I don’t know how deep they can go, but I found at my old place they ran horizontally 12” or more underground. However, that was pretty much where the water table sat during the wetter months, so I bet deeper in the right soil.
1 Like
Well I went with 24”. Going to dig a 25’ trench and roll with that. If it stops 90% of them I’ll be happy.
3 Likes
Did I allocate enough trellis space for them? The whole thing is 18’ wide. If not, I can probably add another 10-15’ at a right angle on the right, though I’m hesitant to get too close to a nearby peach tree.
Also, I only noticed 2 flowers the other day. But, now I see several more flowers and dozens of flower buds (roughly 50). Is this normal? From the description on PH, each vine often produces 15-20 fruit per year. Based on this, I’m guessing that a majority of flowers don’t actually set fruit, if I see 50 on a newly planted vine.
2 Likes
Does vine count as one plant or just a leader of a plant, aka can have multiple strong vines in just one set of roots? At least what I’ve seen is that the more trellis you give, the more it’ll spread. That’s my little knowledge on the plant though
1 Like
BTW we ship out seedlings, not root divisions of our ‘Superior’ passionfruit strain. @BobVance you received 3 seedlings. They do sucker like crazy but a lawnmower takes care of that. And, hand pulling the errant vine coming up somewhere else is easy. This is what our trellises look like after a few years:
8 Likes
Yes they are quite the monster grower.
Are there any incarnatas or hybrids that are hardy to zone 5?
I think we are trying to determine that. It’s one of my current trials here at PHN. The breeders in Ukraine might have info on cold tolerance.
2 Likes
‘Genesis’ does NOT appear to be self-pollinating based on my isolation and hand pollination test. Not a big surprise.
4 Likes
Those look pretty full. In particular, the rows look quite close together. Are you even able to get a mower in between?
What spacing do you recommend? I have all 3 on an 18’ section of 6’ tall fencing (4x2” wire).
Thanks for clarifying. They were so small that I assumed it was root sections. They do grow impressively fast. Especially one of the 3 that just clicked and decided to take over the world.
The big one has been putting out multiple flowers per day:
Neither of the others has flowered yet, but it looks like one will do so soon. Possibly too late for this year, but a good sign for next year.
5 Likes
My issue with maypops on a trellis, which looked just like Blake’s, is that after a couple years the vines ditched the trellis and only come up in far flung places. I describe it as migration.
This could be due to my shallow, crappy soil, not sure.
3 Likes
In response to you both, I don’t mow in between the rows, I have landscape fabric in between, with narrow uncovered beds about 12-18” wide. It’s only August, so flowers could definitely still fruit.
About ‘migration’, yes I have noticed this as well. I thought it could pose a challenge to P. incarnata farming. However, I’ve noticed they do ‘move around’ a lot, but still plenty of suckers come up in the trellis vicinity enough so that the trellises still do their job. However, they may need replanted after some years if necessary. The long fleshy roots are easy to dig and replant wherever when dormant.
5 Likes
I don’t know if it’s as much the case with the straight species, which just suckers a lot more in general so probably not, but I’ve noticed with the hybrids I grow they wander a lot more if the crown is winter damaged. Even when the crown survives and belatedly sends up shots, if some portion it has frozen back and sets back the initial spring regrowth, the roots are way more inclined to sucker and start new crowns.
7 Likes
Hybrid fruits of Incarnata x Edulis which are backcrossed to Incarnata so potentially contain hybrid seeds, they could be empty but they do have some weight on them. #2 is showing red speckle pattern on the fruit contrasting with the others that produced green fruit. #3 and #6 have not set fruit and are slower to flower so probably will cull those. We don’t want late flowers/fruiting in zone 7a.
9 Likes
I put myself on the “notify” list for Genesis.
My plants got chewed on by something small, like caterpillar or something, I didn’t find the culprit.. The superior seedling rebounded and is growing.
1 Like
Mollusks and rolly pollies can be major pests. Hopefully it didn’t die on you!
4 Likes
Could be slugs, they have done some pretty severe damage to mine before. I assume you’re too far north for fritillary butterflies?
3 Likes
Yeah, that’s the most probable. I didn’t see them, but they’re certainly around.
I should have treated it more like a vegetable than a fruit tree.
1 Like
My first flower of the DK x BitBop Ukrainian variety… It looks like a smaller version of a Maypop. I have both side by side here…
Left one is the Ukrainian one, right one is a seedling of a maypop from last year (well it’s a seedling of the Snowpop from OGW I was curious if it would revert back to the original colors which at least this one did).
On the Snowpop seedling I actually have a couple fruit that hopefully will ripen by the end of the summer..
I’ll put both flowers right next to each other and hope that a bee pollinates the Ukrainian one.
Every time I look out there there’s a bee so hoping it happens today.
If I don’t get fruit this year I’ll overwinter it for next year
9 Likes
Hello.
Hand pollinate yourself. Don’t rely on insects.
5 Likes