If at all possible use fresh wet seed from a fruit that has been allowed to drop & has been left somewhere cool to ripen for at least a week. Put it through a sieve to remove or at least burst most of the arils (the wet sacks that contain the juice), rinse well & do not let the seed dry out. Presoak your seed in a glass in warm water, or if the seed has come to you dry, fresh passion fruit juice for 72 hours by which time it should be smelly/mouldy & fermenting. Then clean & rinse well. Continue to soak with bottom heat for 7 days in water, changing the water each day. I also give fresh wet seed a 7 day presoak. As previously stated some easy to germinate seed that are already well hydrated may be danaged by this & burst. These, generally P. caerulea & its hybrids should just be soaked for 24 hours Then prepare as illustrated on the previous page. Use a small glass with a little water, just a few millimetres, in the foot. The seed are then placed out of the water on synthetic fibre & are kept damp by capillary action only, with Clingfilm or better still a thick non-permeable plastic giving an airtight seal over the top of the glass. The bottom of the fibre should just be touching the water. Kitchen roll can also be used. Cleanliness is not important & indeed a bit of dirt may help germination. I put my heated propagators under a 500 watt light about 4' away to try to get them up to a very high daytime temperature - up to 86°F/30°C or more followed by a drop at night when the light is off. I have found no evidence that any specific times at each temperature are required, but a night time drop may be helpful. Using this method seed can come up very quickly with high germination rates. Apply bottom heat to all seed when germinating...be cautious however with Tacsonia seed as in summer they can overheat after germination. Keep the lid on the propagator & the vents shut to maximize heat. Some seeds germinate in less than a fortnight - others may take months or may not germinate at all. After successful germination, the seedling still has two big hurdles to overcome - that of transplant shock & damping off. A good general rule is to transplant seedlings as quickly as possible - once the first pair of leaves have arrived at latest. If you leave them too long the roots will go through the fibre & have to be snapped off...Ouch!!! Note that some Passiflora are prone to the first pair of seed leaves getting stuck inside either the split seed coat or the dried embryo membrane. Some sort themselves out but depending on species many don't. Help them out using a combination of tweezers, fingers & saliva to wet & slide off the seed coat & the membrane..very difficult to do but once you see the leave spring apart they are generally ok. Transplant out of the propagator to a small pot of 50/50 light potting soil/vermiculite or similar. Some seedlings will cope with heavy soil but most will be unable to push their roots down through it. Put the pot into a plastic bag sealed at the top. Over a few days undo the top of the bag & roll it down & then remove it. When the soil starts to dry out always water as required from underneath, but do not over wet. WARNING! Always use tepid water - cold mains temperature water over winter can put your seed or seedlings into shock. Give the pot good air circulation. If the seedlings are tough & very common, such as caerulea, they may be left to all grow together in a pot, pulling out the weaker ones as they grow & putting them into separate pots when 2"-4" high. A good principle is to realise that the seed is as desperate as you for it to succeed...getting angry because they fail to germinate or the seedlings topple over will not help! | 
Passiflora soilless seed sowing (cont.)
