Seeking Maypop advice

[tjasko]

By chance, I noticed a maypop growing wild on the side of the road, not long after learning that passion flowers were even a thing that grows here. They hadn’t caught my attention before, but this was clearly a sign. So, I put 3-4 in the ground this year. Two I bought from ediblelandscaping.com. The other two are planted together; one is cutting I took off the wild plant, and one is a runner I dug up from the wild plant when the cutting seemed unhappy.

All are growing well enough, though one is clearly much happier than the other, and they haven’t yet gotten the knack of flowering at the same time so I can pollinate. But I wasn’t expecting fruit the first year anyway.

I’m mostly looking to hear other people’s experience with Passiflora Incarnata. Is there anything I should be on the lookout for? Any tips I should know? How do you like the fruit?

[HollyGates]

Curious what other people have to say about this fruit too; I planted two this year. One I got from Jung, which they stupidly sent in like April. There was still several meters of snow and the ground was frozen! I tried to let it grow inside but it died.

Meanwhile, I ordered another from Onegreenworld. Planted it and it is doing ok growing on my fence. Probably about 60cm now and has put out a number of awesome looking flowers. The one from Jung which had “died” actually resprouted in the basement since I hadn’t taken the time to empty out the pot yet. So I planted that one too, but it is like 5cm tall.

So far all I’ve noticed are that the flowers look really cool and that the vine doesn’t seem to do a great job of climbing my 1x3 pickets without help.

[mrsg47]

I looked up 'Maypop" and was surprised that simple name is given to one of the ‘Passion fruit/flower’ varieties. Do they taste like regular passion fruit? If so, aren’t you lucky!

[hoosierquilt]

I grow Passiflora edulis ‘Fredrick’ here in my area, and it grows very well. Mrsg47, P. incarnata is “Maypop”. I don’t think there are any hybridized culivars beyond the P. incarnata sp., but I could be wrong. There are many hybridized Passifloras of other cultivars, though, and many different P. cultivars, in general, not all edible, though. P. edulis can be a very prolific bearer. (most passifloras are). I picked quite a few fruits last season and made absolutely delicious Passionfruit juice. Love, love, love the flavor. You do have to sweeten it - it is tart - but boy is it delicious.

I also grow it because it can serve as a host plant for our native Gulf Fritillary butterfly, even though this cultivar isn’t native to America (think it is native to S. America, probably in the jungles I’m guessing). Not even sure P. incarnata is native, it may also have originated further south of N. America, originally. But, I do get lots of beautiful butterflies with the plants, as well as gorgeous flowers, and delicious fruit.

I bought mine online from Grassy Knoll Exotic Fruits: http://gkplants.com/ She grows a lot of different varieties and is a bit of an expert on passiflora. She’s a good source of knowlege, as some of the passiflora family are not edible (contain cyanide). I think P. incarnata is native to the Tennessee area down through the Gulf states.

There is a lovely religious history with this plant and flower, the other common name besides Maypop is “Crown of Thorns” flower:
http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/resources/m_garden/PM_PassionFlower.html
mrsg47, I think the taste is very similar to P. edulis cultivars. I would like to try growing P. laurifolia (Water Lemon), as this cultivar is supposed to be mild and sweet, and doesn’t have the same tartness as other passifloria varieties.

[mrsg47]

Thanks, HQ! I will never forget the masses of Lilikoi juice I drank in Hawaii. I would love to grow the vine, but in NE I fear it is impossible. Ugh.

[Matt_in_Maryland]

I tried growing Maypop from Raintree in a sunny clearing in the Maryland mountains, Zone 6b. A late spring frost zapped it bad, and it never recovered.

I hope to try again someday, when financial circumstances allow.

Word is they struggle to get established up here, but have been reported to survive as far north as southern Pennsylvania. They die back in the winter and resprout the following May (or June, this far north). Hence the name, Maypop.

They reportedly thrive in the Deep South-- growing like weeds.

[mrsg47]

Matt, sounds like a plant we could grow in a greenhouse!

[Matt_in_Maryland]

Now if only I could afford a greenhouse…

One can dream, right? Maybe someday, after I win the MegaBucks.

[tjasko]

I can confirm that they are able to grow in 6b Pennsylvania, since it was a wild one which convinced me to try them. That one even survived this past winter, which was especially nasty, although it didn’t “pop” until July.

[Matt_in_Maryland]

They’re native to North America.

Some great vids on the subject:

If these passiflora taste anything like their tropical cousins, they should be worth the small investment. Passionfruit seeds are small but pack a delicious power-punch of flavor. Just a little bit goes a long way. The Hawiians call them “Lilikoi” and blend the seeds into fruit smoothies, imparting a yummy lemon-like flavor to the mix.

[FascistNation]

To those in colder climates: Look for known winter hardy cultivars preferably either native to your region or at least cultivated in your region.

They are vines so grow them up against the southern side of your house. Plant them in a spot where the ground gets lit up by the winter sun first thing in the morning. Heavy organic mulch around it before the freezes come to protect it below ground. Proximity to your home will also protect it. Water it deeply and infrequently to encourage deep roots protected from freeze. Stop watering it at some point in the fall to encourage it going dormant. It will die back in fall but hopefully survive the winter underground.

Be careful of pruning it in the summer as the more growth above ground the more reserves stored below ground for the next spring re-emergence.

