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Gardening / The scary truth of passionfruit

Do not be taken in by this pretty passionfruit flower!
Do not be taken in by this pretty passionfruit flower!
IF your passionfruit vine is growing vigorously, has beautiful flowers yet produces no fruit, you are almost certainly growing an environmental weed that has the potential to take over not only your own garden but your neighbour’s as well.

It easily escapes from gardens bordering bushland through its suckering habit and it’s time the ACT government took action to include it on the environmental weeds list.

Leaves of the wild passionfruit, a garden invader.
Leaves of the wild passionfruit, a garden invader.
The most popular variety of passionfruit is Nellie Kelly, grown by Kelly’s Nursery in Victoria, and is considered the best variety for Canberra.

It is a grafted passionfruit on to wild passionfruit rootstock but if the grafted top part dies the wild rootstock will take over – and I mean take over – spreading rapidly through the garden and everywhere else!

The fruiting Nelly Kellie passionfruit has a large, glossy leaf, but the wild rootstock has (as illustrated here) a five-fingered dull green leaf. It may still have amazing flowers but these do not produce fruit.

Once the wild rootstock gets a hold it is almost impossible to eradicate as hundreds of suckers spread easily to all parts of the garden. It can develop a trunk as thick as a human wrist and I have seen it grow to the top of gum trees.

Cutting the main stem and treating it with undiluted glyphosate will not stop subsequent suckers growing.

TO win a gold medal at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show in the UK is quite something. But for an Australian team, under Phillip Johnson, to win the Best in Show award last year was amazing. For the last few years Fleming’s Nurseries, of Victoria, has sponsored aspiring garden designers at the world’s greatest flower show, Chelsea, and have previously won gold medals.

Inevitably Phillip has become an international name in garden design and, unsurprisingly, his first book has followed. Titled “Connected” (Murdoch Books, rrp $59.95), it is an inspiration to all new garden designers or those who want to design their own garden.

“In this day and age we are becoming more and more detached from nature,” he writes.

“We’ve forgotten how healing it is to be surrounded by beauty. Connecting with the earth is one of the most invigorating and energising things you can do.”

His gardens range from small suburban gardens to large rural properties and this book, with great photography and watercolour drawings of plans, is one of the best on the subject I have seen.

 

Jottings…

  • Remove all winter crops in the veggie garden such as broad beans after harvesting.
  • Hopefully there will be no more frosts, so get on with planting/sowing silverbeet, sweet corn, cucumber and tomatoes.
  • Unlike most other plants, when planting tomatoes, bury it halfway up the stem. Those tiny hairs will all put out roots for a stronger plant.
  • Plant citrus trees either in the garden or in containers (hints at cedricbryant.com, click on ‘Cedfacts’).
  • Lightly trim all evergreen shrubs after flowering. Not more than one third off at any time, particularly important with Australian plants.
  • Continue to feed all plants with organic plant nutrients. Apply to the drip line and keep away from the trunk/stem of the plant.
  • If you see evidence of pear and cherry tree slug, a non-chemical fix is to throw fine sand all over the tree. The slugs stick to the sand and fall off.

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Cedric Bryant

Cedric Bryant

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8 Responses to Gardening / The scary truth of passionfruit

robyn says: 13 February 2015 at 12:04 am

Hi I am in Canberra. My passionfruit flowers and has fruit but they go orange/yellow and die. Why? Absolutely love eating them.

Reply
Suzi A says: 10 December 2021 at 11:46 am

is Canberra maybe too cold for passionfruit?
Do you have a high brick wall that faces north (southern hemisphere) on your side of your garden and has no overhanging trees to block the sunight?
19th century gardeners in England used to champion the use of a brick wall facing south (northern hemisphere) as the best option to grow espaliered fruit like peaches,in a cooler climate in England.
The reason a brick wall is suggested is because a high brick wall absorbes heat during the day and that stored heat keeps the vine warmer over night.
My passionfruit NellyKelly gets unrelenting north and west sun and has to be regularly cut back. the leaves are always very green and I spread mulch around where the roots would now be – BUT never too close to the actual trunkof the vine

Reply
Carley Cullen says: 14 January 2017 at 2:47 pm

So what would be the best method to control it? We currently have the weed passionfruit growing under, and through, our decking……10 meters from where we originally planted it ?

Reply
Suzi A says: 10 December 2021 at 11:50 am

If it is the “weed” passionfruit then do you really want to keep it? If you want to erradicate the “weed” passionfruit
I would choose the strongest “path weed killer” that not only kills the weeds but also prevents any seeds from germinating over the next 12 months

Reply
Jac says: 11 April 2017 at 10:46 pm

I have a Passion Fruit and the plant is doing well and giving lot of flowers. I do hand pollinating them but none of the ones I have pollinated have developed fruits. Passion flower is a gorgeous flower, but it ‘s likely that the flower is a weed for me. ((

Reply
Joan Sohl says: 21 December 2020 at 10:47 am

Bought as Ned kellie from Bunnings 2 years ago. Has had no fruit, flowers and yellow empty fruit. Leaves like the ones described so I am furious that Bunnings can sell this stuff cos now I have to replace. Thanks heaps for the info as I would never have known.

Reply
Marg says: 23 September 2021 at 6:05 pm

Well, I suggest that you have an environmental or fertilising problem. I have a trouble in using all of the fruit from my single 3 year old Bunnings Nelly Kelly. Literally used about 80-90 ourselves and gave away close to same. We lost count at about 50.

Reply

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