Author Topic: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?  (Read 27652 times)

simon_grow

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Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« on: September 25, 2012, 02:08:38 PM »
Hello everyone, I was wondering what is considered the best tasting passionfruit that we can find in the US?  I recently picked up some purple passionfruit from the farmers market and gave it a try and thought they were extremely delicious.  They had an intoxicating aroma and were kinda sweet with a lot of acidity.  Some of the more wrinkled fruit were quite sweet but I have a really bad sweet tooth and prefer extremely sweet fruit.  I am also growing miracle fruit at home and when I tried the Passionfruit after taking a Miracle Fruit, OMG, freaking amazing!!!

I'm serious everyone, if you have not tried passionfruit with miraclefruit, you have to put this on your "to do" list, ASAP!!!  OK, now I'm going off on a tangent but I have to also mention that I grow strawberries in my backyard but I rarely get any fruit because birds and insects always eat the ripe red strawberries before I can get to them.  After taking a miracle fruit, I decided to try some of my strawberries that were white but with just a hint of pink/red on them and they were absolutely amazing!!!  With miracle fruit, I can harvest my strawberries when they are fully sized and just starting to turn color.  This way, I can avoid competition with birds and insects and I assume they will also last a lot longer in the refrigerator.

OK, to get back on track, I am looking for what you consider the best tasting Passionfruit that we can get(Plants) in the US.  I would like a variety that is excellent eating quality out of hand without the use of miracle fruit, so, something that is already sweet and flavorful, ideally self fruitful.  I would also like another variety and it is ok if this variety is a little more sour and I am ok with hand pollinating this second variety.  I know pretty much nothing about passionfruit so any information you can give will be greatly appreciated including links and contacts to where I might find some of these suggested varieties. 

I did a little google search and realize that many passionfruit varieties are self incompatible.  From my searches, I have also found that the common P edulis is highly recommended for its full flavor, ease of care and also production.  The other variety that gets a lot of good reviews is the Sweet Lilikoi, I believe this is P. flavicarpa?  Other species that get mentioned quite a bit are P. maliformis- sweet; maracuja-concoction of leaves can make you sleepy; ligularis-sweet, low acidity; quadrangularis?  Thanks in advance for your help!
Simon

tabbydan

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #1 on: September 25, 2012, 02:51:19 PM »
P edulis is the tip of the iceberg.
It is REALLY SAD how few passiflora we can get whole fruits of in this country.

If you have the space and you live in a tropical or semi-tropical zone get seeds and grow a whole bunch of different ones.

When I travel I mainly see the big two P. edulis and P. ligularis.  Both are quite nice but I'd really like to try more.

P edulis is purple and P edulis v flavicarpa is yellow but they are basically the same thing on the inside.
What's that got to do with Jose Andres $10 brussel sprouts?

FlyingFoxFruits

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #2 on: September 25, 2012, 03:41:39 PM »
Berto has this one covered for u.  His maracuja was amazing...and the best of the 8 or so varieties I've tasted.

hope u find a winner!

I planted some seeds that are supposed to be good varieties, but we won't know until years from now...if I can fruit them without freezing them first!
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Tim

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #3 on: September 25, 2012, 04:09:05 PM »
I have some seedlings of that Giant Yellow Brazilian you can have,  though I'm not sure if it meets your pollination requirements?
Tim

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #4 on: September 25, 2012, 07:35:49 PM »
P. laurifolia is amazing out of hand.   BTW, I also am impressed with miracle fruit and sour passion fruit.  It isn't like using miracle fruit with lime juice where you get a weird extra flavour.  The weird flavour is either masked or not present with passion fruit.

bangkok

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #5 on: November 26, 2012, 03:51:13 AM »
I also want to grow passionfruit against my fence. I saw nice ones on Chatuchak weekendmarket but will those fruits grow in Bangkok? I think the plants from the market come from North Thailand where the climate is a little colder then here.

