Now that I’m home, I have realized I need some privacy from 1 neighbor. And I’m considering using one of those feedlot/cattle panels to create a 16-foot trellis for some kind of vine, perhaps passionfruit. Has anyone any experience with this? My trellis will be ~1ft from the shared fence and if the vine ends on the neighbor’s side, they won’t mind. However, I’ve read that passionfruit can get out of control in California?
Does anyone have any experience with any of these? My space is ~ 16 ft or 32 ft maximum (if I add a second feedlot/cattle panel as a trellis), but no more than this. And 10 feet high. The space gets morning sun, mid shade, and some sun in the late afternoon.
I haven’t had those specific cultivars listed on Annie’s website, but I have grown several different kinds of passiflora in California. I’m on the central coast, so climate should be relatively similar to yours.
They do have varying levels of vigor and frost tolerance, so make sure you research the variety you want. They have beautiful flowers. All of the ones I grew flowered profusely, so no complaints about that. They are vigorous growers, so you will constantly be pruning and pulling out the dead understory of the vine that gets smothered by new growth.
Also, they are caterpillar magnets. The Painted Lady butterflies lay their eggs on them, and at some times of the year they will be literally crawling with caterpillars. You may love or hate this feature. If the caterpillars come right after you plant the vine before it gets established, there can be so many of them that they will strip the leaves completely bare and kill it.
I never had any of the kinds that produce edible fruit, so I can’t comment on that aspect.
I grow Passiflora Edulis ‘Fredrick’ in South Bay. They are indeed vigorous but you can prune them heavily every year (in Mar/April after the danger of frost is gone) after you’ve established the main branches. From what I heard from CRFG, this is one of the few varieties that is grown for the fruit.
I got more than 100 fruits last year (1 year after planting a puny vine). We extract the juice and mix it with the Valencia orange juice and it is a flavor bomb - one of the best fruit juices I’ve ever had!
These are before (last year) and after (few weeks back) pruning shots
That is impressive! How long is your space? I’m thinking of creating a trellis that is at least 16 feet long and 8 feet high (sit on feet that are about 2-3 feet off the ground, so the trellis part will be 5-6 ft high). Is Frederick prone to root suckering? I’ve heard that some passiflora will become invasive and start growing out from the roots every which way.
The fence is about 20 feet in length and 6 feet in height. Your space should work nicely. I haven’t seen any root suckering or other invasive behavior with Fredrick, like seedlings all over the place. I do pick up all the fruits though as that’s the way to harvest - wait for them to fall to the ground and pick them up.
It looks like you can prune the passionfruit vine and keep specific trained arms and legs and remove the rest to maintain the shape of the vine. I’m thinking of building the above trellis and then training 4-6 arms from the center for the passionfruit and pruning everything else. Could I then train a grape vine on the bottom panel of the above trellis because grapes are similar in that you can prune what you want to keep and new growth will appear on those limbs? Is is possible to keep the grape on the bottom panel and the passionfruit on the top panel?
I haven’t grown either so I thought I would ask for some opinions on this plan.
I’d keep them in separate spaces if you can afford that. Frederick is quite vigorous and the new growth will hang down from the main trunks. Most of the grape varieties have new growth going up, from what I read. The bottom panel seems too short to accommodate the new shoots of the grape vine. Both of these plants have tendrils and you will be spending a lot of time untangling them during the growing period (which is quite long in your area) to find the fruits and avoid one taking over another.
To give you an idea of the vigor and growth habit, here is the same heavily pruned passion fruit from before, 45 days after pruning
I am growing Golden Muscat, Mars and Reliance. I didn’t do a lot of research when selecting these. I was looking for variety in flavor (muscat Vs labrusca), ripening times, productivity and one seeded grape as a different experience for my daughter.
I definitely agree with @californicus. I built a trellis with four wires spaced horizontally and planted a passionfruit vine at one end. My ultimate goal was to have a passionfruit vine one two of the wires and a grape on the other two. The passionfruit is a couple of years old and within a year it completely covered the entire trellis, which is 8’ long. Last year I planted a grape vine at the other end and trimmed away the passionfruit from two wires. The grape is doing well, having climbed up the trellis and has a vine about 4’ down one wire. Well the passionfruit grows like crazy and every couple of days I have to rescue the grape vine as the passionfruit is trying its best to strangle it.
I know you already choose your passion fruit vine but I thought I would also show some of the alternatives for future reference. Passiflora actinia and what happens when you don’t prune in the winter - it takes over your neighbor tree. Though the benefit - it is helping control the tree from branching out too much into my yard.
Thanks for those photos. I have a passiflora edulis and I was told it is much less vigorous than passiflora actinia, so hopefully I wont have the same results haha
This is really good to know. My full trellis will be 32 feet long. I’ll frame it all out as either 8 foot lengths or 16 foot lengths, all attached. What do you think of that length for both plants? I’m wondering if I were to frame them out as 2 16’ parts (attached) and then grow the passionfruit on 1 16 foot length (plant it in the center), and grapes on the other 16 foot length (maybe space them out so its 3 grape plants taking up the full 16 foot length.
Susan brighman is as vigorous as passiflora actinia. I have it on too small of a trellis and I am constantly trimming it. I found Red Rover is my least vigorous and has a slightly sweeter taste then Fredricks. Fredricks has done well as a fence screen for me.
i just saw this topic. I know it’s a little older. But i was wondering if your Susan brighman is still doing well?
It’s from the tacsonia group. Those usually can’t handle frost (maybe 1 or 2 degree’s) And also do poorly in heat and low humidity. They like a quite narrow temperature range, kind of eternal spring climate is preferred.
If susan brighman is doing well for you though. Your lucky climate wise. And you might have a go at a few more challenging species. like
