thank you so much for the generousity. I am not sure how to proceed, did not realize I needed cross pollination and really do not know how to collect pollen, either method or timing. I'm sure it's as easy as painting the pollen on with a soft brush but other than that, I am out in left field. Can anyone point me to more details on requirements and methods so I can see if I should proceed down that path? the cross pollination of pretty but fruitless passiflora?

    Here is a link that might be useful: Passiflora photo album

  • Kathleen W
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    oops, forgot the most important question: can I pollinate an edulis with caerulea pollen or must I use an edulis?

    I am assuming I would end up with "cross-breed" seeds if cross pollinated???

  • Kathleen W
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    opps II! Well darn I should have searched before I posted the above - apparently from the thread I've noted below, self fertile means pollination is possible with just one plant but it's only with purple fruit plants!

    Now the dilemma is: do I have a purple fruit plant? As it has never had ripened fruit (they were hollow, green and eventually just fell off), how do I know if my edulis is a purple variety or not?

    Apparently, from other posts I have read, there are different "types" of edulis -- not sure how they are different from the one I have but now scratching my head and wondering if those other forms are purple, yellow or ???fruit. And just what is mine?

    Seems like a catch 22 question - do you have purple fruit? Well, ah, I don't know since the fruit never ripened and I'm not sure how to get fruit that will ripen through proper pollination technique because I don't know if I have a purple fruit plant....!!!!

    Here is a link that might be useful: pollination thread

  • passionflow
    18 years ago

    P. edulis comparison here.
    Myles

    Here is a link that might be useful: P. edulis ID

  • Kathleen W
    Original Author
    18 years ago

    Well I went out today and really inspected my vine very closely. Guess what I found? A tag that said... passiflora edulis frederick - purple fruiting, self-fertile. So after all the guessing that darn tag was there all the while!

    Thanks for all the feedback - I still can't believe there are no flowers yet here in the sunny warm desert. We have had a cooler spring than normal but it's been 80-90+ daily here for the past few weeks and fairly warm at night many (but not all) nights. It is putting out a lot more new growth so hopefully some of those new shoots will be flower buds. I am going to vigorously pollinate between the blooms this year again and add some potassium rich fertilizer and see if I can get any fruit this year. Sure would like that....

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