Linda-lu: I don't have a clue, having never grown edulis from seed. However, since nobody has responded to your question, I would direct you to an auction on Ebay which shows a 2 foot tall plant. As far as I can tell, the adult (3-lobed) leaves don't seem to appear until near the end of the 2 feet. Whether this is typical I certainly don't know. You could always ask the seller, because it seems this is not the only one he has grown from seed.

Here is a link that might be useful: P. edulis seedling on Ebay, # 320270813021

I have a few edulis that I grew from seed and honestly never paid attention. The ones that were started early last year had mature looking foliage and thick stems by mid summer but they might have shown up earlier.
Karyn

Hi Mark,

thank you for your answer! This seedling on Ebay looks exactly like the ones I have at home, so it does seem that I have just a couple of inches to go before I see the mature leaves.

By the way, lol, apparently I am sitting on quite a bit of merchandise here! 8,50 for a seedling? Now, let's see, where's my calculator?

Just kidding. You know you've found a new passion when you have 25 seedlings dotted around your apartment and don't want to part with any of them...

Thanks again,

Linda.

Hi Karyn,

I started mine in April, so going by what you tell me, I should definitely have some adult leaves come fall.

Thanks for responding to my question!

Hi Linda-lu,

Actually I though that plant seemed like a good deal at $8.50. I would have put a bid in except I just bought two different P. edulis clones (great plants from Grassy Knoll). Shouldn't one adult P. edulis be enough to fill an apartment?

I like to check out Ebay ocassionally because sometimes there's something interesting, or fun like that auction (it looks like the seller grows a lot of things from supermarket seeds, which I think is really cool).

However...you also get to see the deceptive ones. I won't give the link--just search: 3 gallon passiflora (no quotes, title only search). You'll notice at least 2 different kinds of flowers described as P. edulis, that don't even remotely resemble it. I already mentioned to the seller it is wrong--and gave a picture of a real P. edulis--nothing has changed. The cost: $24.96 to start bidding, $29.99 for buy it now. Shipping...to California...$54.35 (!!). Moreover they say they ship a plant like this out of the pot and take the rootball down to the size of a cantaloupe.

I think I'd stick with "Frederick's" seedling, isntead of waiting for the 3 gallon "P. edulis" to either give me fruit or give me the blooms I expected. Is it reasonable to expect that one of the two may be correct?

Just to clarify the above. The search in Ebay for 3 gallon passiflora gives you one result. She then pictures at least two type of hybrds/species as well as red-colored fruit in the description.

I am a novice at growing passies, I have to admit. But I did do some research and I know that not all seedlings will grow up to flower and bear fruit. Also, it takes two years before they grow large enough for you to find out!

The ones you've bought, if from a reputable garden centre, will have been cloned from an edulis already known to flower and fruit, and will likely flower and fruit next year if not this summer already. I would gladly pick one of those up, but they don't sell them here! They haven't caught up enough with global warming yet to realise that they'd thrive in our new hot summers;)

Its a groundfloor apartment with a small yard, and I do plan to plant four of these out, and keep about eight in reserve. That way, at least one plant should rise up to meet my expectations...

Hi Linda-lu,

I didn't realize P. edulis seedlings have problems fruiting like that. The progeny of the red hybrids (purple edulis x flavicarpa) wouldn't have surprised me, but even purple sef-crosses and those with other purple clones? That's really a pain.

I'm right at the edge of where you can reliably grow P.edulis (zone 9b). It's hard to find in the nurseries (I've looked a lot) and even then I've only seen it 3 places, and only the cultivar 'Frederick', at $45-$50 for a five gallon pot. So I ended up buying 2 plants by mail from Grassy Knoll in Washington State at $15 each. One had a bud on it when I bought it ('Frederick') and now has a small fruit. I just put the other ('Nancy Garrison') in the ground yesterday.

It sounds like you will be fighting the winter cold and that you also have a nice landlord. Good luck finding a place with the appropriate microclimate and all of that. At least you have plenty of plants to spare.

