Taste testing some rare passion fruits

[seng]

Finally caught the one that has been eating my purple Taiwan fruits and flowers.  The trap snapped, so I was looking around and found it on the tip (10 feet) of the tree near some flowers.

Now I got a few fruits self pollinated.  This variety is very vigorous.  My Qinmi9 has not flowered yet.

[70Malibu]

I didn't know they eat passion fruits. I better use my stainless-steel fruit bag on the Qinmi9.

[akimbo]

I didn't know they eat passion fruits. I better use my stainless-steel fruit bag on the Qinmi9.
[/quote]

That possum must be related to ours, which steals and eats all our avocados.  Metal fruit bags won't work-- I created a wire cage to put around all the FEW avocados we had on the tree, and this mofo pulled off the entire contraption with the avocado inside, dragged it to the side of the house in the bushes, and managed to open it up and take ONE measly bite out of it because it wasnt ripe, and then left it to rot!

[seng]

In that picture, it was a rat.

[70Malibu]

That was a fat rat.

[JCorte]

I've had Frederick's passion fruit as sweet as both Quinmi #9 and Taiwanese purple, but my Frederick's vine is over 20 years old.  I've heard that what it being propagated as Frederick is not the same as the original variety, but age of my vine and the fertility of my garden may also be contributing factors.  I have many Quinmi #9 fruit hanging now as well as fruits from seedlings that I started from Quinmi #9 fruits.

Janet

[seng]

As I mentioned somewhere that my properly ripening Frederic can get to 16.5 brix, with a little acidity.  The issue I have is that only a few get to that state.  They drop very early in the ripening state.

[Alippincott]

I've had Frederick's passion fruit as sweet as both Quinmi #9 and Taiwanese purple, but my Frederick's vine is over 20 years old.  I've heard that what it being propagated as Frederick is not the same as the original variety, but age of my vine and the fertility of my garden may also be contributing factors.  I have many Quinmi #9 fruit hanging now as well as fruits from seedlings that I started from Quinmi #9 fruits.

Janet

20 years old for a passion fruit vine is crazy. I am curious about the longevity of seed grown vs cutting grown. I have always heard 5-7 years is typical

[JCorte]

I don’t know how it survived for so long.  Most of the base rotted away, but continued to grow kind of like the really old hollowed out trees that you sometimes see that are still alive.

[70Malibu]

Seng, I did hear from a person in NorCal that had a Fredricks fruit that had brix=18, but it was still sweet & sour. Not as good as the Taiwanese Purple fruits.

That's an old vine, looks like a tree more than a passion fruit. My purple (unknown) vine is old but only 10yr old and it is growing strong. I have other varieties grafted on that one. I just grafted the Professor's Big Red, Dennis Big Yellow, Vanna White, and Qinmi#9 on it.

[fishie]

I don’t know how it survived for so long.  Most of the base rotted away, but continued to grow kind of like the really old hollowed out trees that you sometimes see that are still alive.

That is a crazy vine!

Seng, I did hear from a person in NorCal that had a Fredricks fruit that had brix=18, but it was still sweet & sour. Not as good as the Taiwanese Purple fruits.

That's an old vine, looks like a tree more than a passion fruit. My purple (unknown) vine is old but only 10yr old and it is growing strong. I have other varieties grafted on that one. I just grafted the Professor's Big Red, Dennis Big Yellow, Vanna White, and Qinmi#9 on it.

I had a couple of actually quite good Fredericks from my neighbor's vine now. The majority are way too sour to enjoy, but there were a couple of one-offs that were quite sweet and good. Maybe he doesn't water enough or something? The Taiwan Purple is definitely better. My neighbor wants to replace his vines after trying these new ones lol.

[a3pulley]

I don’t know how it survived for so long.  Most of the base rotted away, but continued to grow kind of like the really old hollowed out trees that you sometimes see that are still alive.

My unknown purple vine is three years old and starting to show signs of crown rot… I was psyching myself up to cut it down in couple years and haul all 60 feet of vine up the hill before replacing it with a new vine, but after seeing your picture and reading this thread I think I’ll look for some Taiwanese purple cuttings to graft on instead!

Side note: I have been growing P. phoenicia for three years and use P. caerulea to pollinate it. I find the fruit and fragrance of the flowers to be outstanding. The pulp is sweet and tastes like the flowers smell: heady, a little musky, a little tropical. It is a bit divisive though. My wife hates it: something about the goopy texture of the pulp and musk that I like. It is twice as aggressive as my 60ft long three year old P. edulis. I cut it back every couple weeks. I can smell the flowers from sometimes as much as thirty feet away.

