Passionfruit leaves - deficiency?

[KarenRei]

Background: I grow tropicals indoors in my place in Iceland.

Current problem: I've noticed that some of my new passionfruit leaf growth looks different from the older growth:

http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj169/KarenRei/IMAG0617.jpg

Given that it's symmetrical and there's no sign of pests, this says to me that it's unlikely to be a virus, bacteria, or pest issue, and is probably a deficiency of some sort. But what? Doing some searching online, the best matches appeared to be magnesium deficiency, zinc deficiency, and manganese deficiency. However, I have to be careful because supplementing of one might cause a deficiency of another!

What do you all think it is, and what would be your recommended course of treatment? Should I maybe try a foliar spray of each nutrient on different leaves and observe the results? I've never made or used a foliar spray for nutrients before, so any tips would be welcome.

I should note that thankfully I went through a hydroponics phase and I used custom mixes instead of premade mixes, so I've got pretty much every known plant nutrient on-hand, even the micros and optionals. Or at least I will after my crate gets delivered this weekend. Also, the hot water here (I've been watering with the cold) is sulfuric (volcanic), so if my goal was to lower the pH to try to help with uptake, I could try watering with it instead of the cold (although I haven't tested its pH yet... all I know is that it clearly smells of sulfur ).

[fruitlovers]

What is your soil pH right now? I would try to get it around pH 6. Don't know what deficiency is causing that mottling on your passiflora, but what's the problem with spraying it with a broad spectrum foliar feed? That way you are more likely to hit the one that works, and not spend so much time trying to figure out specific sole cause.

[Mike T]

There are around 3 or 4 micro and macronutrients that if deficient can cause interveinal yellowing in older passionfruit leaves.If you put them on in isolation there will be antoganisms with other elements.I agree with fruitlovers.The cause is often due to incorrect ph.

[KarenRei]

Thanks for the tips, you two.

[happyisland]

Growing passionfruit in Iceland! That's awesome! I'm assuming you don't have problems with iguanas eating all of the leaves...

[KarenRei]

Lol, more than just passionfruit.  Okay, from memory, here's all of the ones that are actively growing:

Passionfruit
Banana
Mango (carrie)
Cherimoya
Jaboticaba
Coffee (lots!)
Rollinia (2x)
Barbados cherry
Cashew
Guava
Vanilla
Dragonfruit (several... the plant clones itself practically without even trying)
Meyer lemon
Orange (moro blood dwarf)
Dwarf pomegranate
Macadamia
Cacao
Bay laurel
Bacupari
Butterwort

From seeds which I finally got through customs and just planted the other day:

Moringa
Sugar apple
Tamarind
Acai palm (dwarf)
Cocona
Jujube
Mangosteen (lemon)
Yerba mate
Feijoa

I'm currently rooting a pineapple as well, but nothing special about that 

Yeah, some of these I'm going to have to prune pretty heavily to keep in doors, but I tried to get dwarf varieties wherever possible (although from what I've read of the dwarf pom's fruit, I may be giving him away... I at least want to try to see if I can make a half-decent juice from him first, though, so it's worth trying to get him to fruit    ).  I grow my plants in my "apartment" in Kópavogur (it's really a chunk of a house, with 2-story geothermally-heated greenhouse access if needed).  I've got a huge south-facing window (although south isn't the only direction light comes from here this time of year, lol!  Never really gets fully dark, and we're still a month from the solstice), and I supplement with tons of light (it was about 400W for the past several months, currently about 550W, but I plan to boost that up to about 800W in the next few days as more fixtures arrive and around 1000W in a couple weeks if Nesradíó can fix the transformers on my two dead LED fixtures    ).  Ceiling in my apartment is about 3 meters, so lots of vertical room, and I don't have too much furniture (having decided that plants are better, lol!  So nice to watch the new leaves coming out each day...).  The plants had to be relatively small when I imported them and I pack them in pretty close, so currently they only take up about 2 square meters of floor space, but I expect to expand that to about 5 or so over the next year, maybe more after that.  The largest currently in terms of bulk are the mango (~2m), cherimoya (~2m), passionfruit, my largest coffee (~1.5m), and the orange (a bit over 1m, but quite stocky).  The vines are nice in that I can run them wherever I please without using up floor space    I hope to eventually have them nearly block out about 3 square meters of window space.

The longest single path on the passion vine, soil-to-tip, is currently probably about 7 meters.  Any clue how big the vines like to be before they start putting out flowers?  I assume I need to fix this mineral deficiency first before she'll be happy enough to try flowering, of course    Oh, and I always worry about rotting roots, having lost a mango a couple years ago.  Any others on my list that you know are particularly sensitive to overwater?  Also my little baby bacupari, one of my smallest plants (~8cm) has always grown extremely slowly, only putting out a new pair of leaves every month or two - any tips, or is that just his nature?  He's growing in primarily vermiculite now.

No iguana problems    Would you recommend I import one to make my life more challenging?   

[KarenRei]

Just a followup.   I've begun work on remedying the soil pH.  How will I know whether I've solved the problem?  Will the leaves with chlorosis recover, or should I only be looking at the new growth?

The plant is being a bit weird... she decided to send up what's basically a new main stem.  I.e., it grew from right at the base and it's growing fast, tall, strong, straight, and with a lower leaf count than all of the other active growth sites.  Never seen her do that before.  The main stem is still growing fine, but hey, it's nice to have a backup in case I accidentally break it or something.  I think I accidentally triggered it by mounting a bright light right near her base; as I'm sure other passionfruit growers have noticed, the vine puts out little growth tips at regular intervals, and what decides to actively grow seems to be the part that gets the most light

[bsbullie]

Which jujube are the seeds from ?  The Indian Jujube we grow in SFla do not have viable seeds...

[KarenRei]

I believe they were from tradewinds and are the Chinese variety.

It's *much* easier to import seeds here than live plants, from shipping-difficulty, shipping cost, and legal-headache perspectives.  So even a long shot with a seed is generally worth it.  Of course, that doesn't help any with plants that need to be grafted.  You should have seen my luggage when I came with most of my live plants from the US... it was insane.    Insulation, dozens and dozens of heatpacks (each only slightly punctured, to slow down their heating), plants crammed atop plants atop plants, carefully wrapped rootballs... a couple dozen plants in three pieces of baggage.  My mango has a now permanent bend in its uppermost branch from being crammed into its box with the cherimoya... I'm amazed that the branch didn't simply break.  And I had to get certified as a grower under USDA phytosanitary control to get the paperwork.  Just crazy.

[Forgot]

Hello KarenRei, although I know that I am several years late to answer, I have no doubt that it may be useful for future visitors.

From what you say, it appears to be a lack of nitrogen. Passion fruit is a plant with high nitrogen needs. You can increase the amount of this nutrient in the soil with something as simple as applying urea.

Although it is always good before fertilizing it is to perform a soil test. Therefore, fertilization can be more efficient.

For more information, you can search for more information about fertilizing passion fruit on the internet. I leave you a link for you to consult, this post is quite complete.