Anyone Grow Passion Fruit?

[ButterflyGarden]

I am thinking about getting a passion fruit plant (mostly because they are so lovely). Does anyone grow them? How big of a container do I need? Any advice before I start?

[CharlieBear]

they would need a very big pot, similar to half wiskey barrels or one big enough to grow a dwarf fruit tree in. You would also need a trellis in the pot. The hardiest of them is the Maypop and even it can't take freezing temperatures, so you would have to wrap it in burlap or row covers before the first frost. Even with those precautions you could lose it. I have lost 2 so far.

[tomc]

I am thinking about getting a passion fruit plant (mostly because they are so lovely). Does anyone grow them? How big of a container do I need? Any advice before I start?

Passiflora (maypop) is not hearty below 32°F / 0°C. If you live where olive trees grow you should be OK.

Israeli gardening not withstanding, if you live on the top of the hill, and olive don't live there, maypop won't either.

I'm thinking this would be an inground plant over a potted one. It is a vining plant.

[lorax]

I'll second the recommendation that it be an in-ground plant for you; apart from the Maypops you can investigate the Andean highland types - particularly the banana passionfruits Taxo (P. mixta) and Sachataxo (P. molissima tripartata). These are hardy to about 5 C and produce very tasty fruits.

Most passies will prefer slightly acidic soil and will need something to climb; allowing the vines to ramble along the ground results in bugs eating your fruit, and it will also make it harder to see the flowers (which are lovely in their own right).

[CharlieBear]

they are all vining plants and as I understand it she doesn't have the option to plant in the ground. Actually, if it is in a pot, it would be best taken in during the winter. I didn't get them in soon enough and that is how I lost one. The other one was in the ground, well mulched and covered with row covers and we had and unusual cold snap and it was lost. They can be really tricky, especially as cold as Jerusalem can get in the winter (you get snow some years, probably too cold without protection)

[ButterflyGarden]

Thanks everyone. Charliebear, you are right. I do not have the option if putting it in the ground as I live on the 7th floor.

Olive trees grow here so I take it that's a good sign. It usually doesn't get below freezing although it can. Many people in my neighborhood have passion fruit though. The court yard of my pediatrician's office is full of it and it's so lovely.

How do I make my soil acidic?

[adobo]

a 55gal drum split in half will do fine as a container for passifloras. just don't forget to make a trellis for your plant.

[lorax]

Coffee grounds in the soil are usually enough to lower the pH into the range of the passionfruits. If you're going to grow in pots, you need trellis!

[ButterflyGarden]

Thanks! I already have a trellis. I'll add some coffee grounds. We have plenty in our house!!

[rainbowgardener]

Hadn't looked at this thread before, but now I'm very confused. I guess it's different species of passion flower.

But the maypop/ passionflower, passiflora incarnata, is quite cold hardy. It is native in my zone 6 area and hardy down to zone 5:

https://www.grit.com/Garden/Cold-Hardy-Tropicals-Add-Flare.aspx

I hadn't looked at the thread because I don't grow it, but I was recently walking around a friend's garden, not too far from me, and her yard is getting over run with passion flower, which thrives there and comes back bigger each year and spreads itself with abandon. Hers is in ground and climbing over the shrubbery and vining itself up into trees.

[merlene]

I bought a load of passion fruit and the kids managed to chuck seeds all over the garden.Six months later we had passion plants growing.
We kept the strongest four and got some fruit from them.

[rainbowgardener]

where are you located, merlene?

I figured this out, when someone else asked about passionflower/ passionfruit. The passion flower, passiflora incarnata, that is native for me and cold hardy, is a different species and does not make fruit. The passionflower, passiflora edulis, that makes passion fruit is a tropical or sub-tropical.

[jutsuri]

From what I've read (in Uncommon Fruit for Every Garden, Lee Reich) the Maypop (Passiflora incarnata) is the only hardy passionflower with edible fruit. There are other hardy passionflowers but they won't produce fruit, and the other passionfruits (P. edulis, and P. edulis flavicarpa) are tropical. Furthermore, some Maypops have tasty fruit and others don't, and they never have as much pulp as the tropical fruits so they aren't quite as good for eating(or juicing, really, since that is usually how they are used.) I haven't planted one yet because I read that they could be terribly invasive and I haven't chosen a spot for a vine that might want to swallow the whole property. The flowers are beautiful though, and they co-evolved with zebra butterflies and therefore are a great attractor/larvae feeder. Some day I think I will plant one, I just have to find the right spot.

[lorax]

the other passionfruits.....

There are actually a great number more edible passionfruits apart from P. edulis and P. edulis flavicarpa., many of which will thrive with a bit of protection in more temperate climes.

P. ligularis (Granadilla Dulce), P. mixta (Taxo), P. mollisima tripartita (Sachataxo), P. coccinea (Taxo Rojo), P. gigantea (Granadilla Gigante) and P. cuadrangularis (Badea) all spring to mind. Of these, the Taxo grouping (banana passionfruits) are found near the snowline in Ecuador, and the Granadilla Dulce is grown almost exclusively in the temperate highlands areas.