Ripe fruit?

Hi fellow passionflower nuts.
After learning more, I realized I had to hand cross my p. vitifolia with another passion to get fruit. So about a month ago I started pollinating some vitifolia with edulis. And now I have about 10 fruits. They are beautiful!
But since I've never gotten fruit off of this one, need some help determining ripeness. Is this like most passions in that the fruit should begin to wrinkle before removing from the vine? I want the seeds to see if they'll produce anything I like. Of course, going to taste the fruit too. Thanks

I'm surprised no one answwered you. So, did you get to taste the fruit? Did you get some seeds?

My neighbor has a passi with a fruit on it that looks very similar to that one. He told me I could have the fruit, so I began to research when they were ready. From what I have found online, the fruit needs to start turning colors (generally purple or yellow) and needs to start wrinkling before it is ripe. One website looked at said the fruit can take several months to fully ripen.

TrumpetFlowerz, my understanding is that you should let the fruit fall from the plant to ensure it is ripe and then you can put it in a paper bag with a cut apple to further ripen it. This help to make sure you get viable seeds. p.vitifolia taste good to some, acidic and of course p.edulis is good, so I would think it would be edible.

p.vitifolia fruit should get a hard shell, with a mottled green/white coloring. Good luck and let us know your thoughts on taste. Congrats, you may have a new hybrid.

Darren

Thanks Shauna and Darren. The fruit ended up falling naturally from the vine, was still a hard shell (as you described Daren) and I opened it. It was slightly acidic in taste, but very good.
I have already planted the seed and have 6 small passionflower crosses already peeking above the soil. Going to let these grow out and flower, want to see what they may look like :)

This message was edited Feb 26, 2014 5:03 AM