Stealing cuttings

21 years ago

I live in northern Israel (Haifa), which means that our rainy, no-frost winter is just about to start, after no rain since May. A not-so-close neighbor has a lovely vine, and walking past it I saw a single purple fruit laying on the ground, so I picked it up and took it home. It was yummy. I would dearly love to sneak past and snip a cutting or two. I have read all of the postings about cuttings, but I'm not sure that in my climate I should perform petty larceny now or wait until spring? Also, I would have no idea what kind of passiflora it is, all I know is that the fruit was purple. This is a rather common fruit here and I'd love to grow it. Full sun may be a problem, will it take some shade? BTW, buying healthy advanced plants in the local nursery is very expensive, so that is why I am considering this. Batya

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Comments (4)

chills71
21 years ago
Had you saved some of the seed you probably could have juse planted some and had some plants of your own.

I'm sure if you walked by, comlimented the owner and his vine, and politely asked for a cutting he would gladly let you have some. I'd gladly give you a couple plants of my edulis were you local and asked after politely complimenting mine. (though my edulis is stingy about flowering as I am in a cold climate).

Honestly, compliment and then ask. The worst that could happen is he says no. (and that's not very likely as the plants like being trimmed).

~Chills
batyabeth
Original Author
21 years ago
Were I back home in the US, I would of course be as polite and friendly and neighborly as you remind me is considered normal. But often here I am repeatedly told that this behavior is considered rude! Honestly, I hear often that my Chiacgo neighbor manners are out of place, so I am clearly going native, to my dismay. Any way I get the cuttings, US manners or local, how do I go about propagating them? Can I tell the type by the color of the fruit? And from what I have been reading on this forum, it takes forever to get fruit out of seeds, so the cuttings seems to be the quickest way to start making passiflora jam! Thanks,Batya
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Krstofer
21 years ago
It's pretty easy to root cuttings- take a length of vine with one or 2 leaf nodes on it (no more than that) and stick the bottom end (the one closest to the roots of the mother vine) in moist vermiculite or sand. Keep the vermiculite moist- and hope. In 2 or 3 weeks with luck it will start rooting & produce an off-shoot just above one of the leaves.

To better your chances, soak the cuttings in liquid rooting hormone overnite- and for even better chances, build a cloning box. I successfully root vines in about 2 weeks in mine.

Once you've done it a few times it becomes very easy. I've started trimming all mine back for the winter, so I'm putting the excess in that cloning box of mine so I have trade & sale materiel in a month or so. Otherwise I'd just toss the excess vine... Mide as well get some $$ for it.
kiwinut
21 years ago
Batya,

>Can I tell the type by the color of the fruit?

The yummy purple fruit would indicate the vine is P. edulis. I have read that they often take 2-3 years to fruit from seed, so cuttings would be best.