How to Grow Giloy in Australia

Giloy (Tinospora cordifolia, family Menispermaceae) is a deciduous climbing vine grown for its heart-shaped leaves and the thin aerial roots that hang from older stems. It is also called guduchi or heart-leaved moonseed. The store sells it as fresh, unrooted Giloy (Guduchi) Vine Cuttings for an ornamental climber, and never for eating or any medicinal use. It thrives in tropical and subtropical gardens, and it asks for patience: a cutting can look dead for months before it shoots.

Three mistakes that matter

1. Keeping the cutting cold and wet. An unrooted cutting sitting in cold, sodden mix rots before it roots. Use a sandy, free-draining mix, water it once, then keep it barely damp in the warmest spot you have.
2. Tipping out the pot too soon. A cutting often dies back above the mix, then shoots again from a buried node, so wait the full four months before giving up.
3. Leaving it in open ground through a cold winter. Young vines are frost tender, and a cold, wet winter in the ground kills them. In cool districts, grow giloy in a large pot and move it under cover before the first frost.

When to plant

Plant cuttings from spring into summer, and in the tropics as the wet season builds. Cuttings root best once days reach about 18 to 24°C and nights stay mild. In India, where the vine grows wild, growers plant cuttings in June and July and grow the vine on rainfall. One planting is enough, because the vine is perennial and supplies its own cuttings in later years.

The store sends cuttings in the warmer months, when they strike best, and may hold a cold-season order until conditions suit. Late in the window, strike cuttings in a pot on a heat mat indoors, so roots form before the cold.

Site, soil and setup

Picture a paling fence in a Brisbane backyard, or an old tree in Cairns: warm, bright and sheltered, with something solid to wrap around. Giloy twines rather than clings, so a flat wall gives it nothing to hold. Growers in India allow about 3 m each way for one vine, and it can cover its support within a year or two.

Container growing

A large pot lets gardeners in cool districts grow giloy and move it under cover for winter. The store sells the one species, as cuttings, with no compact form. Use the biggest pot you can move, at least 40 L and 45 cm across, with drainage holes. Fill it with premium potting mix cut with a little coarse sand, and set a trellis or obelisk in the pot at planting. Potting mix can carry Legionella bacteria, so wet it first, wear gloves and a mask, and wash your hands afterwards.

• Watering: water when the top 2 cm of mix is dry in the growing season, and far less once the leaves drop.
• Feeding: fish and seaweed blend at half strength, about 12 mL per 9 L, fortnightly from spring to late summer.
• Position: full sun to part shade, sheltered, and under cover before the first frost.
• Winter: keep the mix barely moist in a glasshouse, sunroom or bright, warm room until spring.

Striking the cuttings

A giloy cutting has no dormancy to break. It is a length of mature stem, and each raised, corky node can push out a root or a shoot. Warmth decides how fast the buried nodes strike. In real warmth, shoots can appear within a few weeks; in a cool spot, they can take up to four months.

No source gives a home strike rate for giloy. In an Indian field trial, cuttings with three or four nodes survived and grew better than cuttings with fewer. Plant two or three cuttings for every vine you want, which the store's packs of 2, 4 or 10 allow.

A heat mat shortens the wait; see the benefits of using a seedling heat mat.

When nothing comes up

• Soft, black base. The mix was too cold and wet, and the cutting rotted. Start again with a fresh cutting in sandier mix, somewhere warmer.
• Top shrivelled. Die-back above the mix is common, and a buried node can still shoot. Leave the pot warm and barely damp.
• No change in cold weather. The cutting is too cold to strike. Move the pot onto a heat mat or into the warmest room, or wait for spring.
• Bark stripped or bruised. Peeled stem decays quickly. Handle cuttings gently and plant only undamaged lengths.
• Given up too soon. Wait the full four months before tipping out a pot; see Three mistakes that matter.

Planting Cuttings

Start giloy by striking the cuttings in pots, then plant the rooted vine out in warm weather.

Potting the cuttings

• Fill a deep pot with sandy propagating mix, or potting mix cut with coarse sand or perlite.
• Plant, water and place each cutting as Striking the cuttings describes, on a heat mat if you have one.
• Pot on into a larger pot once the shoot is growing and a gentle tug meets resistance.

Planting out

• Plant out in warm weather, once the young vine has several leaves and roots filling its pot.
• Harden it off first (stand the pot outdoors a little longer each day for a week, so it adjusts to sun and wind). See a week of half days first.
• Set it at the foot of its support, about 3 m from the next vine, at the depth it grew in the pot.
• Water in with seaweed solution at half strength, 15 mL per 9 L.
• Mulch the root zone with compost, kept clear of the stem.

Care by growth stage

Warmth, steady but modest water and a firm support decide how quickly giloy grows. Feed lightly: compost and mulch do most of the work.

If growth stalls in poor, sandy soil, a light application of all-purpose controlled release granular (NPK around 14-5-10) scratched in each spring can help.

