I just planted 2 maypops and I planned on planting another kiwi near the maypop about 8’ away but I noticed the maypop is already sending out new baby plants 2’ from the mother plant and it’s only been 1 month since I planted it. Will these maypops take over the whole trellis or will it just use the 8’x4’ of trellis with 4 wires, as of now each plant has 5 vines? Does anyone know how deep maypop and kiwi roots grow, should I dig a circle around each maypop and put some barrier around it to keep the roots in? I was planning on putting leaf mulch down under the trellis to kill out the grass so I don’t have to mow. I also have black silt fence, should I put this down along the trellis to control excess growth? I guess if it grows into my grass it’s not a bid deal since I just cut the grass, correct?
Thanks @Beetree
The maypop will go completely wild over the entire pictured area over time 
Yes you can easily pull up shoots or mow them.
I wondered about root depth too but don’t know for sure. Some folks online say they are shallow but an expert and know says they are deep. I tend to agree they are deepish and would be hard to contain via barrier.
Also they don’t generally like being restricted in the root zone.
I say just embrace it and plan to mow and pull.
maypop will throw up new growing shoots everywhere. It also tends to freeze back to the ground to start up again like nothing happend.
It depends on climate and other factors. But in a “fight” between a kiwi and a maypop (passiflora incarnata) im betting on the maypop.
You could move both maypops close together and prune away the new shoots where you don’t want them. But intermixing them with kiwi’s will give you a need to protect the kiwi’s. Issia is an arguta if I’m not mistaken. Those especially are already a little smaller. So would not be able to compete so well against maypops.
I’m not sure how hard your frosts are. but if you can mulch it, and the soil is decently free draining (or you make a hill)
Byron beauty could possible also do well. (i think it’s a tetraploid hybrid containing mostly edulis (supermarket passionfruit) and incarnata (maypop). That was bread in an effort to get a passion vine that’s cold hardy with tasty fruits. The tastiness of the fruits supposedly came through fine. the cold hardiness less so.
Only disadvantage (next to the not so super cold hardiness) is it needs a tetraploid pollinizer. Luckily there are quite a few tetraploid cold hardy ornamental passion flowers.
seems like you beat me to it by 2 minutes.
Only thing i could add. Most passion flowers in my experience tend to have the majority of their rootsystem quite shallow. Thus if you work the soil around them mechanically you hurt their roots.
However they also make a few deep and wide reaching roots. That tend to sucker. and can reach easily 10+ feet far. Although the majority of the suckers is usually closer by.
I started out wanting a muscadine, then I changed my mind and planted the 2 maypop (both different strains for better pollination), then I figured what the heck and planted the Jenny and male close together. I wish I did plant the 2 maypops closer together, it might be a good Idea to move 1 closer to the other and plant the Issia closer to the Jenny.
Sound like there’s not really anything I can do about the spreading other than just mowing the grass and pull out any unwanted canes. I’ll also put down leaf mulch since I have a ton of it.
Every spring they randomly shoot up new suckers. 10 ft the 2nd year then the next year 20 feet away from where the original plant was. The plant doesnt always come back in the same spot, sometimes its main base or a big sucker moves 5ft over the following spring. In FL it will be more aggressive and get less freeze damage than here in kansas. It likes the southeast. Its weird. I plan to dig mine all out of my garden and go plant them along the woods.
Do I really need 2 maypops? One of my maypops already has 2 fruits from the first 2 flowers so i’m at 100% pollinated by itself since the other maypop has no flowers yet? How many maypops could 1 plant produce in a year?
You need two seedlings for different genetics in order to get good fruit set. But you may have wild ones in the woods near you that are doing that with bees etc…
passion fruit when poorly pollinated, can still set fruit. However often those are empty of seeds. And thus empty of the edible part.
I would not get rid of one, until you’f eaten the fruits of the other.
@figerama I am glad you have lots of room to try this out. I had considered maypop as an option for my yard but after reading this thread, I’m confident it would be the only fruit remaining if I let it grow as it would want to. Keep us updated!
Excellent input - my experience as well
you could probably still grow some in a wide but shallow tub. If you have a frost-less spot (shed?/basement?) you could even go for less hardy edible passiflora (edulis for example)
My maypops aren’t really growing very fast? I have about 4" of leaf mulch and the maypop is spreading under the mulch. I’ve made sure to water at least 1 time a week. Is this normal growth for May? There are about 12 small plant growing, should I let all 12 plants grow or prune out to a lower number for better growth, say 4 canes?
I know here in 7a due to cool spring mine are behind. Regardless, what you’re showing looks reasonable to me.
if you want to direct growth to a single vine you can pull up the runners/suckers…12 is a lot of plants at full maturity…they are very vigorous. But not sure if what you have in the picture is your entire growing area. If so, 12 is a lot (?)
are these seedlings or all clones?
Clones I believe, I bought 2 plants off of e-bay, 1 he said was from Auburn, AL and the other from Asheville, NC. I was able to taste a couple last year which were really good.
Ok so at least 2 genotypes, so you should be good.
My maypop did not produce any fruit last year and so far this year it seems not to be growing very well. Should I just let the original mother plant grow and pinch all of the new plants from the runners? It has about 4 in of leaf mulch and I just fertilized with 10-10-10 2 weeks ago.
Are all those green shoots the specific runners to which you’re referring?
If so I would say there’s no need to remove them unless they are too far from your trellis for them to do any good.
After the first year or so, there no longer is a strong “mother plant” in my experience.
It may even stop coming up from the original location at all.
Also thick leaf mulch could be an issue. Not an absolute but they don’t seem to like thick mulch. Leaf mulch tends to form a mat ( unless finely shredded) which could make things worse.
This could be partly why you’re not seeing good vigor
i’d like to grow some maypops where theyll have the best chance of thriving, but im also concerned that theyll render thr area they’re growing in useless for other plants. i was going to put them in my high tunnel, but that seemed like a bad idea. new plan is to grow them against the tall south facing gable of my house.
im thinking of planting the maypops in half 55 gallon plastic drums. i thoight some crushed stone at the bottom and keeping the drain holes small would tend to discourage rooting outside of the container. I realize this may be wishful thinking and some escaping is probably inevitable. the 1/2 drum container would also make giving it a bit of extra protection in winter a simple proposition. i could give it simple cover of some kind. perhaps just a lid, perhaps something insulating too.
im wondering if anyone has any thoights about how big maypops might get grown in ~25 gallons of soil? Others have commented on its propensity do die at the crown but spring forth from distant rhizomes. Those pf you with experience, Im wondering if you have any comments about how this might play out.
the area is ~24 ft. x 5 ft or so at present. It used to be where i kept my container subtropicals, etc. during the growing season, but i keep those on the high tunnel now. im now thinking to plant 3 san pedro figs in the ground there. im considering also planting those in 1/2 barrels, and theyll get pruned and covered with a full 55 gallon drum which i plan to fill with cellulose insulation, as its great insulation (obviously) and is generally treated with sodium tetraborate, a rodent repellent. the maypops, four of them, would be flanking the figs but closer to the wall, where id give them something to climb.
the area also houses a bunch of my native Physalis collection. All 3 are aggressive rhizomatous species that thrive in poor soil and in exposed locations, so they seem compatible in that regard. it would be nice if theyd sort of stay put too though!