Hi,
Does anybody have experience with these vines? They’re said to produce pod-like fruit with a soft flesh, that tastes like melon, but is a bit more bland. The flowers are purple or brown and said to smell of chocolate.
It’s originally from China, where it is grown as a crop. In Europe it’s commonly used as an ornamental plant for covering building facades.
I’ve never grown it, but I’ve read they are shy to fruit. I’m intrigued by it, but with limited space don’t want to risk something with no/low fruit. Hopefully others have contrary experience!
The only location I’ve seen the plant growing,was on the grounds at One Green World Nursery in Molalla,Oregon.The pods look like something I’d envision on another planet.
That’s also the only place that I tried the prepared fruit.One taste was all it took to know the vine was not going to be on my list.
Yes,bland and if I remember right,a jelly-like consistency. Brady
I have the white version swallowing many parts of my property. It’s no 15 footer here like it said! And when happy it roots where it touches the ground (oops).
The late winter thru spring fragrance is awesome. If anyone would like a plant or ten, just let me know!
I’m going to clear it out and then grow one or two in a pot, out in the open where I can see where it’s going.
I grow Akebia. I get several hundred fruit from one vine and none from another. I can only assume that the non-bearing cultivar is sterile. My heavy fruiting cultivar is purple flowered although I inherited it so I don’t know the cultivar. The other has white blooms. To get them to fruit, I have to hand pollinate. They both show male and female parts but I never got one fruit from the white cultivar.
What I do with them is make a juice. They have a melon like flavor and adding some lemon makes it more pronounced. My daughter and I really enjoy the juice. We also like grabbing the split open pods and machine gun spitting the seeds at each other. They are a beautiful novelty but probably not going to be a mainstream item unless the flavor becomes stronger through breeding. I am glad I have it though. They ripen in late Sept in Arlington, Wa.
Excellent pictures thank you! What are the water requirements of akebia and how would it do with prolonged periods of drought?
I have been interested in growing this as a medicine and found many people in japan like it and little interest elsewhere and wondered if it needed certain conditions to become good?
I don’t think drought would be a big issue once established. They are quite hardy and aggressive vines. I live where we get lots of rain from Oct to April and almost none from July to Sept. We regularly go 30 days plus with no rain. I never water mine at all. I will say, my summers are not has hot as other places in the country though. I think it is considered an invasive in some parts of the country. Probably plan on hand pollinating. I didn’t one year and got a few but under 10 vs a standard year.
I don’t like using the term “invasive” because it has no scientific meaning at all, but for those who appreciate the thrust of that word, akebia vines are extremely invasive. I don’t think I’ve grown anything more invasive, and I’ve grown kudzu.
The taste of the fruit is mild but pleasant. The problem is that there is really noting to eat. Getting dozens of the fruit and squeezing them for juice would probably make a nice drink, but I’m not sure that it would be worth the work.
I’m lucky that they behave in my climate but I’ve heard horror stories.
I don’t know where you are, but I doubt that they behave. What is your climate? They spread by runners or seeds. The older they get, the more problems they cause. The seeds can lay dormant for 5-10 years. Birds can spread them for miles around.
I’m in Western Washington north of Seattle zone 8b. I’ve been at my house for 5 years and the vines are about 2" in diameter so I’d guess they were here for a long time before we got here. The previous owners were not much into gardening so I don’t think they paid much attention to it. I’ve never seen it anywhere else on my 5 acres but where the two are planted. I have had some long vines flop off of the trellis but I just pulled them up. We get very little summer heat so that might be part of it. Most summer days are 70’s here with maybe 10 days hitting 80 and we rarely hit 90. Maybe 1-2 days a year. I’ve also heard maypop passion vine can be a problem in other parts of the country but here it is hard to get it to grow much. There are a lot of “invasives” in other parts of the country that don’t invade here like Autumn Olive and butterfly bush. We also get less sunny days per year than most of the country. Our average is 152 vs the US average of 205 so less photosynthesis to go around 
Maybe that coolness is slowing them down. I can’t think of anything else that would.
How is that vine doing? Did it survive the snow/ cold snap this past Christmas? I’m thinking of getting one.
Wasn’t fazed by the cold at all. It didn’t really defoliate much. Maybe some of the new shoots but it looks pretty much exactly like it did before the cold hit.
Akebia are a bit of a novelty. I like to post a few photos to throw people off expecting only pear photos!
You’re more successful than me, Clark. I tried two species on a customer’s patio-screening lath wall. Late cold-snaps always froze them to the ground.
They did terrible at first. Got tired of that and planted a fruit tree nearly on top of them. Found out they loved the shade they took off. Two plants are needed to fruit