If i can grow them here will they flower and give fruits? I have a nice place in the full sun for them but i want a specie that can pollinate itself.

What species should i buy? I saw one with nice red flowers but i dont know if the fruits will be sweet. Here in the supermarkets we can buy very sweet passionfruits but they are imported for some reason. I assume there is a problem with growing them in Bangkok and also a problem with growing sweet ones.

Does anybody have information or tips about growing them in Bangkok?

 

Mike T

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #6 on: November 26, 2012, 04:07:23 AM »
Thailand imports some yellow and red flavicarpas and misty gem edulis from here I am told but no thai people I know were aware of them .I have tried many passionfruit around thailand from chang mai to Ubon and bangkok and they are sour and terrible.Thai visitors here are in a state of shock when they have proper sweet flavicarpas and edulis.My advice is don't grow local passionfruit.Get seeds of supersweet flavicarpas that will thrive in Bangkok such as panama gold or red.Make sure they get potassium and suphur in the fertilzer to make them even sweeter and watch the locals spin out when they try them.
Panamas are self fertile and don't need hand pollination.African yellows are the same and are exquisite in taste without a feather of sourness.


african yellow



panama red,yellow and 2 sweet edulis types.

bangkok

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #7 on: November 26, 2012, 06:21:19 AM »
Wow thanks Mike, that purple one i have seen in the supermarkets for a high price. So if i grow the seeds from them i will get the same fruits after some years?

I read that it is best to plant them in a pot, i can do that but also in the soil. I think they will be stolen maybe but that's fine, maybe they pick one and then come to ask me where i bought that plant haha. I hope the squarrels don't like them because we have loads of them jumping around.

Yes the thai ones are terrible, first i only wanted to buy passionfruit for the flowers but i studied a little on this forum and found that i better try to grow them for the fruits as well.

I will go to Chatuchak wednesday again and see what they sell there. If they are sour ones i will grow them from the seeds from supermarket ones.

Mike T

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #8 on: November 26, 2012, 06:30:21 AM »


The big sweet purple will grow well in bangkok.Only plant seeds of the sweetest one you can find and it can fruit at around 1 year old.The ones that are heavy and more orange inside are usually sweeter as well.

bangkok

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #9 on: November 26, 2012, 07:00:59 AM »
One day i bought the big sweet ones in Villa-market. My wife looked at them and did not even want to taste them.

When i convinced her they are sweet she loved them haha.

I will buy the biggest ones that i can find and grow them in a nice pot against the fence and a tree.

bangkok

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #10 on: November 27, 2012, 06:18:09 AM »
Well i bought the sweet passionfruits from Australia again. I can eat them but they are not that sweet, just eatable without sugar. I think for the thai they are not sweet enough but i will test it on them.

I know nothing beats thai fruits in sweetness but are there really sweet passionfruits? If so then i will go to Siam Paragon to find more sweet ones.

I put some seeds in nice soil so let's see if i can grow them.

Mike T

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #11 on: November 27, 2012, 06:25:53 AM »
Bangkok you will know immediately when you get them.See if they have a variety name on them.

forumfool

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #12 on: November 27, 2012, 03:02:08 PM »
I grow edulis (Frederick) here in Nor Cal. Taste great, self fertile and grows like a weed...

CRFG has a page on Passionfruit..

http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/passionfruit.html

The larger type bees do pollinate it but when I hand pollinate the fruit gets much larger for some reason.

