I have no problem finding passion fruit at the local Oriental markets. I don't see it that much during the winter. I also can find it at the chain grocers but the fruit isn't high quality and is usually expensive. It's quite inexpensive and good quality at the ethnic markets. I live in suburban MD, Montgomery County which is just outside of Washington, DC.

Karyn,

What's strange is that not only do we have significant Asian populations, in many cases they are actually a majority. I live right on the edge of Cupertino, which has over 50% Asians--largely Chinese, but also many Indians and other ethnicities. I live in the city of Sunnyvale, which I don't think is quite 50%, but the population of Indians has been exploding as more people move here to work in Silicon Valley. San Jose is known for it's huge Vietnamese community and so on.

And there is a diversity of fruits to be found. Today I bought pineapple guava (feijoa, frequently available) and Tuna (opuntia cactus fruit--always available). In the last couple weeks I've had jackfruit, regular guava and 3 different kinds of lychee-like fruits (lychee, rambutan and I don't remember the third). The stores have so many different types of mangoes these days. And in season, if you dare, you can easily find durian--but only in the Asian markets. Then there are all those other fruits and vegetables that I don't have a clue what they are. But no passionfruit.

Perhaps the grocers think the wrinkled fruits look ugly in their produce displays?

Have you tried the durian? It's sold year round here but I don't know if it's fresh or not. They look fresh and come in net bags. I bought one once but didn't care for the fruit at all. I didn't notice a strong offensive odor but not much taste either.

There's ethnic markets of just about every sort here. The population is extremely diverse, especially with all the people attached to the different embassies, many who live in the DC suburbs. There's also a diverse immigrant population which makes for really interesting cusine. I can find Korean, Vietnamese, Brazilian, Thai, Ethiopian, Indian, Central American, Japanese, Chinese and other ethnic markets within 30 minutes from my house.

I'm really surprised that you don't have passion fruit available. With the chain stores like Safeway selling them here I figured they'd be available in just about any metropolitan area. The Korean market is stocking Dragon Fruit now. The fruit I got from the store tasted much better then the one I got from my plant. Mine was beautiful to look at but had absolutely no flavor. Another disappointment for me this year was Yacon tubers. I grew them for the first time. They had a wonderful texture but zero taste. I don't think I'll be growing them again as they take up quite a bit of space.

Karin, I sent you an email.

Thanks
Gardenfreak (Marilyn)

Karyn,

I tried Durian once--in Los Angeles. I bought it frozen in the 99 Ranch Supermarket (an Asian chain whose stores dwarf Safeway). I bought it frozen, which I understand is far from ideal. The stench was overpowering; the taste was also pretty bad in my opinion. The smell of the "carcass" was so bad that we had to put it outside that night--the next morning it was covered with green metallic beetles.

Out of curiosity I checked the distances to the various ethnic markets you listed--I suspected that Brazilian, Central/South American and Ethiopian would the toughest. All were 13 miles or less. I did decide to venture out to a medium size Latin grocery in San Jose (Chapparral). They had no fresh passionfruit, but they did have frozen pulp (flavicarpa). They had the box to hold the individual packages of Lulo (Naranjilla, Solanum quitoense) frozen pulp, but unfortunately the box was full of another fruit. They actually had quite a variety of fruits in the frozen pulp section--I should have bought a variety to try.

The passionfruit pulp is going into blender drinks today for relatives on the last day of their Thanksgiving visit. I also bought concentrated passionfruit juice (add 8 parts water). It doesn't taste wonderful until you add just the right amount of sugar--then it's great. I also bought frozen tamarillos (6 for $3 or $4, so fairly cheap per fruit)--these were a bit mushy, but an interesting taste. Also got tomatillos (my plants are done).

Overall it was amazing how much of the store was devoted to fruit juices and other forms of fruit. The produce department was pretty meager in many ways, with some strengths--for example peppers. And of course many, many more dried peppers. In the freezer section they even had rocoto peppers (Capsicum pubescens, tree pepper), which surprised me. My small plant is full of green peppers with one very ripe red one at the moment.

(An aside: there is a guy on the hot pepper forum who is very generously offering free small packets of up to 12 pepper varieties--over 100 to choose from (thread: "Seed offering 2008"). My request included 6 different species--it would have been 7 if I didn't already have C. pubescens (red plant + yellow seeds). My 12 vary from mild to extremely hot)

We really should start a thread of what other tropical/subtropical fruits people are growing with their passionfruits. The next one I'm trying is Physalis peruviana (cape gooseberry, seeds from J.L. Hudson). This is a Solanaceae in the same genus as tomatillos, also with a papery husk. I haven't tried the fruit, but I understand it's the best of the genus and there's talk of turning it into a widely exported fruit. They are supposed to be marginal as perennials where I live.

