Firstly, you need to define what you want your plant to do for you.

Are you planning to plant it in a pot and overwinter it inside? Do you want it to be cold hardy in the ground? Do you want it to cover a fence? Should it be small and manageable? Are you looking for fruit or would you rather it be sterile? And the list goes on. So what is it you want from your plant?

Once you have considered what you want out of your plant, then you need to consider what you can practically provide for it. What we mean here is what kind of conditions do you have to keep your plant in. We are talking about answers to things like the following questions. Are your summers cool or blazing hot? Can you provide it with full sun? Are you overwintering it as a house plant, or does it need to go dormant so you can store it in a garage? Are you new to growing passion flowers or do you have experience? Can you keep it in a 10 gallon pot or only a 3 gallon one?

Once you are armed with this kind of information we can help you to make an educated guess about what would work best for you. Keep in mind that every location and every grower is different, there are a million different variables and micro climates that can affect your plant’s growth. So, you still might have to do some experimenting to find the absolutely best variety.

Passion flowers are an incredibly diverse number of species from an amazing array of different environments ranging from blazing hot to cool and temperate.

As thus, not all passion flowers perform equally. We have tried to break our varieties down into a few categories to make selection easier. The plants in our Easy Care category are typically going to give you the most bang for your buck in terms of flowering and ease of care. Most hybrids are going to out perform straight species. The named hybrids have been specifically selected for their garden performance.

However, one thing is still a non-negotiable essential for all passion flowers. Passion flowers are full sun plants. Most of them are not going to bloom with 6-8 hours of sun. Unless they need protection from heat, they will perform best with full dawn to dusk sun. 8 hours is an absolute minimum. Though many passion flowers will grow well in the shade, they will not flower.

If you are looking for something unique, you can grab something out of our Rare Varieties category.

Keep in mind thought that these varieties typically are much more fussy to grow and many of them only bloom for a short time. Their blooms can be spectacular though if you can coax them into flowering. P. miersii and P. sidifolia are good examples.

If you are looking for a fruiting variety in much of the country, Passiflora incarnata is unfortunately your only real choice. While there are many varieties that grow fruit they are really only suited for warm places like California or Florida. P. edulis is the most commonly grown variety for fruit. Even container grown P. edulis does not have a long or warm enough season to produce fruit in most places.

If you are on the eastern half of the country, Passiflora incarnata and its hybrids are some of the best choices. This is because Passiflora incarnata is native here. It is well adapted to the growing conditions. In terms of size, vigor, number of flowers, ease of care and overwintering ability they are hard to beat. They shrug off heat and humidity often seen in the summers here. They are pollinator magnets that will bloom steadily all summer long.

If you are in the deep south, you need to look for varieties that love heat.

We have many of them including most of our P. incarnata hybrids and the P. caerulea hybrids, but also less common ones like P. holosericea. Typically, most pinks do not do well in heat and humidity, and with the possible exception of P. Victoria, they should be avoided. They are not a good choice for a hot humid location unless you are prepared to baby a plant and possibly lose it to heat stress.

Many of the less heat tolerant plants will survive but will drop flower buds in high temperatures. This is typically listed in the descriptions. These plants should be avoided unless you are ok with only having flowers in the cooler weather. Examples of plants that will live but drop buds/stop flowering in high heat include P. Monika Fischer and P. Lavender Lady, and P. loefgrenii x caerulea. Though P. Lavender Lady really shines in the fall in hot climates when not much else is in bloom.

If you live in a colder part of the country, it is essential to choose a variety that is both cool weather tolerant and also free flowering.

Many of the less free flowering varieties will not bloom well in the north. This is either due to it not being warm enough, not being warm enough for long enough, or warm enough when the number of hours of daylight is sufficient to trigger blooming. Typically you would want to stick with cold hardy varieties, or anything that mentions that it prefers cool weather. P. Belotii is particularly well suited to growing in cooler climates as it overwinters easily as a house plant. This was our passion flower of choice when living in Vermont. Varieties like P. Fata Confetto and P. Blue Velvet and P. Lady Margaret can also be good choices.