[JCorte]

I saw a presentation by passion fruit expert and explorer, Professor Jorge Ochoa.  He mentioned several times during the presentation that Frederick being sold in nurseries and Home Depot are false Fredericks and what most people have are not the real Frederick developed by Patrick Worley.  He states that many varieties being sold are just seedlings. 

This is an issue in general with seedlings of plants being sold under the same name as the original selections.  With seedlings of Qinmi #9 or Taiwanese Purple that will be grown and sold in the future, it will be challenging to know what's authentic.  Even the Qinmi #9 that some of us already have..how do we know if they were from original cuttings or are also just seedlings.  I read in China that counterfeit seedlings of Qinmi #9 are being grown. 

The fruits I've had of Qinmi #9 and Taiwanese Purple are both very good and I like them a lot.  The fruits from my old Fredericks vine are also very good, although not sure if it's the real Fredericks or I got lucky with a superior seedling. 

I selected the 5 best seedlings of my Qinmi #9 to grow to maturity and 2 of my selections are fruiting now so I can compare them to the original vine I got.  There was a lot of variability in the seedlings, so I selected the ones that had the best roots, grew out over a dozen, then selected the best 5 that grew through last winter.

I have grown out seedlings of my Fredericks in the past and the fruits were not as sweet as the original.  I may have one promising selection.

Janet

[70Malibu]

I went to the lecture given by Professor Ochoa of LBCC, he's a nice guy. I don't agree with everything he says, but is interesting to listen to. We had a good debate on some issues he talked about. Our CRFG setup this seminar for our club to go to LBCC and hear his lecture, then he gave us the tour of his passion fruit plants he collected.

The Professor's Big Red is named after him, since he gave my fruit friend Dennis (Big Yellow pf) a small plant of the big red passion fruit. The professor likes to go everywhere to hunt for passion fruits. He likes to say there is no name on some varieties since it could be a seedling that someone is selling as the original plant. Even the Professor Big Red he wouldn't tell us where it came from or the name of the parent plant.

So, to sum it up, he doesn't commit to any named varieties he has. Just says it's a red fruit or yellow fruit. It tastes good or it doesn't taste good. He's a fun guy to listen to. After his lecture, he gave all of us about 3 different varieties of passion fruits he collected. Two were red, and one was yellow fruits. I have most of the seeds since I shared it with people that couldn't make the lecture, and I didn't plant the seeds I still have.

[70Malibu]

If anyone here would like to hear Professor Jorge Ochoa talk, he will be doing some talks or be part of this event next year. The OC CRFG is the host organization.

=======================================
The Festival of Fruit is Coming in 2026!
The Orange County Chapter is thrilled to announce the next
Festival of Fruit celebrating the

Year of Eugenia and her Sisters

will take place on Saturday, June 13, 2026
=======================================


I will be at this event doing something for the club and will see you there.

[JCorte]

I went to the lecture given by Professor Ochoa of LBCC, he's a nice guy. I don't agree with everything he says, but is interesting to listen to. We had a good debate on some issues he talked about. Our CRFG setup this seminar for our club to go to LBCC and hear his lecture, then he gave us the tour of his passion fruit plants he collected.

The Professor's Big Red is named after him, since he gave my fruit friend Dennis (Big Yellow pf) a small plant of the big red passion fruit. The professor likes to go everywhere to hunt for passion fruits. He likes to say there is no name on some varieties since it could be a seedling that someone is selling as the original plant. Even the Professor Big Red he wouldn't tell us where it came from or the name of the parent plant.

So, to sum it up, he doesn't commit to any named varieties he has. Just says it's a red fruit or yellow fruit. It tastes good or it doesn't taste good. He's a fun guy to listen to. After his lecture, he gave all of us about 3 different varieties of passion fruits he collected. Two were red, and one was yellow fruits. I have most of the seeds since I shared it with people that couldn't make the lecture, and I didn't plant the seeds I still have.

Professor Ochoa has a list of named passion fruit cultivars in HortScience journal volume 45, Register of New Fruit and Cultivars List. 

In the presentation he simply stated if he had the fruit in hand he could confirm if it was a true cultivar and from what he's seen most are seedlings being sold under the same original names.  Can a grower or seller just definitively state they have a true cultivar instead of a seedling from an original without knowing exactly the sources of their plant and method of propagation?

I suspect my Frederick is the original and most of the ones others are growing are seedlings because I bought my vine in 2000 and Patrick Worley introduced the variety in 1993.  It matches the descriptions and has really large fruit and flowers compared to others and has a balanced sweet and tart flavor, but I would not definitively state that I know for sure I have the original.  ScottR mentioned in another thread that nurseries stopped selling the true Frederick years ago.  Professor mentioned 99 percent of Fredericks are not the real one.

