Hi there,

In my opinion, (which you won't like), chain link is by far the best trellis material for the large growing Passifloras. The problems are that it is uuuuuugly and you have to dig post holes and concrete them in. The house Crystal and I bought a decade ago already had one, so we used it for Passifloras, and it works like a charm.

For alternatives, you would need to be creative. Keep in mind, these are tendril climbers, so you need fairly small, frequent spots for them to grab onto, otherwise they will use their own branches to twine around, causing a "bunched" effect. We have done some unique things, though...

In one area, we have a wooden privacy fence, and we used some thin galvanized wire to create things for the plants to grab. This works well. In another area, we used some heavy fishing line, which is nice because it is nearly invisible, but you will have to replace it after a few years because it will break down in the sun. Another option we are using is nice redwood lattice. It looks nice, but the vines have trouble grabbing on, and you have to do a lot of maintenance to keep the vines in check.

The best advice I can give it to be creative. Also, some varieties of P. edulis have slightly more hefty tendrils which will grapple onto slightly larger sized supports. I am sorry I cannot tell you which ones, as most P. edulis do not make much fruit in our climate, (or live for that matter). I am sure someone else here can help with that.

As far as how many you need, the question goes back to how patient you are. One will do if you have many years to devote. If you want it to cover densely this year... I would think one for every 4-5 feet.

That's my $0.02. I am sure someone else will post with better/more info on P. edulis. Did you know there are also other species of Passiflora that set edible tasty fruit? In fact, in some countries, (granted most of them are in South America) they don't think P. edulis is worth growing!

Good luck! Hope I helped a little.

Eric

Eric,

I'm curious if you could give a few of the things that are on your list of edible passifloras. A little over a year ago when I was just starting to grow Passiflora, I was told by a self-proclaimed fruit guru that edulis was the only one that fruits in San Diego without hand pollination. He was growing a plant he identifies as P. mollissima at the time.

When I think of other species, the Tacsonias are the ones that first come to mind, with several of them self-fruitful, among them mollissima (actually used for two species, P. tripartita var. mollissima and P. tarminiana) as well as P. antioquiensis if I remember correctly.

Elizabeth Peters at Grassy Knoll recommended P. Susan Brigham (P. tripartita var. mollissima x P. mixta) as a floriferous self-fertile hybrid with tasty fruit.

Does P. umbilicata produce tasty fruit? Is it self-fertile?

I believe zone 10 San Diego should open things up to a number of other species--perhaps P. quadrangularis, P. alata, and related species and hybrids. Of course the question of which are self fertile and which require a pollinator--and what's compatible--is not an easy one.

Any others that you can think of? I understand that P. foetida and P. membranacea can in theory produce edible fruit--the latter requires a pollinator while I seem to remember that P. foetida it depends on the clone(?). I don't know if either is worth eating.

Hey Randy,

I think you did a pretty thorough job of mentioning the most common ones available for fruiting. I'm not sure if I would eat P. foetida fruit, though, just on principle.

As far as the pollinating/self fertile concept, I am not quite sure. I really don't grow Passifloras for their fruit, but if I was, I would be sure to hand pollinate, just for better success rate and larger fruits. I did read somewhere that P. 'Jutta', which is a hybrid of P. umbilicata x P. tucumanensis makes very tasty fruit when pollinated with P. caerulea. I found this odd, but I'm pretty sure the person who wrote that is much more of an expert than I am.

I would probably suggest mostly staying away from the stipulata supersection,(ie P. caerulea), and as you suggested, trying more of the laurifolia supersection (ie P. alata) and the tacsonias. Though I have read in Ulmer & Macdougal's book that some decalobas can be tasty, but usually very small fruits. Hey, what about incarnata? I hear they make jams and wine from it down south, though I've never tried it.

Eric

Eric, I am curious about your experience with Passiflora on a wooden privacy fence. I am also doing this, however I have not added anything special for the tendrils to grab on to. I have sort of "helped" the tendrils to find the spaces in between the boards and it seems that they are holding on OK for now. Do you think it will become necessary for me to add something else for them to hold, or will the plants just find little spots between pieces of wood to grab?

Generally speaking, in my opinion, Passifloras really don't do a wonderful job of finding spaces in between the boards. They will do so on occasion, but not well enough for my liking. The upkeep becomes a little taxing when you start having a lot of them. Out back fence is not a "good neighbor" type, so we have all the back side. This has created a perfect place for us to put supports. I ran thin galvanized wire vertically about every 6-8 inches along the fence, wrapped around roofing nails in the fence stringers, (2x4s). This works great, though if you could put horizontals also, it would work even better.

Hope this helps.
Eric