advice on rooting passiflora cuttings

Hello!

I have tried this time and time again and never seem to be successful. Yet I read online that this is supposed to be easy.I take fresh cuttings,dip in rooting hormone 2 nodes up, then put in moist soil. I've tried also water rooting and perlite rooting, the latter of which works well for other things I have. But alas, no luck for the passis. Does anyone have a method that works or some advice on these? Funny enough....it's said that they are hard to grow from seed but i can do that much easier. Just soak them overnight in orange juice first, works almost all of the time.

Kim

Kim, I root mine in top soil, which seems to contain just the right amount of sand. It works for me - might try it.

Thanks KayJones...I'll have to try that. How long did it take for yours to root in the top soil?

:) Kim

Do you do anything to raise humidity around your cuttings while they root? I do this with other types of cuttings (haven't tried passies), either use a dome or a plastic bag with a few holes poked in it (plasic bag needs to be supported so it doens't touch the foliage, so I stick a couple of kebab skewers into the pot).

I have a little passiflora from rooted cuttings that a friend sent me, and I think she just put them in a little water to root... said it took a long time, but they had roots when I got them, and they're doing well now.

Kim,

If you can get it, try willow water. That is what I am going to do. I have had the same problems as you are having.

Have you had your vine a while? They will send up new vines around the plant. I have been able to put some of those in pots and they do very well.

Mine has not produced seed, and I understand that if it did they would not be true to the parent. I have 'Incense' which is a hybrid. Which one do you have?

Carol

Check out Rapid Rooter http://www.genhydro.com/genhydro_US/rapidrooter.html it gives fast results on most plants I have tried it with. Expensive for easy to root items, but suits the bill for those that give you a bit more difficulty. Check for them locally to save on postage. I pay about $12 for 50, or about 25¢ each.

I have found differances on which passion vine you are trying to root. Coral Seas is very difficult for me but I have a purple one and Lady Margaret that are very easy. I put my cuttings in half coarse sand, half perlite, water them in well and use a dome, its very humid. I do this in my unheated greenhouse, I use bottom heat from a mat that is set on 65 degrees. I do not use rooting hormone. Found it did not help for my cuttings so don't use it. I managed to get 2 out of 12 coral seas to root, 12 out of 12 Lady Margaret and a week earlier too. I also believe its important to make a very clean cut using a razor or sharp knife and cut at an angle. I try to use semi hard wood, tip cuttings rot too easy and hard wood takes too long to root. I do not think I am much of a success with passion vines, but if I do enough of them, then I do have some extra plants.
Rebecca

Hello all! Thanks for the info. I have been trying to root them in damp perlite in my aquarium that I use for rooting other cuttings (mainly hoyas). It raises humidity and has a heat pad underneath for bottom heat. However, I haven't gotten any roots this way yet. I have also tried my bubbler system but still nothing. I am trying to root Lady margaret, Blue bouquet, Incense, and Lady lavender right now. Since these vines went in only this summer I am not finding any runners. The incense is hardy here so I'm not too worried about this one, but I would like to propogate the others in case they don't survive the winter in my greenhouse. Last year I lost a bunch when I went home for Christmas.

Yardqueen....what is willow water and where do you get it?

Thanks, Kim

I am finding that even on the ones that root easy for me it will take 4-6 weeks for good roots to form. And I do better in the spring and fall than summer and winter. The last ones I did took about 5 weeks. Maybe you need to wait a bit, as long as they are not rotting, you will probably get good callus and roots soon.
Rebecca

get some willow bark soak it in warm water a few days will bark was used to make the first asprins the germans started it

Rebecca is correct they are slow to root.

I've used perlite and Oasis to root.

I find the Oasis works a litle better/

I usually get about 75% success.

Paul

The willow bark sounds like something I'd like to try...only thing is I don't have any willow trees around. Anyone have any cuttings of this I could try or know where I might find some in my area?

Thanks, Kim

Find a river or creek and more than likely you will find willow. Its usually growing right on the banks, I have not tried this but lots of people have told me about it. And I am sure it helps, people even use willow water to water in transplants to get better roots on them. Too many people swear by it for it to be wrong.
Rebecca

I wonder if you could imitate willow water by mixing a teeny bit of rooting hormone powder with some water.... ??

I've found high humidity and constant bottom heat to be the best way to root Passiflora cuttings. I've tried growing cuttings in other ways but these 2 things make the biggest difference in cutting-take. I use gell rooting hormone which has fungicide in it and removing dead leaves as soon as they turn is important.

I have also found if you use tips that are too green they rot quickly. I have better luck using stems with a little harder wood.
Rebecca

Thanks everyone for all the tips. I am hoping to get some willow cuttings to try that. I also am setting up an aquarium like the one I use for rooting hoyas, I cover it with saran wrap to keep humidity high and add a heating pad underneath to raise the temp. It helps me root cuttings in winter when most of the time they rot. I have them in cups of moist perlite inside. I will see what method works best. On a positive note, a couple cuttings I put in a pot of soil and left outside look like they are starting to root, so perhaps that was all I needed to do...lol.

:) Kim

Just wanted to update that the cuttings I took and put in the aquarium have new growth and some root bumps on them already....so this method seems to be working so far.

:) Kim

Hooray! Congratulations! :-)