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Zone 5 passionfruit experiments

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NickD:
I'm currently trying to grow passifloras, both for flowers and for fruits, in Canada Zone 5 north of Toronto.

I started in 2022 with passiflora incarnata (maypop) and passiflora caerulea, which I planted in-ground. In fall 2022, I took cuttings of those and rooted them, since I decided it was better to grow them in pots.


In 2023, I got some purple passionfruit (passiflora edulis) and sweet granadilla (passiflora ligularis) at the grocery store and used seeds from those, and also managed to germinate passiflora tripartita and manicata from seeds off Etsy. Some were a little slow to get going, but eventually put on a good amount of foliage during the summer.
Meanwhile, my two passiflora caerulea and my one passiflora incarnata bloomed nicely during the summer, and the passiflora incarnata began to set fruit in August. That's later than ideal, since I had to carefully bring the plants indoors to a south facing window without breaking the vines that had fruits on them when we got our first frost in mid-October. The fruits finally ripened indoors by late November.

Passiflora caerulea spent the winter in the garage, where temperatures were a few degrees below freezing during the coldest part of January. The rest of the plants were in south-facing windows for the winter.

Mid April 2024, the passiflora caerulea starts putting on new growth in the garage, so I take them outside.

Mid May 2024, with the threat of frost passed, I brought the rest of the passifloras outside.

NickD:
The plants were in 5 gal pots for their first year of growth. But I decided to begin up-potting them to 10 gal this spring.

Passiflora edulis was about due for it, starting to get slightly rootbound entering its second season.


Passiflora caerulea was overdue. It too is entering its second season, but I think caerulea is one of the most vigorous species of the passiflora genus.


Passiflora ligularis, manicata and tripartita were only just beginning to fill in their pots and not really rootbound yet, but I'm not going to get another chance to up-pot them until the fall due to them being attached to their trellises during the summer, so might as well do it now.

Haven't checked passiflora incarnata yet.

ScottR:
nick, welcome to forum and you have a nice little collection of passiflora going Canada impressive, since you have many p. caerulea going you should try grafting p.edulis and p. ligulairs onto p. caerulea which is hardy rootstock might help them survive longer. Yes, passiflora get rootbound quick but like you say hard to transplant unless late Winter or early Spring I would imagine. If you haven't already check out PSI passiflora International Society they have seed bank sales Spring and Winter. best of luck growing.

NickD:

--- Quote from: ScottR on June 04, 2024, 11:52:03 AM ---nick, welcome to forum and you have a nice little collection of passiflora going Canada impressive, since you have many p. caerulea going you should try grafting p.edulis and p. ligulairs onto p. caerulea which is hardy rootstock might help them survive longer. Yes, passiflora get rootbound quick but like you say hard to transplant unless late Winter or early Spring I would imagine. If you haven't already check out PSI passiflora International Society they have seed bank sales Spring and Winter. best of luck growing.

--- End quote ---

Do you know how cold hardiness works with grafts? I imagine freezing temperatures will still kill any edulis or ligularis grafts (such as in my garage where it gets down to upper 10s to mid 20s during the coldest part of winter). However, if the caerulea root stock can help the grafts survive in the my root cellar, where it's usually in the 40s during the winter, then that would be great, since it would allow me to free up space in my south facing windows.

And yeah, I have a lot of caerulea rooted cuttings in addition to the two mature plants. I've been selling them locally, but I'll probably have some leftovers I can use for grafting, guinea pigs, or just resell in the spring for a higher price as big mature plants (if they survive in the garage again).

By the way, do you know how p. incarnata hardiness works? Does freezing temperatures kill off any roots that experience those sorts of temperatures? It's just listed as zone 6 hardy because it's assumed that when zone 6 gets -5F cold blast, the soil at a depth of 1-2ft will still be around 30-40F? Basically, do you think they would survive in the garage if they're subjected to a week or more of 20F temps 24/7 (ie the soil in the pot will freeze all the way through)?

ScottR:
P. caerulea will keep roots alive to low temps and has some effect on grafted part but not as much as rootstock. The lowest my p. cearulea has ever experienced was 16F with no problem but lower?? You must remember that in ground plants have advantage with mass soil temp. in pots not so much unless covered in saw dust or some kind of mulch.

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