Growing Incense from roots is the easiest way of propagating the plant. That hybrid is easier to root from cuttings than its parent, incarnata, but not a whole heck of a lot easier. I just dig up the sucker plants when they pop up in the yard (and pop up they will) and pot them up. Three inches may be a little short for a root of that size, but you should see sprouts within a few weeks if it takes. Incense is very aggressive when it comes to root growth, so that tiny piece you took shouldn't affect the parent in the slightest.

thanks for your reply :)

the incense is potted in 13 or so inch pot, and doesn't seem to have a ton of root mass. it has never sent up a sucker. the plant is several years old and has extremely modest root growth for its age and size - I had to dig _right under the stems_ to even find any roots thick enough to grab. a couple inches out and it's all just tiny spiderwebby roots, then a little further out is just empty soil. the thing is extremely polite about its root growth. from what I've seen of mine compared to what I've heard about these passiflora, I find it astounding that these could be invasive.

what do you think of this, though? is my plant just uncharacteristically modest, or is there something wrong with it, or...

Ria

Wow, I've never heard of an Incense as non-aggressive as yours. Do you fertilize? Maybe just restricting its feedings to nitrogen only will encourage growth while forcing it to look harder for other nutrients.

You got me on this one. Docile Incense is not something I'm familiar with.

I actually did stop fertilizing it because I read in a bunch of places that they only bloom in poor soil (otherwise they just keep shooting out tons of tender offshoots). however it still doesn't bloom so I might as well be fertilizing it, right?

even when I did fertilize it, it never sent up anything, and the root system is obviously no different, heh.

figures!

I'm going to steal a bucket of water from the koi tank and water it with that, and see what it does.

Ria

Whenever I do a partial water change in my aquarium, I used the waste water on my passis. I haven't seen any obvious benefits from this, but no negatives either. I'd think the nitrites and solid wastes would be a benefit to the plants, all things being equal.

Note that this is only with "normal" fresh water. If I'm adding salt for breeding and the like, I don't use the water on the plants. Duh. :-)

you will NOT believe this. LOL.

like, a day or two after I'd posted that the plant had never had an offshoot, I found one tiiiiiny little stem sticking up out of the pot. I could not BELIEVE it! I dug it up and planted it in a little container. I was so scared cause it was a little droopy, but it perked right up within an hour. I was absolutely ecstatic!

it's so tiny and thin and tender, I don't even know if it's an offshoot or a seedling, somehow. what do your suckers look like when they come up? I was picturing something a little... meatier, I guess. hah.

how bizarre! I hope it sends up more!

Ria

It's not a seedling, since Incense rarely produce viable seed (and aren't self-fertile). Well-established Incense can have very robust offshoots. Smaller ones, like yours, obviously produce smaller shoots. You might've let it grow for another week or so to, but I see no reason why it won't do well as long as you've gotten a good piece of root along with the shoot.

it's still doing fine :) the offshoot was actually like 6-8 inches long, just very thin and spindly with only like, three leaves on it. looks pretty happy right now to me, though.

Ria