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caterwallin

Passiflora update

caterwallin
12 years ago

As some of you might remember, I have a passionvine that has been here for several years. I thought that since I'm north here in PA that it wouldn't become invasive. Guess again!!! It travels willy nilly wherever it wants to and it in the midst of my one section of garden plants and growing in various directions in the garden and out into the grass in at least four places. If left unchecked, I can picture this vine taking over everything eventually, seriously!

A month or so ago I started taking the vines and soaking them in glyphostate killer mixed with water. I dug "trenches" to sit some plastic coffee cans in and put the liquid in those and covered it with plastic (taped to the can) so nothing could get into the stuff. This method was recommended on here some time back by Bryan someone, only he had used it on bindweed and had big success with it.

So it was recommended to me on here to try this method with the passionvine. It took awhile but I could see the vines getting yellow and eventually looking like they were dead. I thought that the whole plant was being killed, but new sprouts kept popping up here and there. So I decided to try digging it out. It's a lot of work, but I can follow the root about half a foot under the ground. I thought that this would be the solution, but every so often the root goes straight down. I'm afraid if I try to dig that out (who knows, it could be 3 or more feet down), I could end up chopping off the root. Presumably, it would then eventually sprout back up.

I'm going to keep digging away at the roots and hope that I can dig as fast as the darn things grows. For the roots that go straight down, I'm going to try to do the same soaking method that I had used on the foliage. I hope this will do the trick because I think I'm out of options. Just wanted you to know that I'm still battling it!

Cathy

Comments (4)

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    12 years ago

    Heythere. Glad to hear you still have your game face on. A vine is about the hardest thing to kill, especially one that's so well established. The longer it took to grow, the more difficult it is to kill. Something with a big, tuberous root is less susceptible to poisoning but will eventually succumb if you keep at it until enough toxins are ingested to cause death. The foliage "picks up" the chem and sends it to the roots. If the roots still have stored energy, after the poisoned foliage has died, the roots send up new foliage that can be used to transport more chem to the roots. Cheering you on!

  • caterwallin
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Hi Purple! Glad you remembered me. :) I sometimes forget to come over here and check replies. My most frequently visited forum is the butterfly forum but even then I'm not on it every day. I might post once a month or whatever. I'm usually too busy raising butterflies to post! lol

    Anyway...yes, I found out how difficult vines are to kill once I started in on trying to kill that passionvine, but I *think* that I might have won the battle. I don't know if I've won the war or not. If I don't see any new starts of it next year, I'll know that I have. If it's still living next year, I'll start in on it again and as soon as I see any growth. I had dozens of new starts coming up this year and now to look in that area and see nothing but ground and *normal* weeds makes me breath a sigh of relief. :) I appreciate the help you and Linda gave me with this "weed" and the Canada thistle, which also isn't showing any signs of life (nothing for about a month now). Yay!

    You might think I'm nuts but I think I want to get a passionvine for next year. lol Don't worry, not the same one as I have had here. I've been looking online and really like one called 'Incense' and one called 'Lady Margaret'. I just have to find it/them for a decent price or trade for one because $35 is too much for me. I don't know if it would live over winter here or not. I'm in zone 6 and I certainly wouldn't want to put it in the ground if it's like the P. incarnata that was here and is hardy here. I guess either way I'd want to put it in a pot instead of planting it in the ground. If it's hardy here, I don't want it spreading all over the place, and if it's not hardy here, I'd want to bring it inside to protect it and sit it outside again the next year. So whatever I get, it's definitely going in a pot!

    Cathy

  • Tiffany, purpleinopp Z8b Opp, AL
    12 years ago

    I've been studying these since I would like to add some to the wild tangle along one of my fences. Too bad you can't "beam" your vine over to my yard!

    I certainly wouldn't want to put it in the ground if it's like the P. incarnata that was here and is hardy here. I think you should avoid incense. Found several references it's hardy to zone 5 and the full latin name is Passiflora incarnata 'incense.' I don't know why it's common for catalogs to leave the species name out and skip right to the cultivar name.

    lady margaret - hardy only to 8, from coccinea and incarnata parents.

  • caterwallin
    Original Author
    12 years ago

    Yeah, I wish too that I could beam mine over to you. I still have some that I transferred to a pot if you're really interested. I'm not sure how much it would cost to ship them though (it's a few vines each about a foot long right now).

    Gee, now I'm confused. Someone from Maryland in zone 7 told me that she had Incense and it died for her there. Hmmm...I wasn't aware of the fact that it has 'incarnata' in its name. Gulp, that kind of scares me. lol Well, if it's going to be in a pot, I guess it wouldn't really matter anyway. Ooh, I love Lady Margaret! I've seen pics of that too and that's one I really wouldn't mind having. I'd take good care of it and bring it in over the winter and put it back out each spring. Whatever kind I do get I'd keep it in a big pot and then haul it in and out every year. Maybe I'd have to get wheels for it. :)
    Cathy

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