My take on tropicals grown outside tropical areas is the climate isn’t right. Mainly winter temperatures are too cold esp at night. But short winter days and low light would also play a factor. Even humidity can affect fruit growth and flavor.
Even my greenhouse at 30 N latitude has about 4-5 months with nights in the 30s. I could heat to 60F all winter but that would cost hundreds if not thousands and knock out all those fruits needing chilling.
Besides the weather I think there is something missing in the soils when plants are grown outside of their home area. Even temperate plants taste different from one part of the country to the next. It could be microbial life (like fungi) or it could be minerals in the soil. Sometimes it plays in the opposite direction, my greenhouse grown navel oranges are by far better than any orange I have ever eaten anywhere (I’ve been just about everywhere).
Mine are just average.
I grow passiflora mollissima, “banana passion vine.” The fruits are big (up to 6") and juicy, flavorful. It’s very easy–too easy–to grow out here. Climbs all over. I just bought a “Black Knight” which is round and dark and supposed to be yummy, a little less vigorous. When I’ve got it going I’ll cross pollinate and grow some seedlings and see what I get. I’ve got several seedlings and cuttings of the banana one going now, and if anyone’s in my area and wants one, I will probably have a few to give away in a month. The fruit is spotty in the photo because we had some heat in late winter so a bunch of fruit set, then it had to go through some rain so it’s not as pretty as usual.
I grew a Maypop here in the Washington DC area. At least in this region, they are extremely vigorous – that is, invasive – plants. Be careful where you plant it. The flowers are beautiful. The fruit is not particularly good. I remember passion fruit from where I grew up in Australia, and there is no comparison. I would be interested to know if anyone is successfully growing edulis passionfruit in this area in pots.
My wild maypop finally blossomed (yes, very late. Plant these guys in full sun!). Spectacular flower. I frantically passed all the pollen I could from that to my other one.
Here’s a picture. The wild one has much more speckling on the stamen and stigma, and more purple in the petals. If the leaves look strange, that’s because there’s also a morning glory growing with it.
Here’s the one I ordered from edible landscaping for comparison. It’s gotten very large in full sun.
So far I have 3 fruits on the big plant. It looks like they’re not going to grow much beyond golf ball size. I expect to have better yields in future years when the other plants become established and provide more opportunities for cross-pollination.
Tjasko,
Pretty good for southern PA !
Remember the wild maypop blossom? Here’s the fruit it’s making. Pictures are from yesterday.
Compare and contrast with the purchased maypop, which has been doing this for a month, and whose fruits are fully round and stop at golf ball size.
So far, I’m more impressed with the wild one. But the all-important taste test still hasn’t happened, and Domestic is starting to put on a lot of fruit, so we’ll see. If any of them have good flavor, I’ll be doing some breeding.
I’ve harvested a few fruits from my p.incarnata the past couple of weeks, and they’re significantly better than last year’s fruits from the same vines. Older plants? Different weather? Don’t have a clue, The best tasting fruit have been ones that detach from the vines very easily. One fruit in particular had a flavor that made me want to eat more, and decent size, about the size of a large hen egg. I’ve saved the seeds if anyone’s interested. I’m planning on trying to germinate some starting this weekend if anyone has advice.
Haldog,
I’d like some seeds. I’ll PM you.
I don’t know what kind of winter you have, but you might want to save and refrigerate some of those seeds to germinate next spring, too. The fall germinated ones are likely to not have the opportunity to establish enough root system to get them through winter, unless you are planning to overwinter indoors.
Good luck! I’m glad you found one that you enjoyed.
I took some P. Edulis seeds last October and put them in a little Lemon juice and let it ferment.Afterwards,they were planted and some are growing. Brady
I found mention of a variety of P. incarnate called Lemon Chiffon a few years back (from an EBay ad, which I bid on, but didn’t win). I’ve Ben on the lookout for it for almost a decade and have kicked myself for not winning that auction all this years ago.
Chills
@haldog, I may be interested, depending on how my fruit ends up tasting. I hear they can be tricky to germinate, though.
Just as an aside, I’ve got 3 different kinds of P. Incarnate as well as Caerulea, Capsularis, Incense, Lavender Lady and a Red I am still trying to identify.
Lavender Lady has never fruited (sterile) but blooms very heavily when the temperatures are cooler.
Caerulea pollinates Incarnata and I have a fruit forming right now.
Chills
I had a red passiflora cross that was Lady Margaret. IIRC, it was a variety that did not produce fruits. That and Incense were the original plants that led to having others forever popping up around here. I don’t know how much, if any, LM contributed to the pool.
I had Lady Margaret and this one is different. Next time it blooms I will try to post a pic.
Thanks.
Scott
@tjasko I’ve read the same thing about germination. I’m drying some, trying to germinate some now, and have some others sitting in damp cold in my refrigerator. Obviously I don’t know what’s best.
The wife ran over some of the vine this morning, so I got to peek inside some fruit. I’m concerned. They’re pretty empty, and I’m not sure the seeds are developing at all. Anybody know what could be the problem here? Is this just what unripe passion fruit looks like?
That’s the passion fruit is inside. mostly an airy pulp beneath the skin with fluid filled seed sacs. It takes a lot of them to get a cup of juice.
Pop a seed in your mouth and burst it to get a taste. It’s okay to swallow the seed, or you can spit it out. Expect to get a sour sensation from it, but also notice any other tones in the flavor, especially what the sourness develops into.
