Passiflora Seed Testing

I came across a dried Passionflower seed pod in the garage a couple of days ago. I had taken a couple of pods from a neighbors vine which we pass on our regular walking route through the neighborhood.

I have no idea whether the seeds are still viable, so I decided to do a quick test to see if any of the seeds would sprout. I took 10 seeds, out of the perhaps 50 in the seed pod, spread them out on a wet paper towel and then sealed that in a zip to bag. Ten seeds gives me a quick and easy methods of discovering the percentage of viable seeds that I can expect in the entire batch.

I really like Passionflower vines, but the butterfly larvae seem to love them, too. We can always find 2 or 3 in various stages of their lifecycle. They completely strip the one vine we have right now. I keep thinking the vine is dead, but it seems to come back again and gain.

I will let you all know how many seeds sprout, if any. If so, I will take those and pot them up to a good size before trying to transplant them in the garden.

Link: Previous mentions of Passionflower
Link: Book: Passiflora by Torsten Ulme

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