"Nancy Garrison' has a reputation as one of the most cold-hardy of all edulis varieties. From the website of the Monterey Bay Nursery, which introduced the strain:

http://www.montereybaynsy.com/plants.php?alpha=P

" It will take 25°F without damage, and recovered and fruited quickly following the 20°F temperatures of December 1990, according to Nancy."

I don't have any 'Nancy Garrison' to spare at the moment, but if you are interested in trying something that might be particularly cold hardy--and a heavy producer of high quality fruit--send me an email in a year or so. I can be reached very temporarily at the email below. I could then send you my "normal" email address.

looking4plants@yahoo.com

Hi Mark,

Thanks for your kind offer. But I am actually based in Holland. (Had to fill in a Washington postal code to get the system to accept me;) I don't think customs here would be happy to have me import a plant like that... Otherwise I would have gladly parted with some seedlings for you to enjoy as well.

The link and the variety you mentioned may very well come in useful, though. It's a sea climate here, not much different from Monterrey (did route 101, talked to the seals, argued with a sea otter). And there are specialist nurseries here, if need be, they can import some seeds and maybe even plants for me. So thanks, I now know what to ask for!

Cheers,

Linda.

Hi Linda-lu,

Another wholesale nursery in that part of coastal California is Suncrest Nursery in Watsonville. The hybridizer Patrick Worley works there. He's responsible for an immense number of hybrids, for example P. edulis 'Frederick'. Here's their website section on Passiflora:

http://www.suncrestnurseries.com/descript/passiflora.html

Where I live the weather is not hugely different from Monterey. Summers are a little warmer during the day and drier. We often get a marine layer or fog, but it usually burns off by 10:00 A.M.

Nancy Garrison put together a list of recommended fruits and nuts for the area:

http://www.mastergardeners.org/picks/fruit.html

Here's what she says about passion fruit:

"PASSIONFRUIT (I do not know of commercial sources for the first four, but wanted to list them as Patrick Worley, passionfruit hybridizer extrordinaire, recommended them for this area).
Passiflora âÂÂCoral Glowâ or âÂÂCoral Seasâ for cooler coastal summers, P. âÂÂElizabethâÂÂ, P. âÂÂPurpleTigerâ when cross pollinated by P. caerulea, P. ligularis - likes cool weather, not self fruitful, not in container, Passiflora edulis: â FredericksâÂÂ, Black KnightâÂÂ, âÂÂFrostyâÂÂ, and 'Nancy Garrison'"

None of the other (non-edulis) plants appear to be hardy below 20 F, from what I can see. Worley is apparently one of the biggest people out there encouraging people to eat more passion fruit, so if anyone would know of hardier varieties it would be him. I'm sure one could reach him through Suncrest if they were really motivated to do so.

Greetings Linda-lu and Mark,

I'm so happy to see that other people look at passion fruit as a marvelous vine instead of a killer climbing weed as most people do :) I also enjoy reading each of your follow-ups and have learned a lot. I have recently got into growing fruit and have been growing Frederick passion fruit form seeds for three years with great success. I have twelve seedling that are a each a foot tall and have large, green leaves that I planted on a trail around my neighborhood. When they reached a foot, they started to produce their mature three leafs. So, hang in there and they will come soon.

This past summer, I bought a Frederick passion fruit vine at my local city college for $3! The guy asked for $5 but I didn't have it with me at the time so he gave it to me for that great bargain and was happy someone was willing to take it off his hands. He told me that it was grown from cuttings and was cultivated by a guy in L.A. that produced excellent fruit along with big fragrant flowers. At the time I purchased it, it was three feet tall and it had grown ten feet this past year and already has three, two inch fruits that I hand pollinated.

I hope you both have luck finding great healthy vines at great prices.

Daniel

In case you were wondering which college I got the vine at, I gave a link the the site.

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.sbcc.cc.ca.us/environmentalhorticulture/website/Lifescapegarden.html