Hello everyone, Bridget here, and today I want to talk to you about growing passion fruit.
I'm really excited about it, I've never grown it before, but I have eaten a lot of it. I was born
in Hawaii and I spent part of my childhood there, so I grew up eating tons of tropical
fruit and this is one of them. First though, if you haven't already, go ahead and hit that
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so there are a few reasons I wanted to grow passion fruit. One is yes, because as a child,
I ate it and I do love it. Passion fruit tastes so good. The second reason I wanted to grow it
is because it does well potted. So right now we have a lot of raised beds and potted beds and
I wanted to grow something that's beautiful, that's fruity, and that can grow well in a pot.
Some people actually prefer growing it in pots because it can be a bit invasive.
Not only can the vines grow 30, 40 feet, but when you're growing it in-ground,
you can see up shoots in different locations even quite far away. It's got an extensive root system,
though the roots are pretty small, pretty tiny. The other reason I wanted to grow it is because
the entire plant is edible. So the leaves, the flowers, the fruit. I love that the leaves,
you can eat them raw, you can slice them thin and pop them into a salad, or you can cook
them up like you would any other greens, like spinach or kale. You can add them to dishes,
like quiches, and stir-fries, and things like that. The flowers you can steep them in a tea,
you can also put leaves in your tea as well for tea, as well,
but you can steep them either fresh or dry, so you can do either or. Now, of course, if you
take the flowers and use them in tea, you won't have as much fruit, but again,
I love that you can do quite a bit with it. The tea is supposed to have a really
soothing effect so be very careful about how many flowers you steep in your tea,
and definitely watch when you are consuming a new plant. The greens, the flowers, the fruit.
Talk to your doctor, make sure that you're okay with consuming this plant.
So, I just potted this one up, and I'm really excited because now I have it over here,
in this location next to my potting bench; And, I'll show you what that looks like, and I'll show
you a close-up of the pot. I picked a pot that is pretty large, you want a pot that's at least,
they say about 24 inches deep, 24 inches around. It does like to spread out a bit,
so that's good and then you want to make sure that you have it near a trellising system, because
these vines are going to go crazy, and they will grow over anything, absolutely anything. So,
if you have them near other plants, and trees, it could overtake them, it could even smother them.
So, be careful with that. Now first, this one was started with bamboo, which is perfectly fine.
As it starts to grow up, just training up the bamboo. It's getting to a point though,
now I need to put it over by the trellis and train it through the trellis. So,
I'm excited about that and I actually have some fruit right here that's growing. Now to start your
passion fruit, the best way is from fresh seeds. It takes about 10 days to 3 weeks to germinate.
You can do it from a cutting, so you can root a cutting and do it that way. But, you can do it
from seeds as well. There are two types, there are tons of varieties; There's purple passion fruit,
and then there's yellow passion fruit. So, you have both. When you pot it up you want to go two
to three times bigger than the pot you're coming out of. Here is the pot that I'm growing in and,
I have it on wheels because this is a pretty big pot, and in case I need to move it around.
I have it right by the trellis I have a trellising, and it's really just some cattle panel
that I have, and it goes all the way behind my very messy potting bench, right now
and I just potted it up,
and I use some soil building conditioner, which is a G&B Organics product. I put some potting mix
in there, I put some compost in it. I put some composted chicken manure in there,
I also added some
organic granular fertilizer and I put in some bone meal in there
and I mix that up all really well. So, as the roots spread out then it can get
even more nutrients. Now, this plant likes lots of water. So, it likes
moisture, but it doesn't want to sit in it, so you need well-draining soil in there and this
pot drains through really good. I have a nice, big hole at the bottom, so that comes in really nice.
Then, you want to mulch the surface to retain moisture.
Look at that, I've got that nice one right there, and I got another one right there. I'm so excited.
Now knowing when the fruit is ready, actually, one of the best things to do is just let it fall off.
Here's a nice little flower. Hopefully, it'll bloom soon,
and then, the only thing I really need to do now is just train it up this trellis, and that's about
it, and then I'll be ready to go. So, from what I've found so far to be successful with passion
fruit, just give them enough room to spread their root system. Give them nice nutrient-rich soil
with lots of organic matter in it. Give them a good water supply, you just don't want them
sitting in water, lots of sun, they do well in sun, and then a place to spread and trellis. It
takes about 12 to 18 months before you're going to see fruit on it. These vines can live, when you're
looking around some people say five years to seven years, some people say 10 years, but after about
three or four years you might see less and less fruit. Which again, if you're consuming the leaves
and the flowers then you're still going to be enjoying the plant. So, I'm looking forward to
seeing how it grows. Now for us, because our days get shorter and just a little bit cooler,
I'm not going to see as much growth in the fall and winter, but come spring it'll go gangbusters.
So, I'm excited about that. You can trim it back, prune it back a bit. Just keeping your main line
going, and trimming some of these shoots and then it will come back and flourish. So, that's nice
that you can do that as well. I'm really excited about growing this, I'm excited that I have a
couple of fruit on here that I get to enjoy and then I can't wait to see what it does next season.
So, if you have any questions, let me know. Like I said, this is my first time growing it,
but I can tell you my experiences, help you look up some of the other experiences out there,
and if you have any advice for me please leave it down in the description below. Alright,
thanks again for joining me and I look forward to talking to you guys again soon. Happy gardening!