Five newly ripened fruits today, which feels like a reward for getting my second Red Rover transplanted.

'Nancy Garrison' (NG!) on the left, Purple Possum (PP) on the right. NG pulp held together when scooped out with a spoon. PP pulp was juicier, slightly looser than NG, and a bit more tart. PP's slightly larger fruit size is mostly due to thicker walls. NG is a bit more wrinkled than PP when ripe. Unexpectedly NG had a darker purple color, while PP was more mottled.

Verdict: Delicious. Delightful.

[Edited to correct 'Frederick' to 'Nancy Garrison'.]

I bought a "Frederick" from a local nursery last year and haven't got any fruit out of it. It has flowered but I am wondering if this is an old vine or something. I have heard they don't give much fruit after about 5 years.

It has grown a bunch over a trellis but even with some hand pollination I am still not seeing any fruit. Your fruit looks nice and what I wanted.

What kind of fertilizer are you using and are you hand pollinating or are the natural pollinators?

i was walking up through the Qualcomm campus up in Mira Mesa and they have some pretty big passionfruit vines. Lots of fruit for their cafe. :)

Hi, BaconEater. I am aggressively hand pollinating, both with a tiny paintbrush and occasionally by pulling the anther off one flower and rubbing it on the stigma of a bloom on another plant. Even so, about half the blossoms drop off without forming fruit.

Of the six vines I have planted, two Red Rover are new, one Purple Possum flowered first then stopped abruptly, one Purple Possom is putting out a flower once a month, and the two Nancy Garrison constantly have around 3 to 6 blooms at a time.

Each plant has a drip emitter and a nice thick covering of Gromulch. Each gets a supplemental gallon of water from the rain barrel once every week or two. Earlier in the summer, I gave the four older plants a dose of Grow More 10-52-10 water soluble fertilizer. When planted, I mixed in Mycos innoculant and a bit of slow release citrus fertilizer.

I'm also pruning and training the vines for a tidy espalier, because I'm growing them for privacy along the wire fence. That might affect the fruiting.

Thanks for the tip about Qualcomm. I'll check out their vines when I'm next on campus.

Thanks Oscarmatic! Its one of the newer buildings and has it listed as an organic garden on the map. Lots of fruit trees, passionfruit, and veggies growing for the cafe. I don't work at Qualcomm but saw the garden while walking down the street and decided to check it out.

I have been looking over your photos in the forum and now am wanting to get a couple more plants. :D

I'm trying to root some of the trimmings from my Red Rovers. If I have any luck, I'll let you know. But, I have low expectations... previous attempts went badly.

Sounds good! It's always good to know there are other local growers. I'll keep trying to hand pollinate.

Just bought passiflora "frederick" from anderson nursery, Poway and planted a week ago. From the very next day noticing an army of ants on the vine. The plant had few fruits already, but all the remaining flower buds started falling off. Is the ants have anything to do with the flower buds falling off?

Hi Saran: I have a Frederick as well and ants seem to love them. I have had some flowers drop but not sure it's ant related. I have put a couple traps out to see if I can manage the ant population. I do pretty consistently see ants all over the plant.

Saran, black ants came with all of my passiflora vines from City Farmers, Anderson, and Hunter's Nursery. I don't see that the ants are farming any other pests (no scale, aphids, or associated honeydew), and there are no more ants on the blossoms that drop than the ones that fruit. If the ants are harming the vines, it's subtle enough that I can't really tell.

Now, if I could just keep the black ants off the kitchen counter, where a few wander in from time to time....