If you’re lucky enough to live in a moderate, frost free environment like California, you can grow almost anything successfully so long as you water them sufficiently. This is also the sort of place where winter blooming reds like P. Maui really shine. Winter blooming plants are a disappointment in most areas.

If you live in the sort of middle part of the country where summers are fairly warm and long, you can grow a wide variety of passion flowers.

Most of the heat intolerant ones will do ok, and it is also warm enough to grow many of the heat loving varieties. You just have to grow many of them as disposable annuals or in containers that you can bring inside to overwinter. Nonetheless, their spectacular blooms can be worth it!

If you are wishing for a passion flower to overwinter outside in much of the United States, your choices are fairly limited. P. incarnata is the most hardy variety we grow, and many of its hybrids come in second. Check out our Cold Hardy category and compare the listed hardiness zone to yours.

When discussing cold hardiness in passion flowers, it is essential to note that your location MUST be dry.

Passion flowers are very susceptible to root rot and wilts particularly in cool temperatures. If your plant is in a location that it sits wet over the winter, it will die regardless of the temperature. Keep in mind that passion flowers can be unreliably hardy, particularly in marginal soil conditions in climates close to their limit. Planting your plant in a warm sheltered microclimate that is very well drained and mulching it thoroughly can help it to survive winters better.

If you are looking for a plant that goes dormant and can be overwintered in a cool location like a garage or basement, P. incarnata’s hybrids, and P. Blue Bouquet or P. Lavender Lady all go dormant and overwinter well. P. caerulea hybrids can also go dormant though we find that they prefer to go semi-dormant and be kept somewhere that they get light.

Lastly, if you live in the Pacific Northwest, P. caerulea types will probably perform better than P. incarnata types. While we do not have personal experience growing passion flowers there, it is our understanding that P. caerulea tolerates the cool damp conditions there better than P. incarnata which is adapted to the heat and humidity of the southeast. It can be different to overwinter in the northwest due to the wet climate.

Hopefully this clarifies some differences between different groups of passion flowers and makes selecting your next plant easier! Next time we are going to discuss reasons why your passion flower isn’t blooming. If you’re interested in reading about that, please sign up for our newsletter to have it delivered to your inbox!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post What Passion Flower is the Best?? first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

1. Passiflora incarnata

Passiflora incarnata, the maypop, is much loved by pollinators. This is evidenced by the copious amounts of edible fruit the vine produces every year. Because Passiflora incarnata is native to the south eastern United States, it makes sense that native bees love this plant.

Passiflora incarnata typically produces small to medium sized light purple blooms in abundance all summer long. However, it can also be found with pure white flowers, or pink blooms. While many other passion flowers produce larger blooms, incarnata more than makes up for the lack of size with sheer number. Many passion flowers are stingy with their blossoms, not so with incarnata! This plant will churn out flower after flower all summer long even in cooler climates. It is a vigorous, care free vine once established. However, when choosing a location to plant it, keep in mind that it can get quite large and spread by root suckers if it is not controlled.

Passiflora incarnata, is one of the most cold hardy of all passion flowers.  So, if you want an exotic, tropical looking plant, but you don’t live somewhere hot, this is the vine for you. It grows and flowers profusely even in colder climates adding a touch of exotic flare to almost any garden.

2. Passiflora ‘Fata Confetto’

The second plant on our list is Passiflora ‘Fata Confetto. In many ways Fata Confetto reminds us of P. incarnata. However, it is smaller, less vigorous vine with significantly larger, more fancy blooms. Like incarnata, Fata Confetto produces bloom after bloom all summer long. It is also relatively cold tolerant though not quite as hardy as incarnata.

Fata Confetto produces 4 inch blossoms in a very pleasant light purple shade. The petals are topped with a zillion long wavy filaments They are easy to grow and are a very well-mannered plant that can find a home in most any garden.

