Harvest time...

Since this is harvest time for many of us, I thought this would be a fun discussion that everyone could participate in.

What Passiflora have you had the fewest viable seeds in? I know that some hybrids create very few seeds. P. 'Lady Margaret' is notorious for having either none or very few. Our attempt with incarnata this year ended in a hollow fruit. The only thing we have had create seeds with 'LM' is P. caerulea. We had 3 or 4 seeds and they never have come up.

What would you consider to be a great maternal species for hybridization due to readiness of the plant to produce viable seed? One interesting one is P. x violacea. It is a fantastic mother, and creates black, solid seeds with many pollinators in only 50-60 days. The only problem is that the fruit is always very small, and I don't think I have ever had more than 15 seeds in a fruit, and usually it is more like 8. Not a lot to play with...

How about the best stallion of a pollen donor? Without any doubt, debate, or question, P. loefgrenii Iporanga is by far the heaviest pollinator I have. It creates the largest fruits on the maternals, and seems to create viable seeds even on things that it probably should not. P. nephrodes, P. caerulea, and P. loefrenii x caerulea all come in far behind for potency.

What has been the longest you have had to wait for a fruit to ripen? I have two fruits on my P. sidifolia from different pollen parents. I bred them in early May... they are still not even close to being ripe in October!

What fruit have you had the most seeds in? I think my winner is P. loefgrenii x caerulea. With P. loefgrenii Iporanga pollen, and also with P. mooreana pollen, both fruits had over 150 seeds.

Largest fruit? I think P. pheonicea takes the cake this year for us. It is about 4-1/2" tall, and 2-1/2" wide.

Smallest fruit? Without a doubt, the unknown species from Nuevo Leon that I posted a pic of on this forum. They are about the size of a BB. Granted, they are young, and could still get bigger, but I think that is going to be it.

I'm sure there are more things to ask and talk about, so feel free to add your own thoughts.

For easy of copy and paste, here's the questions together, if you wish to use them:

What Passiflora have you had the fewest viable seeds in?
What would you consider to be a great maternal species for hybridization due to readiness of the plant to produce viable seed?
How about the best stallion of a pollen donor?
What has been the longest you have had to wait for a fruit to ripen?
What fruit have you had the most seeds in?
Largest fruit?
Smallest fruit?

I hope we can have some fun with this...

Cheers!