I have a V. monoica which has behaved strangely throughout its life. It grows strangely fast, reaches a couple meters high, then inexplicably dies. Then sprouts again, does it again, then dies. On and on. I was sure it was dead the last time, and had even started stealing the soil from its pot for another plant, only to see brand new growth taking off, which is now up to about half a meter. So far I've not been able to figure out what might be causing this. I'm planning to monitor more closely for pests, although I've always cared for it pretty well so I don't think that's the case. Has anyone else experienced this with any Vasconcellea species?
It's not really super-critical; I only have a male, and the fruits are supposedly not that good anyway. But it's still a pretty plant worth having around. And this particular one is nice - I used to have two trees (one never came back from a dieback), but the other one had plain green stems, while this one has pretty red stems (hello genetic diversity from wild seeds!
).