Passiflora Fata Confetto is a complex hybrid consisting of several different species including Passiflora incarnata. While it doesn’t qualify as a native plant, we find Fata Confetto to be equally as appealing to pollinators as incarnata. If you do not have the garden space to commit to a massive incarnata vine, Fata Confetto would make an excellent wildlife friendly substitute.

3. Passiflora ‘Blue Velvet’

The third variety on our list is Passiflora ‘Blue Velvet’. Blue Velvet is another incarnata relative and was a new addition to our collection for 2023. So far we have been very impressed both with its ornamental characteristics, but also its pollinator appeal.

Blue Velvet is very free flowering, producing huge, intensely purple blossoms all summer long. The flowers are heat tolerant, and the vine is a very attractive deep lush green. In addition to the curb appeal this on one of the more cold hardy passion flower varieties available. Not only is it cold tolerant, but also heat tolerant, and capable of continuing to bloom in high temperatures.

Blue Velvet is a remake of the very popular Passiflora ‘Incense’, so if you are familiar with Incense, it is similar in many ways. However, in our opinion it is a much improve option. Blue Velvet has larger, more intensely colored blossoms, and it is much more free blooming. It also seems more attractive to pollinators as evidenced by both their presence and the fruit it sets.

4. Passiflora ‘ Blue Eyed Susan’

Passiflora ‘Blue Eyed Susan’ is #4 on our list, and is once again, a P. incarnata child. By now you have probably noticed a theme. Our pollinators seem to love incarnata and its many hybrids. This makes sense as we are located in the heart of Passiflora incarnata’s native range.

Blue Eyed Susan has the largest, showiest blossoms of the plants on this list. They are a purplish-blue color with copious amounts of wavy filaments. The vine has a large coarse texture and glossy foliage courtesy of its relative Passiflora edulis.

Blue Eyed Susan is not cold hardy like most of the varieties on this list. However, it is well suited to container culture, and is much easier to maintain to a reasonable size than many passion flowers. Its fragrant blooms would make it the perfect addition as a patio container plant. It loves warm weather and flowers freely for us in the summer months. Often the flowers are followed by edible fruits similar to, but in our opinion a bit sweeter and tastier than maypop fruits.

5. Passiflora ‘Blue Bouquet’

The last plant on our list is not an incarnata hybrid, but rather a Passiflora caerulea hybrid. Passiflora ‘Blue Bouquet’ is significantly different looking than the other varieties on this list. It does not get as much attention as many other varieties, however, it is one of our garden favorites. This is because it is very reliable.

Blue Bouquet produces an abundance of blueish-purple 3″ flowers, all summer and until frost. It is very free flowering, and our vine will often have dozens of open flowers on it at any given time. Most of those flowers will have a swarm of bees pollinating them. One unique thing about this vine is that despite the pollinator attention, it has never set any fruit for us. So, if you want to attract pollinators without producing messy fruit to clean up, Blue Bouquet is a good choice.

One thing we really love about this care free vine is that it is so ambitious about producing blossoms, that it will often produce flower buds in pairs. It is also a large, rapidly growing vine that can cover an ugly fence quickly.

Blue Bouquet is heat tolerant and will continue flowering through the hottest days of summer in our garden. It is also somewhat cold tolerant. It seems to reliably reappear in our zone 8 garden. For those of you who live in colder climates, it is easily adapted to growing in a container and will flower equally as freely as if it were planted in the ground.

If none of these passion flowers suit your tastes

Keep in mind that many of our other passion flowers are also visited by bees. These just seem to be their top 5 choices in our garden. If none of these flowers suit your tastes, check out one of our other varieties that come in a range of colors. Regardless of what variety you choose, you are likely still providing food for pollinators. If you find that a different variety is a pollinator favorite in your garden, we would love to hear about it!

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Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post The Best Passiflora For Pollinators first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Firstly, the most commonly grown variety is for fruit is Passiflora edulis. This variety fruits readily, and produces large juice filled fruits. Out of all the varieties we grow, it has the best tasting fruit. If you wish to try to grow your own passion fruit, a cultivar of this variety is what we would recommend. Other passion flower species can grow edible fruit. However, many of them are more persnickety about pollination and growing conditions making them even harder to get fruit from than P. edulis.

