Author Topic: Passionfruit - okay to let rootbind?  (Read 3943 times)

KarenRei

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Passionfruit - okay to let rootbind?
« on: June 11, 2012, 09:31:36 AM »
So as you know, I do my growing of tropicals indoors under lights.  This weekend I had a nice transplant-fest, wherein I buy a couple large pots from the IKEA in Garðarbæ and then shift everything up a notch - plant A goes into a 15 gallon, freeing up a 7; plant B goes into the 7, freeing up a 3 gallon, and on and on down the line to transplanting-up seedlings.  One of my large transplant-ees this time was my passionfruit, which went into a 15 gallon.  As I suspected, it had been starting to get rootbound, so I felt I just had to move it up a pot size.

However, 15 gallons for a passionfruit, I can't imagine going any bigger than that.  I've seen pictures of people fruiting them in 5 gallons.  Given it's history, I'm afraid it's just going to bind up again.  Do you think it's okay just to let that happen?  It's never flowered, and I'd hate to have to have to go even bigger just to get it to flower - I need room for all my other plants, quite a number of which are ultimately going to need 25 gallons or more!  :)  I plan to try to induce flowering a few weeks from now with a low-N, high K/P fert. mix I made, once it's burned through most of it's current mix, but if that doesn't work...

Also, as a side question, while English is my native language, I'm starting to find myself having deficiencies remembering English words sometimes if I don't use them often. What do you call the thing that you put underneath a plant pot to protect the floor?  It's undirskál in Icelandic but I just can't remember the English word for it.
« Last Edit: June 11, 2012, 09:35:49 AM by KarenRei »
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KarenRei

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Re: Passionfruit - okay to let rootbind?
« Reply #1 on: June 11, 2012, 10:07:12 PM »
Oh, hey, speak of the devil - is this a new type of side shoot I'm seeing -- perhaps a developing flower bud???  Or am I just being too optimistic?

Old shoot type, grows into a branch if the plant feels like it wants one there:


New type - blossom?:

« Last Edit: June 11, 2012, 10:16:41 PM by KarenRei »
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Tomas

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Re: Passionfruit - okay to let rootbind?
« Reply #2 on: June 11, 2012, 11:05:53 PM »
Hi,

I think your passionfruit plant will be fine in a pot and eventually flower and fruit there too. But for me I just stuck cuttings in a pot from my large vine and that way I got flowers on a plant in a pot that was only about 2 ft tall. I had my passion fruit plant in a pot for perhaps 2-3 years. I cannot remember really. It grew rather slowly so I decided to plant in in the grown by my fence. That's when I started to grow like crazy. There is only about 1 year between these pictures below.






Keep us updated.

Tomas

PS. I cannot tell if those are flower buds.

fyliu

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Re: Passionfruit - okay to let rootbind?
« Reply #3 on: June 11, 2012, 11:36:11 PM »
Yes I think that's a flower. Flowers grow right after you see the 3-leaf pattern. There should be a special name for them but I don't know it.

stressbaby

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Re: Passionfruit - okay to let rootbind?
« Reply #4 on: June 11, 2012, 11:41:36 PM »
I think the second one is a bloom.  Not sure about the first.

If it were me, once the plant got root bound, I'd root prune it harshly.  Passionfruit seems to take pruning extremely well, even require it.  I wouldn't expect an annual shave of 3-5cm from the bottom and sides of the root ball to hurt it at all.  I do that with several plants more picky that passionfruit.

fyliu

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Re: Passionfruit - okay to let rootbind?
« Reply #5 on: June 11, 2012, 11:48:52 PM »
Sorry I didn't know there were 2 photos. The first looks like a new vine. See the 3 funny leave above the fruit and along the vine where the flowers have fallen off.

fruitlovers

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Re: Passionfruit - okay to let rootbind?
« Reply #6 on: June 12, 2012, 05:22:28 AM »
Passionfruit seems to grow and fruit here in the tiniest little lava crevices. Should fruit in the 5 gallon, but it might try to root into the ground if you don't have a barrier between pot and the ground.
Oscar

KarenRei

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Re: Passionfruit - okay to let rootbind?
« Reply #7 on: June 12, 2012, 05:47:12 AM »
@Tomas: Interesting - so cuttings retain their maturity, then?  Nice to know; whenever I have to prune it back I can make a bunch of babies that don't take long to fruit.  :)  Heh, planting outside isn't an option for me.  That would otherwise be known as "purposely killing my passionfruit"  ;)  A cold snap can drop temperatures below freezing in even september here.  And you know how some tropicals can stop growing if temps go below 10C or even start to die back (for example, I know that coffee does that)?  Half our nights even in July get that cold!  And our average July day gets up to only 15-16C! (~60F, for those of you in the US).  Our winters aren't super-cold by American standards, but we basically have no summer.

@Fyliu: Indeed, I posted the top picture for comparison.  I've been getting shoots like the top one for a long time; they grow into vines.  But the bottom type I don't think I've seen before.  I did some google image searching of passionfruit buds, and I think it is a flower.  Yeay!  :)

@stressbaby: The concept of root pruning has always scared me, but then again, I've heard it can be good for a plant.  So I'll probably give it a try in a few months when it inevitably fills up the 15 gallon. 

@fruitlovers: I already moved it into a 15 gallon, heh; I'll just deal with having a very large passionfruit vine and probably end up giving a bunch of fruit away.  Or hmm, wonder if I could sell it here.  Icelandic-grown passionfruit on a commercial market, I bet that'd be a first.  Does passionfruit fruit in flushes or continuously?  No worries about it growing into the ground; the ground is a solid floor and there's an undirskál (in English, what do you call that thing you put under a pot?) between it.  :) 
« Last Edit: June 12, 2012, 06:11:50 AM by KarenRei »
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fruitlovers

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Re: Passionfruit - okay to let rootbind?
« Reply #8 on: June 12, 2012, 06:11:49 AM »

@fruitlovers: I already moved it into a 15 gallon, heh; I'll just deal with having a very large passionfruit vine and probably end up giving a bunch of fruit away.  Or hmm, wonder if I could sell it here.  Icelandic-grown passionfruit on a commercial market, I bet that'd be a first.  Does passionfruit fruit in flushes or continuously?  No worries about it growing into the ground; the ground is a solid floor and there's an undirskál (what do you call that thing you put under a pot?) between it.  :)

Here they flower and fruit continuously for several months.
Oscar

KarenRei

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Re: Passionfruit - okay to let rootbind?
« Reply #9 on: June 12, 2012, 06:15:00 AM »

@fruitlovers: I already moved it into a 15 gallon, heh; I'll just deal with having a very large passionfruit vine and probably end up giving a bunch of fruit away.  Or hmm, wonder if I could sell it here.  Icelandic-grown passionfruit on a commercial market, I bet that'd be a first.  Does passionfruit fruit in flushes or continuously?  No worries about it growing into the ground; the ground is a solid floor and there's an undirskál (what do you call that thing you put under a pot?) between it.  :)

Here they flower and fruit continuously for several months.

Very cool; bet it'll fruit continuously for me, then, since the conditions are pretty much constant inside.  Better double-check my fertilizer supplies, lol!

(Ah, I was going to ask what you're still doing awake, but then I noticed that you're in hawaii... forgot about all you pacific islanders here  :) )
Já, ég er að rækta suðrænar plöntur á Íslandi. Nei, ég er ekki klikkuð. Jæja, kannski...