Charley was a no-show here. 20 hours before his arrival the forecast was for Savannah's islands to have 118 MPH winds...so I shipped the wife and kids up to Dublin, as my house is surrounded by lots of large sand live oaks and they were calling for 6-8 inches of rain...which would "float" the roots and if that happened, hell, a 50 mph wind would send them on the house. I did, however, make it to the beach to surf early that next morning and caught the biggest waves i have ever seen on off of Tybee. Easily 8 footers. I caught several curls and was having my best day of surfing in many years...until...I got rolled severley and nearly dislocated my shoulder..and had enough strawberries on my body to put a farm out of business. It just goes to show you that "you can't surf ahead of the wave, or behind it". It was a very rough spill that was a sobering experience, but, I can't wait for the next big swells to come!. We had maybe 12-15 days where it dropped below freezing here, with only 4 or 5 frosts. Our low was 26 as well...and that wasn't a frost. Our lowest frost was 27 and defoliated about 1/3 of the leaves on one of my passionfruit vines.

Most of the grocery stores around here carry P. edulis. A lot depends on the variety that you have but most are easy to start from seed and the fresher the better. You can clean the seed prior to planting or plant it with the aril still on (but remove the juice). Barely cover the seed with potting mix and keep it warm. You can cover the pot to hold in humidity but remove the cover when it germinates. If it is an edulis you can probably grow it outside in the ground. It might die back during the winter but will grow when it warms up. Since there's loads of seed in each fruit try some inground and keep some in a container with protection. They might need cross pollination to set fruit and hand pollination might be necessary. If it's edulis I think the purple variety is self pollinating but not the yellow variety. Most like full sun and don't want wet feet. Make sure they are in well draining soil. They are average feeders and I honestly feed my passies infrequently. Potassium increases flower production. I dig a bit of chopped banana peels into the soil around my plants. I don't remember where I heard about doing that but the plants seem to like it. You might want to check out the passiflora forum.

Mr. Dubai - I live in the desert outside Los Angeles and probably have similar soil to you, and climate. Super hot (108-110 F in summers) and mostly quite dry. And YES - straw and hay - they are GREAT for mulching and can double as a mix when you make your compost from kitchen waste, if you do that kind of thing. Put it on real thick - 6 inches is not too much. And YES also to the Alkaline soil - I have it too. I believe all sandy soil comes from once being the bottom of the ocean or a body or water. I think my soil is quite salty as well. It does not have many nutrients to it at all. Everything has to be added. Upon further reading of your last post, it looks like you are doing a lot of good things already and seeing results in the texture and feel of your soil. Way to go! Micronutrients may be needed at some point. I understand they might affect flavor of the fruits. I have a MahaChinook that tastes really not that good here, and it is a top tier mango on many people's tastebuds in Florida and in the Los Angeles are. I just don't know how much you'll get of them from mulches, manures and what have you....Looks like you might have to order that stuff on line and have it shipped. Be careful if you use foliar sprays on your plants. They do burn the plant when it's put on when the temps top 100. Better to hand water fertilizer to the base of the plant at your hottest time of the year. Once is cools down a bit, these foliar sprays really do trigger growth for me! I've still got to wait another couple weeks till we start averaging temps in the lower 90's before I try foliar sprays again.....And remember - Mango trees can burn with fertilizer. I try to use a weaker strength-ed mix and use it every couple weeks. But maybe your manure additive is working good for you - just watch out for leaf burn from it - that could mean it's too strong. Oh, I just looked at your weather averages. Your summers are very similar to mine, but your winters, January to be specific, look like you average about 75 as a high and 60 as a low. Mine are more like 70 as a high and 45 as a low. And it looks like you rarely if ever get frosts, so that's great! Lucky you. One last question - do your mango leaves get some summer burn on the hottest days? Mine do.... GOOD LUCK - MyADog

The leader won't re-grow its snipped tip, but the leader should branch, or perhaps the original above graft stem will respond with a new leader. Wait & see. Re the first one, I'd see if there are any obvious nodes on it and re-prune to above that for a start, and perhaps give extra support for that growing point for now . Unless you are growing commercially, most home growers would be happy with a fruiting vine without bothering excessively counting leaders, it's a matter of giving the plant the space and support it needs to grow to flowering size without it becoming too tangled. The below link from DPI of your state might help Here is a link that might be useful: growing passionfruit in WA