Here is a video of my vine:
http://youtu.be/_tVyAvW_tik

red durian

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #13 on: November 27, 2012, 06:07:21 PM »
P. quadrangularis  is sweet, but not much yummy portion to eat compared to its size and never so many on the plant.  It must be in the US.  I have seen it in Belize, Dominica, Trinidad and my wife's village in Java.  In Trinidad a lady told me that she likes to mix the soft, cucumber-like stuff under the skin (which is not sweet or sour) with milk and sugar in a blender. 
Great to read from MikeT that P.edulis can be sweet.  I had assumed they would always be sour.
In Oman, supermarkets sold imported P. ligularis for about 3 USD per fruit.   P. ligularis is a high-land tropical fruit, so probably won't do well in Bangkok, but maybe in California? 

bangkok

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #14 on: November 27, 2012, 06:39:03 PM »
You should hear the noises that my wife makes when she ate the passionfruit yesterday haha. They were not sweet enough for her.

I paid 150 baht for about a kg, that is like 5 us$, they were labeled Doi Kham sweet passionfruit from the Royal Project ( i see that now). That is a big farm from the Thai King in Chiang Mai where they grow all kinds of organic fruits to show the thai people how they can grow healthy vegy and fruit.

Which species i got i don't know, Thai don't tell the species i never see that.

Well never mind, i will go to another supermarket to buy the nice ones then.

Mike T

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #15 on: November 27, 2012, 07:01:01 PM »
P.quadrangularis is just the common 'granadilla' here with the flesh stewed and eaten like melon and the pulp with juice the best bit.There are a few forms with extra big ones to maybe 3 kgs and much smaller rounder types as well.They vary alot in quality and I assume it is more than just due to environmental conditions.They were very popular before 1960 and the old timers remember them fondly with elderly folks often having a vine in the yard.
When it comes to passionfruit the big sweet red and yellow flavicarpas and some of the sweetest flavicarpa x edulis leave all the rest for dead in my opinion and they are some of the finest of all fruit.Children certainly love them.

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #16 on: November 27, 2012, 07:29:05 PM »


Which species i got i don't know, Thai don't tell the species i never see that.


If you post a photo of the fruit on this forum, someone will probably tell you what species of passion fruit you have.  Alternatively, you could do a google image search with a list of Passiflora species names until you see the fruit you bought.

BMc

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #17 on: November 27, 2012, 08:07:19 PM »
I've made a marmelade out of the pulp and inner shell of panama golds. Its not too bad. Needs a bit more sour and could do with a few old sour edulis, but these are getting hard to find now, with everyone growing panama types and sweet blacks.

bangkok

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #18 on: November 28, 2012, 07:14:49 AM »
I have to buy new battery's for the camera because they are dead and my cellphone is too complicated to get a pic to the notebook. I will go to buy the sweet ones soon.

simon_grow

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #19 on: April 12, 2015, 10:22:16 AM »
Anyone have updated suggestions on the best tasting sweet type of Passionfruit? I'm looking for a variety that will grow here in San Diego that is sweet and still has that exotic tropical passionfruit taste. It doesn't matter if it's self fertile or not. There are several threads regarding passionfruit but I'm looking for the most updated information regarding what you feel is the best.

I think it was Mike T that had a thread regarding several selections from Australia and I was wondering if anyone got a hold of any seeds and if so, has are they doing and how do they taste? I've only ever tasted some purple, purple with some red and a couple yellows from the farmers markets. They were all unnamed but i believe the purple is P Edulis, Fredricks just because this variety is common in this area. The purple can be quite sweet and it has that perfect tropical flavor I'm looking for but if only it were a little sweeter. I hope I can find a consistently sweet passionfruit that retains that rich tropical passionfruit flavor. Thanks for any suggestions!
Simon

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #20 on: April 12, 2015, 11:25:48 AM »
I'm also looking for a source for a sweet passiflora edulis or hybrid. All I can find locally are unnamed yellow and purple varieties.

barath

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #21 on: April 12, 2015, 11:42:48 AM »
Simon, I've been on the same hunt as you, and here's what I'm growing this year.  My rooftop garden where I grow these has a San Diego-like climate though it's windy, so you should get better results than I do.  I don't have extra seeds at the moment, but I will be coming down to San Diego in June and can give you plants:

P. edulis Frederick -- which is our California standard, but I find kind of boring tasting; egg-shaped purple fruits

P. edulis Black Knight -- which is a little less common, but also another Worley selection that nurseries carry and I think is the sweetest of the standard varieties; slower growing but the yield is higher for me than Frederick (probably because Frederick is too vigorous); small round purple/black fruits

P. edulis flavicarpa Sweet Lilikoi -- I got lucky and got a sweet Hawaiian lilikoi cutting from someone (the more common ones are sour, though there is a large range); the plant is vigorous and produces large yellow fruits that were as sweet as Black Knight but with a bit more aroma to them.