Now, while we do not want to disappoint any one, we also want to be realistic with you. For the majority of gardeners in most of the United States, growing any quantity of passion fruit is unlikely. P. edulis is a tropical plant that requires a long season and thrives in high temperatures. In most places there is not enough time or heat to ripen fruit before frost. Therefore, to harvest mature fruit, you will need grow the plant in a container on a self-contained trellis, and you will need to move the plant indoors to ripen the fruit.

If you live in a more northern climate but really, really want to try growing passion fruit, try P. incarnata

The maypop, Passiflora incarnata, is a cold hardy passion flower native to the eastern United States. It flowers readily and sets copious amounts of small green fruit. These fruits are edible and can be reasonably tasty, though they are not as tasty, and are much less juicy than P. edulis. Many people use them for making things like jellies, syrups, juice, etc. Keep in mind that you will need a lot of them to make any volume of juice. The main pro of choosing P. incarnata is that it is much less likely to disappoint you than P. edulis.

Some of the P. incarnata hybrids also produce fruit though they often do not have as much juice as P. incarnata. A couple examples are P. ‘Fata Confetto’ and P. ‘Blue Eyed Susan’. Both of these varieties are very attractive to pollinators and set fruit fairly readily.

Not all passion fruit is equal!

There are far more plants in our collection that are not suitable for fruiting, than are suitable. Many of the really gorgeous passion flowers created and selected to have striking flowers were not bred to produce good fruit. Many passion flowers don’t produce any fruit at all.

Passiflora caerulea is a good example of a passion flower that grows unpleasant fruit. P. caerulea is very frequently used in making hybrids because it has large ornamental flowers, and it is an excellent pollen producer which hybridizes readily with many other species. While this species and many of its selections and hybrids will produce a lot of fruit that is technically edible, they are not tasty.

Additionally, a lot of hybrids will not produce any fruit at all. Unless a hybrid is listed as producing fruit, it is safe to assume that they won’t be worth growing for fruit. Many of the inter-species hybrids are sterile. Because they are sterile, they will not set fruit. If they do set fruit, the fruit will be empty meaning it will not contain any edible portions. P. ‘Lady Margaret’ is a good example of this. Lady Margaret gets a fruit setting habit from its parent P. incarnata, however, the fruits are almost always empty.

Many of the other hybrids we grow have never set fruit for us. This is obviously not ideal if you want to harvest fruit. However, this can be a very desirable characteristic if you are looking for a plant to grow ornamentally. You will have the beautiful abundance of flowers and landscaping greenery but will not have the mess of fallen fruit to clean up.

Another variable that plays a key role in getting fruit is pollination

Outside of climate inadequacies, pollination is probably the biggest hurdle you will face when trying to get fruit from passion flowers. To get fruit on passion flowers, not only do you need a variety capable of setting fruit in your climate, but you also need good pollination to get quality fruit. Most passion flowers are not self-pollinating which means to get fruit, you will need a second vine that is a suitable pollination partner.

Not all passion flowers can pollinate each other.

Before you waste a lot of time trying to use incompatible plants for pollination, it is worthwhile to do an internet search to see if there are already hybrids out there with those parents. If there are not, they might not be compatible (though we are still learning so it doesn’t hurt to try). You can also look at the bottom the description for each of our passion flowers. There it will tell you the parentage of each variety. There is a good chance that if a particular variety is listed as a parent, (and the hybrid isn’t sterile) that it may work for pollination.

Some species hybridize readily, and that is reflected by all of the hybrids available with parentage including these species. Other species seem to accept pollen from very few other species. These plants can often times be difficult to get fruit on without an unrelated vine of the same species.