I've never seen tamarillos for sale and unfortunately had to let my tallest tree die. It was about 15' tall and my greenhouse is on;y 12'. I still have 2 more that are under 10' in the greenhouse and hopefully they'll bloom next year. My tall one was full of blooms but I don't believe that it held onto any fruit. How close is the taste of a Cape Goosebery to a regular Gooseberry (Ground Cherry)which grows wild here? I've never bought passion fruit concentrate or frozen pulp. Never even looked for it but maybe I will the next time I'm at the store. Most of the passion fruit I've tasted reminds me of Hawaiian Punch, just a bit more tart. Speaking of passion fruit my giant edulis fruit finally ripened. That thing was the size of a grapefruit! When I opened it at least a quarter cup of juice poured out and that was without squashing any of the arils. It was the juiciest passion fruit I've ever had. The taste was quite good as well. I saved the seeds from this particular fruit. It was the only one that was so oversized. The rest were average sized fruit. I haven't been able to get many tropicals to produce fruit in the greenhouse. Papayas, mangos, dragon fruit and passion fruit are pretty much it. I have a couple loquat trees which are borderline hardy here. They are going on 3 years and are in containers. I'll probably have to take them in for Jan & Feb but for now they are outside.

Karyn,

Did you let your Tamarillo die in the cold? If so, when did it go? I'm curious partly because Annie's Annuals claims that they are only hardy to 41 F. I passed on one last time I was there partly because of that:

http://www.anniesannuals.com/plants/plant_display.asp?prodid=306&account=none

The only Physalis fruit I've tasted are tomatillos--so the cape gooseberry will be new to me assuming it fruits. I started a few of the seeds early since I have more than I'll need--they germinate quite well and I have a few very young seedlings both inside and outside. I'm really interested in seeing how these turn out. Purdue has a nice collection of articles on them. From one:

http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=1398&page=241

"Goldenberry fruits are succulent golden spheres the size of marbles with a pleasing taste. They are protected by papery husks resembling Chinese lanterns. The attractive and symmetrical husk with its edible yellow fruit inside gives it an eye-catching appearance and potential market appeal.

In most places where they are grown, goldenberries are now considered fruits only for backyard gardens or for children to pluck and eat. Given research, however, they could become commercial fruits of particular interest to the world's up-scale restaurants and bakeries. This is the strategy that established markets for kiwifruit in the 1960s and led to a multimillion dollar annual crop. Goldenberries already carry prestige in some international markets. Europeans, for example, often pay premium prices to dip them in chocolate or decorate cakes and tortes.

In addition to having a future as fresh fruits, goldenberries make excellent jam; in fact, in India, they are known commonly as "jam fruit." In the United States they are best known as preserves marketed under the Hawaiian name "poha.""

Another article, titled "Goldenberry, Passionfruit, & White Sapote: Potential Fruits for Cool Subtropical Areas" describes their apparently easy cultivation as annuals in Watsonville, about 50 miles South of me (similar climate, slightly cooler highs in summer):

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1993/v2-479.html

And yet another:

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/cape_gooseberry.html

Great to hear about the giant passionfruit. I have a vague memory of reading somewhere that plants arise that produce giant fruit but that it wasn't as tasty. So do you think this is the product of another bud sport? Were there other fruits on that same branch? I guess I'm curious what the chance is that the seedlings will give giant fruit. Grapefruit size--off a regular P. edulis f. edulis plant? I guess I don't know enough to know how unusual that is. Weightwise, how much bigger would you say it was than the others from that vine?

We have a loquat that got hundreds of fruits this year. Then I pruned it back literally about 75%--it was necessary and the trees tolerate pretty much anything. I saw one flower spike a week or two ago, I've been meaning to check again to see how well the tree is going to do after all that trauma.

The low 40's sounds about right. The tamarillo pretty much bit the big one almost a month ago. It tolerated a light frost with just foliage damage but couldn't take more. I was going to cut off the top few feet but then I would have chopped off all the branches and been left with a single stem. Since I had a couple others I decided not to bother.

I don't know if the size of that edulis was so unusual but I've never had one that big. It was easily 4x or more the size of the other fruit that plant produced. There were other fruit on that branch but not at the same time. That was one of the last fruits the plant produced. Maybe being a singular fruit had something to do with the size, don't know. The taste was nice and it was much juicier then the fruit from earlier in the season.

Karyn,

If your tamarillos are too tall, have you thought about switching over to rooted cuttings?

"Seeds or cuttings may be used for propagation. Seeds produce a high-branched, erect tree, ideal for sheltered locations. Cuttings develop into a shorter, bushy plant with low-lying branches, suitable for exposed, windy sites."

"Cuttings should be of 1- to 2-year-old wood 3/8 to 1 in (10-25 mm) thick and 18 to 30 in (45-75 cm) long; the leaves are removed and the base cut square below a node. They can be planted directly in the field and, while precocious, should not be permitted to fruit in the first year."

http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/tree_tomato.html#Propagation

Apparently if you want to keep them alive for a while and don't want to start from seeds each time you have to do this every few years anyway-just like for P. edulis and naranjilla (Solanum quitoense, lulo).

"Although adaptable and easy to grow, the tree seems to be short-lived; the life of a commercial plantation is usually no more than eight years."

http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=1398&page=306

I'd never even considered rooting cuttings. If I don't get any fruit from the two I have left next season I'm not going to keep trying. They are aphid magnets in the greenhouse and even the smaller ones take up a lot of space. I don't keep anything that doesn't produce that takes up a lot of GH space unless it has some other quality like beautiful foliage or something and with this attracting aphids like crazy it might not be worth it. You're lucky because you have such a short cold period. I have to protect tender plants from late Oct through the beginning of May.