kiwinut,

Hopefully someone with a plant can supply you with cuttings (unless you prefer an established plant).

I did see 1 gallon plants labeled P. 'Black Night' at Yamagami's Nursery in Cupertino, CA (Santa Clara County, near San Jose) about 2 months ago. They were in bud/blooming and had fruit on them (maybe 2-4 fruits each). I was tempted to buy one even though I have a young 'Frederick' and 'Nancy Garrison' (both from Grassy Knoll, so no doubt genuine). I also have a ton of grocery store P. edulis seedlings--free to good homes, btw... The 'Black Night' plants were $20, I think. I'm not sure if they were from Suncrest or another grower. My guess is that they were only selling these for a short period of time--I don't know whether you can special order all year or not.

Yamagami's: http://www.yamagamisnursery.com/
408-252-3347

It sounds like you've looked everywhere, but I was just thinking about Grassy Knolls--have you contacted Elizabeth Peters there? She may not sell that cultivar on her website but that doesn't mean she doesn't have it. She sells 100+ plants, after all. If she doesn't have the plant she may be able to tell you who does. Kartuz nursery may be another place to check if you haven't already.

http://www.gkexoticplants.com/
http://www.kartuz.com/

Of course since you've already had problems you might want to post asking whether anyone has had misidentified plants from these sources. I would be surprised, though.

I have been looking forever for cuttings of 'Issai' Kiwi for trade. I realize that although sold as "self fruitful" it won't fruit heavily without a male. We (actually my mom) now have 2 Actinidia deliciosa of unknown sex and parentage. So chances are we have a male between the two (how big of pots do you need for blooming, is timing much of a problem?). I have read that 'Issai' takes a lot less space--is this true? I live in an area that is prime kiwi-growing climate--unfortunately that also means that a female and (heavily pruned) male become monsters. So I'm looking for a self-fruiting plant that takes up little space, if such a thing exists.

However, I'll assume for now that someone will offer you some cuttings. Or that Elizabeth Peters can help you out (she's also having a HUGE sale right now). If not, contact me if you are interested and we'll see if we can work something out.

As an aside--since I mentioned Yamagami's, I would add that as part of their 2 month long 60th anniversary sale (which is amazing) they are having a 60% off sale on Saturday on pre-order fruit trees. So a tree normally $30 will cost only $12. They have a fruit tree talk that day by fruit and vegetable guru Nancy Garrison (as in the P. edulis cultivar). I'm sure she can also answer questions about passionfruits. The final day of their sale (October 28th) will be 60% off any one item in the store--one per family (yes, even if it's normally $500). Here's their calendar:

http://www.yamagamisnursery.com/60th-calender.php

Thanks for the info Mark. I'll follow up on some of these leads. I do have a couple of 'Issai' cuttings rooted, and one could certainly use a new home. I have found that if I pollinate just a few flowers on 'Issai', it will not set any more fruit by selfing. However, this year I did not pollinate it at all, and it set selfed fruit. The fruits did not have viable seeds (and ripened really late), which makes sense as the 'Issai' pollen is technically dead.

~kiwinut

kiwinut,

I just checked with Yamagami's. They said they wouldn't be able to special order any passionfruit until the spring. I didn't tell them the species or cultivar--but I assume it didn't matter. My impression was that this was due to the wholesaler's policies, not theirs.

Hi All
Selections of edulis lead to all sorts of confusions. Commercially edulis is generally grown from seed (usually selected from the best fruiting and tastiest vines) and the vines scrapped after 3 years as yields reduce, but of course named selections must strictly speaking be propagated from cuttings. In practice however they may be propagated from seedlings from the original parent which can lead to problems such as Kiwinut's above.
Myles

Here is a link that might be useful: Edible passion fruit.