If you are interested in a challenge, P. nigradenia and P. Purple Tiger are good examples. Both of these varieties are capable of setting large edible fruit. However, despite us having over 40 passion flower varieties, they rarely (Purple Tiger) or never (nigradenia) set fruit for us here on our farm. This means that likely we don’t have suitable pollination partners, or a similar flowering time of suitable pollinators with sufficient blossom overlap (we do no hand pollinating) or they are not attractive enough to bees to get pollinated.

When dealing with passion flower pollination, you may run into lack of flowering overlap or pollinators.

To get natural pollination, you of course need a flower on each plant to be open at the same time, and you also need a bee to visit both flowers to spread pollen. Many times flowering does not overlap, and to get successful pollination, you will need to save pollen from one flower to use in hand pollination the second vine when it flowers.

Additionally, we have noticed that bees do not treat all passion flowers equally. They definitely have preferences, so if something more desirable is blooming at they same time, they may ignore some of your other passion flower blossoms. If you are curious about what passion flowers we have found to be pollinator favorites, we will be highlighting some of their favorites in a future post.

If you are interested in experimenting to create your own hybrids

Start with some easy to hybridize varieties to get the hang of hand pollination. Once you have mastered the art of hand pollination and can reliably get fruit from your compatible crosses you can move on to attempting more tricky hybrids.

Generally speaking species like caerulea and incarnata are good to have around as pollinators as they tend to be able to pollinate a lot of different species. If you are interested in creating your own passion flower hybrids, they are both really good pollen donors for beginners.

As a rule, passion flower species hybridize readily. However, keep in mind not all species can pollinate all other species. We are still learning about what can pollinate what. Therefore, it doesn’t hurt try crossing various plants even if you don’t expect to succeed. Who knows, maybe you will create the next amazing passion flower hybrid!

We hope this has provided you with some food for thought as you are considering which passion flower varieties to grow.

If you are interested in learning which passion flowers we have found pollinators to prefer, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter to get it delivered to your inbox!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post How Do I Know If My Passion Flower Produces Fruit? first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

Oftentimes with plants that succumb to root rot, there are subtle symptoms such as yellow leaves that indicate there is a problem before the plant wilts down and dies. If these signs are noticed and heeded soon enough, the plant can likely be saved.

Unfortunately, with wilts that aren’t due to root rot, there is typically not a lot of advance notice. Nor is there much you can do for the plant once the symptoms have appeared. Wilts may kill the plant rapidly, or in the case of some woody plants, the plant may live for years before it dies. These wilts are often vectored by insects, however they can also persist in soil around infected plants and infect new plants via that route.

Insect vectored wilts are quite commonly seen.

One of the places you are likely to have experienced this type of wilt is in your vegetable garden with cucurbit family plants such as zucchini, cucumbers or melons. Most vegetable gardeners have had a beautiful lush zucchini plant just starting to set fruit that wilted down one day and then gradually faded away taking the promised fruit with it.

Wilts are not exclusive to cucumber plants. They affect a huge range of plants from annuals to perennials, to shrubs and trees. Some commonly affected plants include corn, beans, tomatoes, dahlias, strawberries, impatiens, mums and we could keep going on and on… Wilts also encompass some exotic diseases you might have heard about recently including Oak Wilt, Dutch Elm Disease and Vascular Streak Disease.

Insect vectored wilts are passed from plant to plant similarly to how ticks spread lime disease. An insect bites a plant that has the wilt bacteria or fungus, then it goes on to bite a plant that isn’t diseased depositing bacteria or fungal spores in the new plant. The damage done to the plant by the insect bite is inconsequential, and you may not ever even have seen the insect feeding on your plant. Unfortunately, once this occurs and your plant contracts the wilt organism, it is doomed to die.

The damage done by the introduction of bacteria or fungi is devastating for the plant.

Plants are in large part constructed of water conducting straws called xylem and phloem. Xylem and phloem are responsible for transporting water and nutrients throughout the plant. You can think of a plant stem like a bundle of straws. The wilt organism starts growing inside one of these straws and clogs it up or actually dissolves the plant tissue so water can no longer flow. It is not a big deal for the plant if one straw gets damaged, the plant has lots of xylem and phloem so that if one gets damaged others can compensate.

