I have wanted to taste a passion fruit every since I started growing them but since I am in PA our season is too short and I haven't been able to find any in the stores. This year on the last day before the first frost I felt all my fruits and took the heaviest ones opened them up and ate the pulp. The fruits were still green but the seeds had turned brown. They were really good and sweet! I thought that they must be really really good when they are fully ripe, so I kept on my quest to find one in the stores. Tonight I did and couldn't wait til I got home to rip it open and try it. I am very disappointed. It was really sour. Is that how it should taste? Is it because mine were incarnata and the store bought ones are probably edulis? They were dark and wrinkly, I thought for sure they would be really sweet.
Roxanne
Are they supposed to be sour????
This is very odd, P. incarnata are sour. Most probably, we that love them started eating them as children. Remember that sour thing all children have? I still eat them.
The sweet ones are the P. edulis and P. ligularis, Sweet Grenadilla. Some can be eaten seeds and all. On the down side, these can be difficult to germinate, and to grow.
Although I haven't actually eaten one of the P. edulis, I did spend all summer researching them.
If you have a sweet P. incarnata, I'd like a cutting from it!! Send me a D-mail.
P. incarnata grows wild here and the fruit are sour if picked too soon. Once the fruit has ripened, it is very sweet. It's an art learning exactly when to pick them and I am still learning...but when my dh picks one, I know it will be good!!
The ones from the store are possibly picked too soon and then er-radiated to store for long periods, which IMO, makes for a less tasty fruit.
I have both bought and grown edulis fruits, and was told that the skin needed to be wrinkle-y before it was ripe. Actually, when they are quite wrinkly, the ones I had were sweet-tart. If you cut into one that hadn't started to wrinkle, perhaps it was not fully ripe yet. They DO ripen off the vine, if you want to try again.