P. ligularis -- reported to be the best tasting species (but some say it's a bit boring because the flavor is not complex), but it's so wind sensitive it gets beaten up for me.  It grows fine in our weather, and should fruit well in San Diego.  Seems to like growing in partial shade with wind protection.

P. laurifolia -- my favorite passionfruit that I've ever tasted (in Hawaii), so I brought some seeds back and planted them indoors.  It's now a huge vine on an indoor trellis but may not get enough direct sun every day to flower/fruit -- we'll see.  Egg shaped yellow/orange fruit with leathery skin, and a perfume like aroma and low acidity.  I would bet this could fruit outdoors in San Diego given a hot, wind-protected, zone 10b/11a spot in the garden.  If I remember right this fruits on old growth, so it takes longer to start producing.

P. parritae x P. antioquiensis Mission Dolores -- a Carlos Rendon cross reported to produce tasty fruit, but more of a cloudforest plant (i.e. something that grows well only in San Francisco).  I grew it fine with afternoon shade until we got a week of 80 degree weather and it died in a matter of days.  Might do okay for you in 100% shade.

P. alata -- been growing this for a while, but also seems sensitive to wind and so the plant keeps growing and then getting beaten up on windy days, which sets it back many weeks of growth.  Not sure about the fruit, but I have heard it's good.

Then there are the more recent things I'm growing this year for the first time:

P. quadrangularis -- got cuttings for this over the winter and started them; very interesting leaves / stems (huge!) but no idea about the fruit.

P. maliformis -- started seedlings of this; supposedly the fruit is good.  May be too tropical to fruit here.

P. pinnatistipula -- started seedlings of this; more of a cloudforest plant.  Supposedly the fruit is good, a sort of bubble gum flavor.  Fruits are small.

P. edulis Panama Red -- one of the Australian varieties I'm trying out for the first time this year.

P. edulis Panama Gold -- another of the Australian varieties I'm trying out for the first time this year.  (Might be P. edulis flavicarpa.)

P. edulis Misty Gem -- another one of the Australian varieties I'm trying out for the first time this year.

P. edulis Pandora -- another one of the Australian varieties I'm trying out for the first time this year.  (Might be P. edulis flavicarpa)

P. ambigua -- a edible fruited passionfruit I know little about, but am trying this year.


I might be forgetting one, but in any case, I'm hoping some of these new ones (and some of the previous ones that didn't fruit yet) will be good.
« Last Edit: April 12, 2015, 11:48:00 AM by barath »

barath

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #22 on: April 12, 2015, 12:08:38 PM »
I forgot to add: I'm still looking for seeds of three Australian varieties -- African Gold, Sweetheart, and Supersweet.

SocalKoop

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #23 on: April 12, 2015, 12:15:54 PM »
Damn Barath... you must have a hell of a long fence....  :D
When these get full grown aren't you worried about not being able to find your house under them?
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simon_grow

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Re: Best tasting Passionfruit available in the US?
« Reply #24 on: April 12, 2015, 01:32:52 PM »
Wow Barath,

You've got quite the collection. I'm very interested in the Australian selections and I recall reading about them on another thread. I wish I could taste all the different varieties so that I can decide which one suits my palate. I know that these passionfruit can get huge but I'm going to try to keep mine well pruned to keep it under 15 feet. Please keep the suggestions coming!
Simon