Unfortunately, as we all know, bacteria and fungi grow quickly. The wilt organisms rapidly spread from their initial location where the insect bit the plant, and before you know it, they have completely clogged all the xylem and phloem tubes. Sometimes an infected plant might look fine when the soil moisture levels are very high, and then rapidly die when the weather is hot and dry because it had too much damaged xylem to survive stress.

When the plant can no longer take up water from its roots, because too much xylem is damaged by the wilt organism, it will wilt as if under drought stress, because it is regardless of the water supplied. The aerial portions of the plant will rapidly desiccate and die, almost as if you had cut the plant off and thrown it on the ground. In the case of a zucchini plant, the plant typically dies within a few days of showing symptoms. In the case of some trees, they may grow slowly and lose more and more branches until they die.

As you can imagine, this is virtually impossible to treat once the symptoms have shown up.

So what can be done about wilts? You are left to try to prevent them and mitigate damage after they arrive. Prevention of insect vectored wilts is as you might imagine simply keeping insects with their dirty mouths off your plants. This is of course much easier said than done. However, pest control is the best way to limit wilts in your garden. It is important to try to limit exposure to pests known to commonly transmit wilts, so for example, don’t let striped cucumber beetles and flea beetles, which commonly vector wilts, run rampant in your garden.

If a wilted plant does show up in your garden the best thing you can do is to remove and destroy the affected plant immediately. If you have a squash plant in your garden die from wilt, remove it. Don’t let sit there and fade away in hopes that it will recover. It is not going to. Don’t give insects the opportunity to feed on that wilted plant and then feed on the nearby healthy plants. Therefore, don’t dump a wilt infected plant in your compost heap where it could still be fed on by insects or over winter pests.

Also, use gardening tools with care. Don’t use your pruners to trim off dead portions of an affected plant and then turn around and use the pruners on healthy plants. If you do this, you will be spreading the disease to other plants. You are creating an injury and placing the pathogen into the injury exactly as a insect vector does. Sterilize your prunes between cuts and plants using something like bleach or alcohol. Bleach is corrosive, so if you use bleach, be sure to thoroughly wash and oil your pruners before putting them away.

Do not plant highly susceptible plants where other plants have died from wilt.

As we mentioned some of these wilts can remain in the soil near where infected plants are/were. Common ones include generalists such as fusarium and verticillium wilts. Often these wilts will lurk in the soil waiting for an opportune time to attack a new host. This may occur for example in a poorly drained portion of the garden in an unusually hot wet summer.

As an example, verticillium wilt can remain in the soil for up to 25 years if it gets established. This generalist can affect hundreds of different plant species. Therefore, if your maple tree succumbed to what you suspect to be verticillium wilt, don’t replace it with another maple or you will likely get the same results. This is one of the reasons crop rotation is a recommend practice. Rotation between susceptible and non-susceptible plants giving pathogens time to die before you return to the susceptible crop.

Lastly, if you have wilts running rampant in your garden, it is likely a good indication that you do not have very healthy soil. In addition to planting resistant plants, you should work towards improving the health of your soil. As we mentioned last time in our discussion of root rot, overly wet, poorly aerated soils create the perfect environment for pathogens to flourish. These sorts of conditions also create weak plants that are more susceptible to disease problems. Sometimes something as simple as improving the drainage or texture of your soil can go a long way towards reducing problems and improving plant health.

We hope this give you some insight into the mysterious ‘sudden deaths’ of healthy thriving plants that we sometimes see.

If you would like to learn more about problems you might encounter in your garden, don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter!

Please remember

The information provided is for general informational purposes only. All information on the site is provided in good faith, for general informational and educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional advice. We make no representation or warranty of any kind, express or implied, regarding the accuracy, adequacy, validity, reliability, availability, or completeness of any information on this Site. Accordingly, before taking any actions based upon such information, we encourage you to consult with the appropriate professionals. We do not provide any kind of professional advice. THE USE OR RELIANCE OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THE SITE IS SOLELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. View full disclaimer here.

