1. Good Organic Gardening - January-February 2016

Passionfruit| GROWING
Passionfruit label
Common name: Passionfruit
Botanical name: Passiflora edulis
Family: Passifloraceae
Aspect & soil: Sun, well-drained soil
Best climate: Tropics, subtropics, temperate,
Mediterranean
Habit: Perennial vine
Propagation: Seed, cutting, grafting
Difficulty: Moderate
dry and when plants are flowering and crops are maturing.
Watch for suckers (look for the distinctive five-fingered,
blue-green leaf as well as its blue flower) and remove suckers
or seedlings promptly. If a vine dies, carefully dig up the root
system to avoid future problems.
Varieties
‘Nellie Kelly’, a large-fruited black passionfruit, is the most
popular backyard variety as it is self-fertile and tolerates a
wide climate range. Other popular varieties are ‘Panama Red’,
‘Panama Gold’ and ‘Pandora’. The latter three do best in warm
or coastal climates and perform better with cross-pollination
(requiring two separate vines).
Popular in days gone by was the banana passionfruit
(Passiflora mollissima), now considered a weed. This species
was popular as it’s easy to grow and is self-fertile, producing
lots of elongated, yellow, banana-shaped fruit.
Passionfruit is one of Australia’s
favourite backyard crops and a
useful plant to grow as a living
screen for shade or privacy.
Pest insects can also lead to fruit drop. The passionvine
hopper, which resembles a lacy-winged moth, is a major pest
of passionfruit. These insects feed on the vine. When young,
they appear as “fluffy bums” — that’s the name given to the
cute-looking nymphs. Organic control is to deter them with a
spray of the hose or to use a registered organic insecticide on
the fluffy bums.
Fruit that forms but contains little pulp may have been
poorly pollinated or exposed to stress from insect pests, cold
or lack of regular water.
Lots of flowers but no fruit may be due to poor pollination.
If the weather is cool, wet, windy or even overcast during
flowering, pollination and fruit set may be poor. A lack of
pollinating insects (often made worse by bad or cloudy
weather) can also affect cropping. Hand pollination — using a
dry paintbrush to transfer pollen to the female part of flowers
— can overcome some pollinating problems and is most
successful when done early in the morning.
To overcome pollination problems, encourage bees and
other pollinating insects by planting flowering herbs such as
borage near the vines.
Harvesting & preserving
Fruit colour at ripening can be variable, but green fruit usually
ripens to purple or black. However, ripe fruit may not be highly
coloured. If green fruit drops to the ground it’s always worth
cutting it open to taste for ripeness.
Ripe fruit left on the ground may become sunburnt, so
regularly collect fallen fruit. To make this easier, keep the
ground around vines clear of weeds or long grass.
Passionfruit can be eaten fresh straight from the skin with a
spoon, or used to top fruit salad or a creamy dessert such as
pavlova. Excess pulp can be frozen or turned into jam, sauce
or cordial. The skins can also be used in some jam recipes..
Passionvine hopper nymph, aka “fluffy bum”
Andy Murray CC
Fruiting clinic
Until the vine is fully mature (6–18 months, depending on your
climate), passionfruit may not flower or fruit. However, not
getting fruit isn’t always due to immaturity of the vine. Lack
of regular water, lack of pollinators or even sudden cold winds
can all take their toll on fruit production.
Too much shade slows ripening. To open up established
plants to more sun for better fruiting and faster ripening,
prune them in late winter or early spring. To do this, carefully
remove a few of the tangle of stems so that fruit and flowers,
when they appear, are better exposed to the light. Don’t cut
the vine back hard.
Good Organic Gardening | 73