Passion Fruit Growing in the PNW and similar climates?

[Evenfall]

I’m in the Willamette Valley in Oregon zone 8b and about 6 years ago grew a Passiflora edulis, took cuttings in the fall and planted the resulting plants in the spring on black plastic mulch. The plants grew vigorously flowered profusely, but only set 2 fruit all season. It was supposedly a self fertile variety, lots of insects visited and I hand pollinated as well. I don’t know if it’s our weather conditions that prevented pollination or if it wasn’t actually self fertile. I have always wanted to try again with multiple varieties, but still haven’t gotten around to it. Anyone else experiment with growing P. edulis as an “annual”? I also have never grown maypops, so perhaps they have the flavor I’m seeking or are edulis better?

[TrilobaTracker]

Incarnata taste great if truly ripe, in my opinion, and I grow a lot of them.
However, the flavor is not quite the same as edulis or x flavicarpa. These tropical species are much more complex and intense in flavor. . However, they typically are less sweet than incarnata.

I don’t think any passiflora are self fertile. Could be wrong, but incarnata are not. Any other passiflora should be able to pollinate your edulis.
You may not have luck nonetheless due to potentially insufficient growing days for the fruit to mature.

[jeremybyington]

Edulis is way better if you can grow it. I’ve got a few seedlings I germinated from a grocery store Edulis last summer. My plan is to keep them in pots and bring them back indoors before it gets too cold here in Z6. We get several months above 80 degrees here so I hope this works.

[Evenfall]

They can grow very large in one season. Each of my plants completely filled a 7’x5’ space on a trellis. If you kept it in a 5 gallon or bigger pot all season you may be able to bring it in at the end of the season though. If there’s no fruit left on it, you could always prune it all the way back too.

[swincher]

@Evenfall

I also have never grown maypops, so perhaps they have the flavor I’m seeking or are edulis better?

I’m trying this route, and have 1 year old seedlings I’m waiting to see if they grow vigorously enough this season to flower here. I know they like summer heat, though, so that could be a problem. If you ever happen to be up by Seattle I’d be happy to share a couple with you, assuming they all wake up this spring I’ll have more than I need.

My seeds were from @JeremiahT, which he describes here with photos:

@JeremiahT

My wild local strain produces tasty fruit in fall. I think it’s actually better than the commercial tropical passion fruit I have tried, though the seeds of the maypops are bigger and crunchier. There’s a lot of variation in the genetics and flavor of maypops, though.

And I posted some photos of mine in the fall before they died back:

Passiflora incarnata-Maypop Passion Flower

It’s interesting that one of the seedlings has suddenly died back in the greenhouse, even though the others in there seem happy enough (other than getting munched on by earwigs a lot): [PXL_20221126_205942788] The outside ones took the week of mild frosts and a few harder freezes in stride, though I’m guessing their tops at least will tap out in the hard freeze next weekend: [PXL_20221126_234023402] [PXL_20221126_234037775]

[Evenfall]

@TrilobaTracker

Any other passiflora should be able to pollinate your edulis.

That makes me really want to hybridize some edulis with incarnaa…another year maybe.

[kiwinut]

@Evenfall

That makes me really want to hybridize some edulis with incarnaa…

P. caerulea is probably the best pollinizer for the PNW. Completely hardy there and produces very potent pollen. P. incarnata needs too much heat, and becomes very sensitive to wet feet in winter, when it doesn’t get lots of heat during the previous growing season.

If you or anyone is interested in seeds, I have many seeds from complex crosses involving edulis (purple + yellow), P. incarnata and P. cincinnata. Many (most?) seedlings from these may be root hardy to at least zone 8. Probably need more heat than available in the PNW, but who knows.

[swincher]

@kiwinut

P. incarnata needs too much heat, and becomes very sensitive to wet feet in winter, when it doesn’t get lots of heat during the previous growing season.

That’s what I was afraid of, but I’m trying some out anyhow. I don’t want to count my eggs before they’ve sprouted for spring, but my small incarnata seedlings from last season seem to have survived the very wet, cool winter here, with green stems at ground level. Here’s one that’s planted outside:

And the potted ones are outside again now, after spending some of the winter in the greenhouse. Those are starting to sprout (albeit with a pale color):

I also tried to grow P. maliformis in the ground in my greenhouse in 2021, and it grew to an enormous size in the first year, filling the rafters of the greenhouse, without flowering. It got some kind root pathogen over the winter after it dropped most of its leaves, and the vine rotted. The next year, a few feeble shoots came up from root fragments, but they never grew more than a few inches.

If incarnata proves too finicky for our climate, I’ll probably give up on Passifloras entirely. Unless anyone knows of any caerulea selections that actually taste good? Though @kiwinut’s crosses also sound very tempting! But I suspect our local soil has microbes that don’t play well with the genus.

[Evenfall]

Oh wow, that would be great. How do they taste? We have a lot of heat here actually. Summer highs are 85+ and with pretty much 0% cloud cover.

[Chills]

Passiflora capsularis is definitely self-fertile

Its not what I would call edible, though.

I do love that the fruit explode when ripe. I end up with seedlings in many of my pots.

Scott

[kiwinut]

@Evenfall

How do they taste?

They all have a very good flavor, but size varies a lot. The hardier ones are still alive (probably). I lost most of them a year and half ago, but I have lots of seeds in the refrigerator.