The post Wilts: How Can My Healthy Plant Suddenly Be Dead? first appeared on Snowdrop Farm.

As passion flower growers, root rot is something we are always on watch for. Passion flowers are highly susceptible to root rot as are a variety of other plants such as lavender, rosemary, succulents, vinca, petunias, etc. You can bet that if the plant tag states that the plant requires good drainage that it is susceptible to root rot.

What is root rot and how to recognize it

Root rot is caused by a soil pathogen, usually one of several different fungi. It invades the roots of your plant and causes the roots to die and rot off. Left unchecked, it will continue to rot the roots until your plant has nothing left. This can happen very quickly in waterlogged soil as the overly wet soil creates the perfect environment for the fungus to rapidly grow. There are also wilts that can be transmitted by insects, however they are different and that is a topic for another day.

In this article, we are concerned with root rot caused by over watering. The main symptoms of this type of root rot are wilting of plants, yellow leaves and stunted growth. If your plant has yellow leaves and stunted growth, you may be able to save it if you can get the soil to dry out quickly. Unfortunately, plants that suddenly wilted down are less likely to recover.

If you pull one of these plants out of their pot, you will usually see soggy soil and plant roots that are brown and wet or mushy looking rather than being white and plump. If the top of the soil in the pot is covered with moss, that is also a good indication that your plant is likely suffering from excess moisture.

The symptoms of over watering and under watering look virtually identical

It is important that you look not only at the plant’s leaves, but you also need to check the soil when you notice a problem with one of your plants. Many a well-intentioned gardener has watered and then watered again a plant because it was wilted. However, had they checked the soil before watering they would have realized that water was the last thing the poor plant needed.

The yellowing of leaves or stunting of growth courtesy of root rot can also look remarkably similar to a nutrient deficiency, or perhaps a disease. Again, this often results in inappropriate treatment of the ailment. Resulting in a dead plant and a confused gardener.

Before you water your plants check the soil

It is always a good policy to only water your plants after checking the soil moisture level. Don’t water them on a schedule or because you think they need it. Don’t water them because they are wilted without checking the soil either. Remember too much water looks the same as too little water and is just as harmful.

It only adds a few seconds to your watering routine to feel the soil for moisture. If the soil is sufficiently moist refrain from watering. Taking a few extra seconds can make the difference between a plant that thrives and one that is dead.

Plants that are root rot prone (including Passifora) benefit from having their soil almost completely dry out before getting watered. What we mean by ‘almost dry out’ is that the soil has dried to the point that the plant is just about to start wilting, or has wilted just a tiny bit. You don’t want them to wilt badly as this can cause the plant to die back or even completely die. However, allowing them to get to the point of almost wilting prior to watering can be very helpful, particularly in cooler weather.

It can also be a good policy to have a dry down day for plants that are susceptible to root rot. This is something we often do with our container grown passion flowers. It is also something that is commonly incorporated into lawn watering schedules. You simply skip your normal watering which allows the plants to get drier than they normally would.

How do we do our dry down days?

We simply skip or delay watering for one session. In the heat of summer, a ‘dry down day’ in our greenhouse might actually only be a watering delay of a few hours as the plants should be watered as soon as they start to show signs of drought stress. What we typically do is avoid watering on any cloudy or rainy day. This prevents the foliage from sitting wet, and also keeps us from over-watering the plants. The plants are not using nearly as much water on a cloudy, wet day as they are on a hot sunny day.

In the winter when it is exceptionally easy to rot out plants, we are even more careful to incorporate time for the plants to dry out into our watering schedule. We might have days and days of cold rainy weather where the greenhouse hardly gets above 50 degrees. In these conditions, sometimes our dry down day might stretch into days. We might avoid watering for a week or more if the plants are not showing any signs of drought stress.

This can be useful not only for passion flowers, but any plant that is intolerant of poor drainage.

Many plants that require excellent drainage are also drought tolerant. They are much less likely to be bothered by a temporary water shortage than they are by consistently wet soil. Many of them may even appreciate short temporary droughts.