[Lucky_P]

P.incarnata; maypop. Grew up eating 'em when we’d be hauling second-cutting hay, back home in AL.
It’s native here in KY as well - found an extensive patch of it growing in a loading area after we clear-cut some clumps of Ice-storm-damaged pines. brought a few fruits back to the house, and voila! I’ve got 'em popping up all over the place.
Love the flowers. Have never knowingly eaten or tasted any of the tropical passionfruits…but suspect that you folks who are longing for that…are gonna be sorely disappointed if you’re growing P.incarnata. Famine food, at best, or a curiosity, but certainly nothing that I actively seek out. Just a small amount of ‘pulp’ in the capsule surrounding each seed…hardly worth the effort for me…

[Bradybb]

I grew Maypop one year in a greenhouse after buying a plant from an online nursery.Wasn’t sure if the thing was going to grow.Apparently,the plant needs a lot of heat to get started and to keep growing.The vine grew about five feet and produced a few flowers.I didn’t know about hand pollinating the flowers then and had no fruit.I read they like Potassium,so I put parts of a Banana in the pot.
I planted some seeds from a Passiflora Edulis this year and one is slowly growing. Brady

[tjasko]

Passion progess post! Here are how my three are coming along. All were planted this year. All are developing, but the one I have on my mailbox in all-day full sun is far, far happier.

You can see that it’s already thrown up 3-4 suckers. I can see how those could be a real problem for people, and will likely be a problem for me on the other two vines.

Here’s the one I grabbed from the wild:

It was only planted recently, so not nearly as developed. There’s also an old morning glory trying to get in on that climbing action.

Finally, the one which showed the most initial progress when it was still in a pot, but has been less thrilled in the ground. I think it may be shadier than they like. Still growing, though. This was actually the first to flower, and I see it’s developing some new buds:

(Both of the latter two will be trained up arbors, but not until next year.)

As yet, they haven’t bloomed at the same time, so I haven’t been able to cross-pollinate. But I think this week will be the week.

[haldog]

Famine food, at best, or a curiosity, but certainly nothing that I actively seek out. Just a small amount of ‘pulp’ in the capsule surrounding each seed…hardly worth the effort for me…

I agree. I’ve had good tasting, bland, underripe, overripe, and just odd tasting passiflora incarnata. The best tasting were a nice but mild grape/pineapple flavor. Very little actual fruit, though, mostly seed. I grow them mainly for the flowers Once established here in 7b they die back to the ground every year but grow back 20-30 feet during the summer with zero effort on my part. I’m glad to send some seed or root suckers to anyone who wants, but the ones in my yard are not the best tasting.

[tjasko]

I’ve suspected/worried that the taste might not be that impressive, given how the fruit doesn’t seem to have caught on much in the amateur-but-serious fruit growing community, even though it is easy, has pretty good size fruit, and beautiful flowers. But I also assume that the taste is extremely variable, since it’s been almost entirely undeveloped.

I’ll be evaluating mine as they produce fruit and posting updates here for the sake of posterity. Regardless of taste, the vine on my mailbox will probably stay, because the flowers are pretty, and what else would I put there that would also make fruit?

If anybody happens to have a particularly delicious strain, I would be very interested. Right now, I’ve half a mind to guerrilla garden in some nearby roadside ditches, just to see if genetic churn might pop out a few winners.

[Matt_in_Maryland]

Tjasko, I second your sentiments.

[MuddyMess_8a]

I do have a passiflora that has naturalized itself. It’s not p. Incarnata. Butterflies and bumble style bees love it. I’m not sure whether it has a deep and almost endless nectary, or some kind of sedative effect on the bees. Almost any time of day the flowers will be covered with the bumbles. Last week when I looked at a mass of flowers near the pool, there were many very still bees with their heads in the flowers. They stayed that way. For a short time, I was concerned that either something poison had somehow gotten on them, or that the flowers themselves were bee poison and I’d never noticed. I finally decided that if those bees were dead, I should get them off, and if they weren’t, I wanted to know it.

So, I jiggled a flower. The bees didn’t react. I touched a bee. Still no reaction. I used my fingers to grasp one from the sides and move it a bit. It was slow to react, but finally slowly started to move as if being woken from a deep sleep and slightly confused. The bees appear to eat and nap in the flowers like babies falling asleep with their bottles. Interesting. Passion flowers are the only flowers I have where the long tongued bees gather en masse to drink and sleep it off.

[tjasko]

Interesting. I’ve noticed bumblebees happily working my flowers, and sitting around there for a while. I’ll still be manually pollinating as soon as that’s possible, but maybe I’m lucky and the bees know of another vine in the area.

I also noticed some Japanese beetles sitting in the flowers in the same way. I assume they were up to no good, but if passiflora has managed to turn those guys into pollinators, it has a bright future.

Edit: disregard my naivete. The beetles were not pollinating the flowers, they were eating them. How I loathe them.

[tjasko]

Progress report!

One of the smaller vines opened a flower today, so I manually cross-pollinated between it and the large vine with a pipe cleaner. The large vine had a number of flowers opened, with were being served by a very large bee (I would have called it a bumblebee before I knew there were so many other kinds). It probably has 10 suckers coming up around it now. No flowers on the wild vine, yet, though they are forming.

I’ll keep posting as fruit (hopefully) forms, especially the results of the all-important taste test.