Author Topic: Growing passion fruit up a tree  (Read 1127 times)

Midwestfruitjungle

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Growing passion fruit up a tree
« on: October 20, 2022, 06:35:00 PM »
I am growing passion fruit in a container and it is inside for this winter. It has started clinging to a small tree I have nearby. Would it be ok to let it grow or could it be harmful to the tree?

pinkturtle

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Re: Growing passion fruit up a tree
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2022, 08:29:32 PM »
It will be.  Passion fruit needs it's own trellis.

CeeJey

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Re: Growing passion fruit up a tree
« Reply #2 on: October 20, 2022, 09:34:13 PM »
I've seen people grow them up palms out here without problem (afaik, maybe they can't seem to climb palm leaves) but they'll choke out other plants. I planted one too close to an orange tree and it was intentionally growing to cover the tree leaves.

Finca La Isla

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Re: Growing passion fruit up a tree
« Reply #3 on: October 20, 2022, 09:36:08 PM »
Passion fruit can grow on a tree but it needs to be big enough. I have grown it on a tree and the fruits fall when ripe. But the tree needs to be large enough to support the heavy vine. I can’t imagine it on a tree inside though.
Peter

Julie

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Re: Growing passion fruit up a tree
« Reply #4 on: October 20, 2022, 09:46:22 PM »
It definitely needs its own trellis if you care about the tree.  I don't think it would be a symbiotic relationship.  Passion fruit is very vigorous.  I have two vines on their own trellises along my fence, but it would have been better to put in a large trellis for them because they grow onto my neighbors sides.  Also, to grow fruit you need to do hand pollination.  High up in a tree you can't reach the flowers to pollinate.

palmcity

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Re: Growing passion fruit up a tree
« Reply #5 on: October 20, 2022, 09:48:14 PM »
I am growing passion fruit in a container and it is inside for this winter. It has started clinging to a small tree I have nearby. Would it be ok to let it grow or could it be harmful to the tree?

A loquat tree in back yard was my perfect spot for my passion fruit vine to make a trellis of it... It worked and I had much fruit hanging & falling from it this past summer. We cut it back some now but it's still growing. Now the loquat tree is too and it must be pretty tough as not too many of those leaves get sunshine.

If the loquat tree dies from decreased sunshine on the leaves, the wife will probably be sad but it would not bother me as in South Florida we get too many worms in our loquats; but the passion fruit do not have a worm problem and I prefer eating the passion fruit.

Epicatt2

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Re: Growing passion fruit up a tree
« Reply #6 on: October 21, 2022, 01:32:11 AM »
I had a P. edulis v. flavicarpa in a five gallon bail bucket which was placed under a grapefruit tree.  That vine soon managed to latch onto the lower branches of the grapefruit and climb up through the tree's canopy and eventually spread over the whole crown of the grapefruit tree.

I didn't get much fruit off that passion vine since there was only the single vine and P. edulis v. flavicarpa needs a second passion vine nearby to set fruit.

But the main problem was that the vine nearly killed the grapefruit tree by heavily shading the whole top of the tree.  After a year I cut the vine off near the bottom (the stem two feet above the ground was by then very woody and about 1-1/2 inches in diameter) to let the top of the vine die.  It still took the rest of the season for the dead leaves of the vine to fall away.  And it took the grapefruit tree two years before it recovered from having been deprived of sunlight by the passion vine.

So if you are contemplating growing a Passiflora up a tree please choose carefully because the tree many not survive the shading that the vine creates.

Just FWIW . . .

Paul M.
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gnappi

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Re: Growing passion fruit up a tree
« Reply #7 on: October 21, 2022, 11:20:47 AM »
I had one that was in an earthen bottom pot. I wired the south side of the house and it got HUGE! The house looked like an old English country home and the dense vine kept the house a bit cooler too. Unfortunately AFAIK they do not live long and mine declined in  few years and died.

I was able to pick the fruit easily, though on a tree it may be a problem.
Regards,

   Gary

Midwestfruitjungle

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Re: Growing passion fruit up a tree
« Reply #8 on: October 21, 2022, 02:23:43 PM »
I’ll probably take it off the tree stem then. I have noticed it doesn’t mind it’s tendrils getting removed.