Why passionfruit deserves a spot in your garden

Hinterland Homesteading with Racheal pascoe 

Another really terrific addition to any homesteading garden is the humble passionfruit. Our climate here on the Sunshine Coast sees passionfruit vines thrive and produce lots of delicious fruit. Our sub-tropical climate is just perfect. 

If you haven’t tried passionfruit, now might be a good time. They are not cheap in the store, maybe you have a neighbour or friend who has a vine and might let you try one? Cut it in half and spoon the seed filled pulp out to eat. Just so sweet and delicious! It turns out passionfruit are also good for you. They are packed full of nutrients, in particularly rich in fibre, vitamin C, and vitamin A and so much more. 

Planting and care 

If you are thinking of including a passionfruit vine in your garden, ensure you select a sunny position. Make sure that you have well-draining soil. Don’t plant the vine in a wet soggy part of the yard, it just won’t be happy there. Passionfruit vines can be susceptible to root rot. The vine also needs a structure to climb onto. A fence will do just nicely or maybe you could build an arch for it to cover? At home here we have a couple of arches with new plants, which are growing quickly and already have nice size fruit on. Passionfruit vines can be found at almost all nurseries and sell for around $7-10. There are several varieties but my absolute is the Panama Gold. It has large round yellow fruit and the pulp is summery sweet.  

Harvesting 

It will be around a year or 2 before you will have an established plant, and it gives you lots of beautiful fruit to enjoy. Fertilise occasionally with a liquid fertiliser or some aged horse poop and keep tucking up the long tendrils, giving them support as they grow. Passionfruit vines are hungry plants when growing and fruiting keep them fed, so they can be their best.

Passionfruit are ready when they are full in colour and almost fall off in your hand. This is when the fruit will be the sweetest. If you have to pull the fruit off the vine, and I mean really pull it, then you will have immature fruit and you will be pulling a funny face when you eat it! Sour and horrible. Be patient and wait for it to be its’ best. It is worth the wait. Enjoy your passionfruit fresh out of the skin, topping a dessert or if you have a few of them you could make passionfruit jam! 

Passionfruit vines tend to produce less fruit after 5 or so years and can be replaced at around 7 years. In saying that though, my Mum has a vine rambling along her fence and each year it looks scrappy, and she says she might pull it out. Then we notice the first flowers, so it’s a keeper for another year and goes on to produce lots more fruit. It is an old vine and each year we think it will be its’ last, but it is showing us that if a passionfruit is happy, it can go on for years. Happy homesteading everyone!