We were relieved to finish building another trellis, as this one will help shade the front of Hilltop chicken coop. Although we couldn't help noticing it bared a strange resemblance to a hitching post for horses.
Being 6 metres long, we're going to grow 2 different varieties of passionfruit along it. They're only seedlings at this stage, but hopefully won't take long to cover the trellis. The two different varieties are, Panama Red and Black.
We'll give them the best chance to survive once they're in the ground. Passionfruit seedlings are hardier than their grafted counterparts, but it all depends on the conditions you're planting them in. Sometimes you need a different kind of root stock, to cope with local conditions. Grafted varieties do cost more, but in some places it's more cost effective than having to replace seedlings which die spontaneously and religiously.
We're going to give seedlings a try first, to see how they cope. We can get a fair amount of humidity in this area which is my one concern.
I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank all the encouraging comments on my last post. It's always a little nerve wracking when embarking on a new change. But you've all been very generous and supportive, which is a wonderful bonus!
Thank you muchly, from the Bushland family. :)
Looking good Chris! Ask your local butcher for a couple of livers and plant one around each passionfruit, they will never look back...something my grandfather taught me:)
ReplyDeleteoh, and spray them with a pepper & onion spray or the caterpillars will decimate them, recipe on my blog:)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tips molly. I sent Dave out to get some livers from the shops - or I should say he volunteered. We needed milk too, LOL.
ReplyDeleteHopefully we'll get them planted this afternoon. :)
Make sure you keep the growth under control as your planting distance is very close together for two passionfruit. You will find that they will suck the soil dry, so plenty of water will be required once they get established.
ReplyDeleteThere is good quality basalt crusher dust out your way. So if you can find a landscape supply place which sells this, make sure you start incorporating it into every garden bed and planting whole. The great thing about rock minerals is that they do not leach out of the soil. They are also very cheap. If you do not have granite in your soil/sub-soil, then get some granite crusher dust (or deco) as well.
Thanks for the tip about deco, we use it alot on our footpaths. Didn't occur to me to use it on the garden as rock minerals though.
ReplyDeleteWe definitely need something put into our gutless soils. We try to incorporate compost every year, and given time they'll improve.