Best eating variety of passionfruit?

At the urging of one of our Australian members and because I ran across some in my health food store, I recently tried some locally grown passionfruit. I must say there wasn't much fruit, mostly seeds and juice, but that juice was just heavenly. My macaw crooned when I shared it with her. :-)

So, can anyone tell me what the variety is that produces such fruit? I hear people say they are good/terrible/neutral. Any way to grow the right one first off, or is it a case of location and growing conditions? I simply must have some of this! The fruits were purple and wrinkled - or do they all look like that?

Kathleen

Hi Kathleen, heres some info I found that may be helpful to you and your Macaw. :~)
http://www.crfg.org/pubs/ff/passionfruit.html


Dave

Thanks for the link, Dave. I just remembered there's an exotic fruit nursery nearby, too, so I might see what they have.

Kathleen

There are many species good for producing fruit. the ones usually grown are P. edulis & P edulis var flavicarpa. The edulis are purple, flavicarpa yellow. The yellow are somewhat more tropical & sensitive to cold, they do very well in FL & HI. It tends to be a more vigorous grower. There are many hybrids, some between the two varieties. "Frederick" is usually very productive, very vigorous and tasty. Importantly, it is self fertile, so you can do well with just one vine. If you let it, one vine can get huge and give a ton of fruit. I got several hundred off of mine this year.

Thanks, popper1. Personal experience really helps. What I found at my store are the purple. I should really talk to the folks at the nursery, since it's only a few miles from my home.