Vine Training

Giloy twines around whatever it touches and can run several metres in a season. Train it early; its late winter pruning also supplies your cuttings, as Taking Cuttings explains.

• Tie the first shoot loosely to the support until it starts to twine.
• Wind wandering shoots back around the support every week or two in summer.
• Cut the vine back hard in late winter to a framework of main stems.
• Leave the hanging aerial roots, the feature most gardeners grow it for.
• Handle stems gently, because the papery bark peels easily and bare stem decays.
• Keep shoots out of gutters, roof spaces and nearby trees.

A length of stem thrown over a tree can grow there and send roots down to the ground. Bag unwanted prunings or compost them hot, and keep the vine well away from bushland.

Companion planting

Pair giloy with plants that share its liking for warmth and do not compete for its support.

Grows well with

• Lemongrass, a clump for the sunny foot of the support that does not climb.
• Turmeric and ginger, which suit the dappled shade the vine casts in warm gardens.

Keep apart

• Passionfruit, another vigorous climber that competes for the same support.
• Citrus, mango and lychee trees from the Northern Rivers northwards: giloy may host fruit piercing moth caterpillars, as its native relatives do.

Taking Cuttings

Take cuttings from an established vine in late winter, while it is bare, choosing stems about as thick as a pencil with several raised nodes. Where nights are still cold, strike them on a heat mat indoors.

• Use clean, sharp secateurs.
• Cut lengths of about 10 to 20 cm, each with at least three nodes.
• Keep track of which end grew nearest the roots, and plant that end down.
• Reject any length with torn or peeled bark.
• Leave the base of the vine and its main stems to regrow.
• Plant within 24 hours, standing the cuttings half in water meanwhile.

If planting must wait longer, wrap the cuttings loosely and keep them a few days somewhere cool and airy. The harvest has one use: more vines. No part of giloy is eaten or taken. Giloy products are a recorded cause of liver injury, from a compound thought to be a diterpenoid, as Safety explains.

Traditional use and history

Giloy grows wild from the Indian subcontinent to Indo-China. It scrambles along hedges and through moist deciduous forest up to about 1,400 m above sea level. In the forest it climbs over the tallest trees, and its thread-thin aerial roots can hang as far as 10 m below.

In Ayurveda, guduchi appears in the classical texts of Charaka and Sushruta and in later works. Practitioners used it for diabetes, rheumatism, jaundice and malaria, among many conditions. The tradition classed it as a rasayana, a herb linked with long life. The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India records the stem as the part the tradition uses. In Unani practice the plant is known as giloe.

Much of the stem sold in Indian markets has been gathered from wild vines, yet Kew's extinction risk prediction rates the species as not threatened. During the COVID-19 pandemic, giloy products were taken widely in India. Doctors there then recorded a run of liver injury cases, which Safety sets out.

Safety

Happy Valley Seeds sells giloy as live cuttings for growing, as an ornamental climber. Nothing here is advice to eat or take any part of the plant. Anyone thinking of using a plant should first seek advice from a qualified health practitioner.

Two relatives are easily confused with giloy. Tinospora crispa resembles it and is also a recorded cause of liver injury, and early giloy cases were first blamed on it. Tinospora sinensis has hairy leaves and larger crimson fruit. Call triple zero (000) if someone collapses, stops breathing or has a seizure.

Common problems

Cutting rotted. A soft, blackened base means the mix was cold and wet; see Three mistakes that matter.

Mould on the cut ends. A little surface mould after a few days in transit is common on fresh cuttings; rinse and plant, as Striking the cuttings describes.

Leaves dropping in autumn. Giloy is deciduous, so in cooler gardens it sheds its leaves and sits dormant through winter, alive and waiting for warmth.

Flowers but no fruit. Each vine is male or female, and cuttings from one vine share its sex, so a lone vine sets none of its red, pea-sized fruit.

Pests and diseases

Indian growers report no serious pest or disease on giloy.

Fruit piercing moth (Eudocima species). Its velvety black caterpillars carry two large white eyespots on each side. They feed on native vines of giloy's family, Menispermaceae, chiefly snakevine (Tinospora smilacina), and in India on giloy itself. The adult moths pierce ripening citrus, mango, lychee and stone fruit at night. They occur from the Northern Rivers of New South Wales northwards, so check the leaves in summer and pick off any caterpillars.

Prevention first

• Strike cuttings in fresh mix and clean pots that drain freely.
• Check the leaves for caterpillars through summer in Queensland and northern New South Wales.
• In fruit piercing moth country, bag ripening fruit on nearby trees, or net it with white netting of 5 mm mesh or finer, tied taut.

Tips

1. Write the planting date on the pot label, so you know when four months are up.
2. Site the vine where the aerial roots hang against the light, beside a verandah or a path.
3. Stand a potted vine on pot feet over winter, so the drainage holes never sit in water.

Due to quarantine restrictions and our shipping policy, we cannot send Giloy cuttings to Western Australia, Tasmania or the Northern Territory.