Fruit on my sterile Passiflora "Inspiration." Help.
 

I decided to try a passion vine this summer and planted a variety called "Inspiration".....it's supposed to be sterile. Undaunted, I used a small brush to apply pollen from the anthers onto the pistils on some of the blooms. The plant stopped blooming a few weeks ago and is done until next spring. Today I noticed these ball thingies on the plant...only two of them. What do I do? How do I know when they are ripe, etc.? can I eat them w/o being poisoned?

Donna, Texas Gulf Coast

Obviously not completely sterile, as they are definitely fruit. Without knowing more about the parentage of this CV I cannot say if they are poisonous or not. The edible passionfruit (P. edulis or black passionfruit) turn colour when ripe and fall from the vine. Other species may or may not be edible, some are but have quite and odour when ripe I understand. A bit of research into its parentage required.

Thanks, Woz. I did some research and I found out that the fruit has to fall from the vine...fruit on the vine are not ripe. I'll see what else I can find out. We have some gardeners from Florida who grow the edible kind.


Donna