Qinmi No. 9 was jointly developed by Guangxi Qinci Agricultural Technology Co and Guangxi Academy of Agricultural Sciences, selected and planted in 2020 and seedlings were distributed to promote it.  An article stated there was a challenge with variety protection rights because it takes 2 years for registration and counterfeit seedlings have shown up. 

From posts on the forum, sounds like a few of us are growing out seedlings.  The point I was trying to make before was that many seedlings will start to be sold under the cultivar name and maybe the original source for the genetics in the US for Qinmi No. 9  is a seedling as well. 

Janet

[JCorte]

Pics of fruits from the Qimni no 9 vine I’m growing and Taiwanese Purple fruits from Michelle, the source of my Taiwanese Purple vine.

[JCorte]

Seedlings of Qinmi no 9, there was a lot of variability in growth from the seedlings.  I potted up the 12 selections with the best root systems even if the plant itself was small because I also want to select for a compact plant with short internodes that can be container grown.  After they went through winter, I selected the 5 best to continue growing out.







I only selected one of the smaller plants to grow out that had impressive root growth





Two of my seedling selections of Qinmi no 9 are starting to fruit, following pics are fruit from each seedling







Another seedling selection of Qinmi no 9 that has huge leaves 10 inches across, hasn’t flowered yet





Janet

[70Malibu]

Your passion fruit vines look good. Please report back on the ripe fruits and let us know which ones you have that are the true Qinmi#9.

My vine also has some fruits now like most people who have purchased the Qinmi#9. We should all know soon if each person is growing the true one or not. The point is, if it tastes good, for me if it is a seedling or the parent, doesn't matter, I just want great tasting fruits.

[JCorte]

I am offering free seeds of Taiwanese Purple and Qinmi No. 9.  See the following post for details.
https://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=60283.0

Janet

[ScottR]

Seedlings of Qinmi no 9, there was a lot of variability in growth from the seedlings.  I potted up the 12 selections with the best root systems even if the plant itself was small because I also want to select for a compact plant with short internodes that can be container grown.  After they went through winter, I selected the 5 best to continue growing out.






Janet, that is amazing that your

I only selected one of the smaller plants to grow out that had impressive root growth





Two of my seedling selections of Qinmi no 9 are starting to fruit, following pics are fruit from each seedling







Another seedling selection of Qinmi no 9 that has huge leaves 10 inches across, hasn’t flowered yet





Janet

Janet, that's amazing that your vine is that old your soil must be perfect for it because normal life is around 6-8yrs, My friend (Bob Holzinger)who used to work with Patrick Worley when he was in San Diego area told me years ago that Patrick had said that there was no true 'Fredrick' around any more only his old partner Rick Cain had a vine as far has he knew.
I need to brix test some of my fruit because some of my red or Purple types have been very sweet to me this year. One I had the other day might be Jorge O.- big red or big red from Passiflora Int. Society seed bank. Had to stop buying from P.S.I. I have way to many vines now and only want keep hardy vines that can be grown outside.

[JCorte]

Thank you for the additional information on Frederick.  It validates what Professor Ochoa was saying in his presentation.  I have a pretty strong feeling that I have the real Frederick. 

I didn't think it was necessary to propagate it since it is such a common variety sold, but now that I know that the true Frederick has not been offered in years, I want to preserve this cultivar.  The base of my vine was almost 7 inches in diameter before it started rotting, more like a tree trunk than vine.

I am interested in hearing if any of your seedlings from the Passiflora Int Society are good to eat out of hand.  I received a rooting cutting from a Passiflora Alata x Edulis hybrid that was sourced from them.

Janet

[Orkine]

The unimaginatively named Jupiter 1 has made another fruit and this time low enough to be harvested before falling to the ground.
I do not know yet when best to pick it but I decided in this case that it was ready when the green color faded to this more yellowish green.

I will cut at this stage and in the future if I get another fruit will hold it longer till it either turns fully yellow or gets much softer.
         

[Rhythm]

Orkine, what's up with that fruit? Are you growing it for the rind? What can you do with it?

[Orkine]

Orkine, what's up with that fruit? Are you growing it for the rind? What can you do with it?

There is a story (somewhere on the forum) about how I came by the variety.

I was researching how to process the huge rind when I found the UF/IFAS High Invasion Risk assessment.("https://gardeningsolutions.ifas.ufl.edu/care/weeds-and-invasive-plants/invasive-plant-update/"). As the Giant Granadilla is a vigorous grower and predicted to be invasive here in FL, I must regretfully plan for its removal.

For growers outside of Florida, if you want cuttings or seeds, please let me know. I'd rather see it go to a safe home.

Please be responsible and check your local invasive lists first! The beauty of the Passiflora genus is that there are many amazing, non-invasive varieties that fruit reliably without the ecological risk, so the search for my passionfruit collections goes on.  Just not with this one.