Best/Worthy Passiflora varieties?

[SocalTropics]

Wondering if anyone has any experiences with various passiflora varieties. I am looking for a couple varieties to plant that's productive, vigorous, and with decent tasting fruits.

Thanks in advance!

[PltdWorld]

For juices & deserts, you can't go wrong with one of the hybrids developed for SoCal, such as Frederick.  Very vigorous and prolific in this area.  And easy to find.  I'm not a fan of eating it "out of hand" though.

I've tried growing a couple of the yellow tropicals (the sweet "lilikoi" and a flavicarpa that produced very large fruits) - neither have done much for me in my yard.  Still holding out hope, but no flowers and not much growth after almost 2 years...

Frederick, on the other hand, spread across approx 25' of 5' tall chain link fence in a single growing season - with dozens of fruits - the first year it was planted; my older Frederick vine produces several hundred fruit annually.

[simon_grow]

Fredrick is easily found in most nurseries in SoCal and I've seen them at 99 Ranch market in Convoy/Claremont Mesa. They are sweet and tart.

If you like sweet fruit, I highly recommend eating a Miracle Fruit or two before eating passion fruit. It takes the edge off the tartness and becomes sugary sweet. I make a passionfruitade, just add the pulp of one large or two small passionfruitade to a glass of icewater. It's super refreshing!

Simon

[fyliu]

I've grown maypop(P. incarnata) and P. arida.
Maypop is sweeter but smaller than Fredrick and tastes like pineapple and banana.
P. arida is even sweeter with just a little acidity. Unfortunately it's a small fruit. Think large grape.
Both of these attract butterflies and caterpillars, unlike the P. edulis varieties.
If you've only tried P. edulis, these will not taste like what you think when you say passionfruit. Plus you may not like the caterpillars.
They are hardy but not vigorous. Maypop will survive a freeze and grow back from the ground.
I'm not sure what else to say for these. They're not exactly what you're looking for but I just wanted to share.

When you say productive do you mean with pollination or without?
The best tasting large fruits pretty much require it. Federick is one of the few that will be productive without your help. It will be even more productive with your help and not just collapse your chain link fence as I've seen happen.

[SocalTropics]

cross-pollination will work as well. I have a giant granadilla- any idea on this one?, the frederick i think? but it's not everbearing like fredericks are suppose to be?

Also planted the banana variety as well as some sunrise varieties- any experiences with these?

Thanks for the responses! really appreciate them.

[gunnar429]

I've grown maypop(P. incarnata) and P. arida.
Maypop is sweeter but smaller than Fredrick and tastes like pineapple and banana.
P. arida is even sweeter with just a little acidity. Unfortunately it's a small fruit. Think large grape.
Both of these attract butterflies and caterpillars, unlike the P. edulis varieties.
If you've only tried P. edulis, these will not taste like what you think when you say passionfruit. Plus you may not like the caterpillars.
They are hardy but not vigorous. Maypop will survive a freeze and grow back from the ground.
I'm not sure what else to say for these. They're not exactly what you're looking for but I just wanted to share.

When you say productive do you mean with pollination or without?
The best tasting large fruits pretty much require it. Federick is one of the few that will be productive without your help. It will be even more productive with your help and not just collapse your chain link fence as I've seen happen.

The P. edulis I have on my fence attracts zebra longwings and Gulf Fritillaries.  I agree there are other, smaller fruited varieties that buterflies prefer, but they don't seem to mind eating up my vines. 

[luc]

Here's a few of my best producers , all P. edulis .

[ScottR]

Nice little line up of edulis varieties Luc, the small pink a red are they seedlings or hybrids or known cultivars?

[SocalTropics]

Here's a few of my best producers , all P. edulis .

Luc, nice display of the fruits, do you have pictures of their flowers? how prolific are these? everbearing?

[barath]

For juices & deserts, you can't go wrong with one of the hybrids developed for SoCal, such as Frederick.  Very vigorous and prolific in this area.  And easy to find.  I'm not a fan of eating it "out of hand" though.

I've tried growing a couple of the yellow tropicals (the sweet "lilikoi" and a flavicarpa that produced very large fruits) - neither have done much for me in my yard.  Still holding out hope, but no flowers and not much growth after almost 2 years...

Frederick, on the other hand, spread across approx 25' of 5' tall chain link fence in a single growing season - with dozens of fruits - the first year it was planted; my older Frederick vine produces several hundred fruit annually.

I'm pretty surprised that lilikoi isn't fruiting for you in San Diego -- I'm growing it in Northern California and while it's not producing heavily, it's producing, and it flowers like crazy.  Frederick and Black Knight do produce much more.

I'm really hoping we can somehow get seeds / cuttings of the varieties Mike from Australia talks about -- African Gold, Panama Purple, and Panama Gold.  I think they'd do well in hotter parts of California.  Maybe we could put in together so it's worth Mike's while to send us some as a group?

[barath]

cross-pollination will work as well. I have a giant granadilla- any idea on this one?, the frederick i think? but it's not everbearing like fredericks are suppose to be?

Also planted the banana variety as well as some sunrise varieties- any experiences with these?

Thanks for the responses! really appreciate them.

I think Giant Granadilla is P. quadrangularis, but I know nothing about its fruit.  I believe it will cross pollinate well with P. alata and P. phoenicea (Ruby Glow)

[barath]

Sorry for yet another reply -- P. ligularis and P. laurifolia are worth trying in LA.  I'm growing ligularis outdoors here, and while it likes growing in nearly full shade, it's just not hot enough to get it to flower.

P. laurifolia -- Jamaican passionfruit -- is probably my favorite fruit, but it's considered tropical so I'm growing it indoors, and have two sprawling indoor vines in my office.  However, if you're in a warmer spot in So Cal -- a warm zone 10b -- then you can probably grow it outdoors.  I spoke with a farmer who grows it outdoors commercially in Homestead, FL, and while that doesn't necessarily mean much for growing something in LA, I've learned that P. laurifolia likes slightly drier climates anyway.

[fyliu]

P. ligularis was the one I wanted to recommend if you're okay with growing more than 1 vine and doing manual cross pollination. The flowers are too big for bees to pollinate. They end up just taking the pollen and leave you with nothing if you go too late to do it.

[gunnar429]

Yes, I have heard that Jamaican water lemon may be available here in FL soon.  Supposed to be great!

[luc]

Nice little line up of edulis varieties Luc, the small pink a red are they seedlings or hybrids or known cultivars?

The 2 big ones on the left are from Embrapa Brazil . The other 2 are local and very productive . I also have locals ( not in picture ) that were pollinated by these big Brazilian ones and are 50 % bigger than normal . Production is 6 to 7 months in a row , from June trough January . All are seedlings .

[Jackfruitwhisperer69]

Passiflora ligularis requires a semi-shade location to cope with the heat during summer, as the plant is inactive at this time...once the weather starts to cool, the plants starts growing again...flowering occurs during Dec-Jan(Winter). Mine is self-fertile. I only have one vine in my zone. Takes 2 years to start bearing.

Another, very good Passiflora is Passiflora antioquiensis...very sweet with flavor and aroma of Passiflora edulis.

[ScottR]

Thanks for reply Luc, sounds like you've got plenty of passiflora to consume

[SocalTropics]

Thanks guys, P. Incarnata, P. Arida, P. Laurifolia, P. Lingularis, anything else?

[luc]

Thanks for reply Luc, sounds like you've got plenty of passiflora to consume

They are juiced and sold to bars and restaurants .