Impressive Passion Fruit Trellis Ideas

Passion fruit vines are outstanding garden plants that produce mouth-watering fruits and can camouflage the older, ugly fences surrounding your property. While simple horizontal steel wires may seem like the best option for passion fruit vines, there are other great passionfruit trellis ideas out there you should explore. In this article, we’ll show you some of the best passion fruit trellis ideas to try out and give you some quick tips on how to grow healthy passion fruits.

What is the Best Trellis for Passionfruit?

Passionfruit grow on trellises and are very skilled climbers. For commercial orchards, installing a trellis system is highly recommended for increased productivity. Young plants are placed where the posts are equidistant from each other and, if necessary, are trained to climb up a wire as they grow or a short piece of string to reach the top of the wire. 

Once a vine reaches the top wire, two opposing leaders are used to train it up the wire so that it is supported as it grows and bears fruits. The other alternative trellis systems that are common in many orchards or gardens are T-trellising and A-frames. 

Various passionfruit trellis ideas out there have their pros and cons, as outlined below:

1. Overhead Trellis

Pros

• Best protection from sun damage
• Highest fruit yield

Cons

Poor spray penetration

More vine training required

2. Vertical Trellis

Pros

• Easy-to-install
• Cheaper installation
• Best spray penetration
• Less training is required

Cons

• Lower yield compared to the overhead option
• Poor protection from the direct effect of the sun on fruits

3. T Trellis

Pros

• Effective spray penetration
• Increased yield 
• Less training required

Cons

• Expensive installation
• More fruits can drop from the top canopy

4. A-Frame Trellis

Pros

• Better canopy that increases yield
• Effective spray penetration

Cons

• Expensive installation

More DIY Passionfruit Trellis Ideas

It’s easy to make the most of your garden space by putting up a passionfruit trellis over your garden or using a pergola to hang a climbing vine to give it height. Check out these fun and easy-to-create passionfruit trellis ideas:

1. Wooden Trellis

It can be very useful for creating a trellis from wood. Use horizontal poles of 3 x 4m, vertical poles of 3 x 2.5m, and supports measuring 3 x 1.5m. Leave a space of 1m between the horizontal poles so that there is 50 cm between the vertical poles and the ground. 

Use a machete to make small holes in the poles and nail them together. Reinforce the joins with some heavy-duty wire that is like a mesh. Because passion fruit plants can produce fruit for three years, you may need to treat the wood. Remember, you may experience substantial losses due to rotting without proper wood treatment! After two years, the wood becomes very rotten because of the lack of treatment, so you may consider applying linseed oil to treat the wooden poles.

2. Electrical Conduit Trellis

Alternatively, it is a lot easier to make passionfruit trellis from an electrical conduit than you think. You’ll also end up using these electrical conduit trellises to hang some tomato plants and pumpkins, too.

It’s just half-inch electrical conduit, which comes in 10 ft. lengths. If you go to a hardware store, you will find a bunch of metal elbow joints. Purchase six lengths of electrical conduit and cut them to about six ft. in size. With these six elbow joints, you can comfortably design passionfruit 3 x 6 trellises that perfectly fit into 3 square foot lawns. 

Select trellises that sit at the northern end of a garden bed so that it doesn’t look like it is going to fall over. Get rebar about the width of a golf ball, and have it cut to 4-foot lengths. Hammer two of these into the ground halfway through so that your electrical conduit fits snugly over the rebar. So, if you accurately get the correct measurements of your garden or available space for growing passion fruits, you can rely on this great DIY idea.

3. Recycled Trellis

It couldn’t get any simpler than that! Well, it can be quite simple if you have trashed metal frames in your home or around the neighborhood that you can recycle. For instance, you can borrow a rack that is lying idle on your neighbor’s property and tie it to a piece of nylon string to secure it properly. 

Put a mesh on the two sides of the passionfruit plant that catches the most sun, and you’re done. When it comes to trying out different unused metallic items in your garage, the passionfruit trellis ideas available to you are virtually limitless.

How big should a passion fruit trellis be?

Trellises should be long enough to reach a height of 5 ft. above the ground and have a diameter of 18-29 in. Ideally, rows of vines should be arranged along the side of the trellises to receive maximum sunlight so that the vines should be able to grow together along the trellis to encourage cross-pollination. 

Do you need a trellis for passionfruit?

Passionfruit vines are strong, vigorous climbers that originated in South America. Great places to plant a passionfruit vine are those that are in the open, in full sun, and have no other plants competing for space. 

A passionfruit vine that looks healthy and is productive is one that is attached to a sturdy trellis. Just snip the ends of your big bud when pruning your plant, and it will shoot out laterally. This will result in many side shoots, and you can expect fruit to appear in 20 months.

How do you wire a trellis for passion fruit?

The most preferred trellis idea in many orchards is a vertical fence-style trellis system that has large stay posts at the end of rows and post-style wooden trellises with steel wires at the top. However, the passionfruit vines can be trained on other great ideas such as the T-frame and the A-frame trellis ideas.

How do you support a passion fruit vine?

Passion fruit vines climb very quickly and require support. Therefore, you should dig holes to a depth of about 50 cm and space them at a distance of around six meters between the rows of passionfruit plants. It is recommended that the supporting poles of your trellis system are at least 2.7 meters long.

Passionfruit Growing Guide

Anyone who has always wanted to grow passionfruit should try it at some point in life. If you plant it in the right spot, it will flourish and give you delicious fruits that will be eaten fresh or used to make wonderful sauces and spreads or stunning flowers that you will never see anywhere else.

When to Plant

If you want to plant passionfruit seeds, start planting them as soon as they are ripe. If you have good soil, plant them as soon as they are big enough to grow. But when is the best time to plant passionfruit? It’s best to plant them mid to late spring when the last bit of frost is gone. If it starts to warm up enough, you can plant them right through to the end of summer. 

If you live in an area where temperatures can quickly dip to freezing or become very cold (50°F), passionfruit plants can be planted in the spring before the freezing temperatures are over. When temperatures are hot, it is possible to grow your passionfruit plants any time up to 90°F as long as it is possible to get irrigation during that period.

Where to Plant

Choosing the best location for your passionfruit plants is not that challenging if you know the right planting seasons. When planted in a sunny location, passionfruit fruits can thrive quickly. It is best to plant the vines in positions that will not freeze. It is also best to plant the vines in a location that will not be affected by strong winds. Some people like to grow their vines high up on a trellis or even on a high fence. They are perfect for areas where there is a pergola. 

Passion fruit also grows really well in very large pots. Old wine barrels are good for growing passionfruit in pots. Place your pots very high against a wall or build a climbing frame for the plant.

How to Plant

If you have room, plant passion fruits in a large pot in order to allow them to grow big and produce a lot of fruits. Ensure the soil is very rich in nutrients before planting. Add more manure and compost to the soil. It is essential that the soil is nutrient rich. 

Wrapping Up

Passionfruit plants need a lot of essential nutrients because they have big glossy leaves that are important in the production of healthy fruits. The plant must have good drainage because passionfruit doesn’t like sitting in water bodies. If you want to plant in clay soil, add a bit of compost or gypsum to the soil to help it break up. Planting in a raised bed will help the water drain away faster. Do some mulching around the base of the passionfruit plants to help keep the soil cool and moist.