Your soil type matters!

Plants grown in poorly drained or heavy clay soil can be more susceptible to root rot than those grown in lighter/sandy soils. Additionally, plants are more susceptible in cool weather. Fall/winter/spring often combines excess rainfall with poor drainage and dormant plants. This creates the perfect environment for rot to take hold. Often, it is actually excess moisture and the resulting rot that causes plants to fail to overwinter, not the cold temperatures.

It is important to carefully situate root rot prone plants or those that are marginally hardy in your climate. You will have the best chance of getting them to survive in a well-drained location. If you cannot provide a well-drained location you are better off switching out the plant for something tolerant of having wet feet.

Plants can drown similarly to how you could drown in a pond

Just like the top of your plant is alive, the roots of your plant are alive. Living organisms need to breathe and your plant roots are no exception. The air spaces between soil particles are components of soil equally as important as the dirt you can see. When soil is saturated with water the air spaces get filled up with water molecules and your plant’s roots are no longer able to breathe and they suffocate. This provides the perfect environment for root rots to take over and finish killing the plant.

Plants vary in their ability to tolerate soil saturation. Some plants can die within a few hours of being submerged. Others, such as those you often see in riparian areas are able to tolerate occasional flooding. Still others are able to live in permanently saturated soil. Some plants even have special roots designed to stick out of the water to get oxygen allowing them to live in permanently saturated soil.

Container grown plants can be particularly susceptible to root rot

This is why it is recommended to gradually pot up plants to slightly larger pots rather than putting a tiny little plant in a huge pot. It is too easy to over water and rot a small plant in a large pot, and even moisture tolerant plants may succumb to rot. This is also why you do not use regular soil in pots, but rather potting mixes. The soil from your garden holds far too much water and will rot your plants.

You may now be wondering, why are container plants more susceptible? After all when you plant a plant in the ground, it is going into an infinitely larger ‘container’ than the pot on your patio. However, there is a distinct (albeit invisible) difference between the two. Soil is not an inert substance your plant is growing in. It is rather one massive living breathing ‘organism’. It is full of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, insects, worms, plant roots, etc. While disease organisms are present in garden soil, healthy soil is balanced, and all the beneficial organisms keep the pathogens in check.

The media in your flowerpots is not part of that living soil organism. It is ‘dead’.

So without all the beneficial organisms present, it is easy for the pathogens to proliferate and overcome your plants. This is why you compensate by potting up plants gradually. By only adding a small amount of new soil, the plant is able to set roots out into it to absorb the excess moisture before the pathogens can take over.

Now, keep in mind, it is not a given that the soil in your garden is healthy. It is very possible to create unhealthy soil where pathogens can overwhelm your plants similarly to how they do so in containers. A good example of this is where they fumigate fields to plant crops like strawberries.

Fumigation kills off all the microorganisms in the soil both good and bad making that field similar to the container on your patio. Its a great thing in the short term because you killed off all the pathogens, but it also sets the soil up to be the perfect environment for pathogens to proliferate making the soil very bad for plants in the long term. So be sure to treat your soil with care and respect as the valuable living organism it is.

How to prevent root rot

Avoid over watering. This is the main cause of root rot. Check soil moisture before watering. Take steps to protect container plants from excess water if they are outdoors and you are going to have a week of rain. Improve your drainage both in containers and also your garden if you can.

If you garden tends towards soggy soil and you wish to grow plants intolerant of wet feet, you may be able to help them by planting them on mounds or in raised beds. This way their crowns and some of their roots will be above your saturated soil during the winter months. Additionally, you may be able to cover a raised bed with plastic to shed the winter rains helping to keep the plant drier.

Lastly, we would recommend that you do yourself a favor and select plants that prefer your soil type and moisture level. Remember there are plants that thrive in every environment from the desert to the swamps. Selecting plants that want to live in the environment you have will allow your garden to flourish with minimal work on your part.

We hope that this guide on root rot will help your plants to thrive this coming season.

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