Passion Fruit

[tfpets]

I have been fascinated with Passion Fruit for a while, it's such a pretty vine, although like Honeysuckle, it can spread quickly with its rapid growth and crawling behavior.

My mother in law has tons of it growing in her yard and I can get as much as I want from her, I can propagate it, start it from cuttings or the seeds, or I can get seedlings from her yard. She has the yellow/orange variety, not sure specifically which one though.
My biggest concern was not so much it's invasiveness, but it's usefulness? I may or may not put the juice to use, as a base for jelly if possible, but my question is this:

Has anyone had any experience with Passion Fruit around Chickens when it is still a wet fruit?

I have read that one use of the husks of the Passion Fruit is that once dried and ground up, it has been used as processed poultry feed. So it is safe for food for the animals dried. Since the vines are very prolific, it's worth further research, although they are not very high in protein!

Just pondering Passion Fruit for Chickens....any input would be appreciated..I'm gonna keep looking into it!

Tina/tfpets

 

[meriruka1]

I'm curious if the fruit has adverse effects on chickens as well, especially since mine girls have eaten a bunch of it. They are all still alive and well, but maybe long-term is bad?

 

[beefy]

i would be concerned that the chickens would take a liking to the fruit and deposit the seeds everywhere. b/c they will ALL come up.

 

[tfpets]

i would be concerned that the chickens would take a liking to the fruit and deposit the seeds everywhere. b/c they will ALL come up.

Now that is a thought! The vines seem pretty invasive, well, it spreads very well, so it could be invasive...I need to check that out. But most likely the chickens would eat any sprouting seedlings in their yard, if the plant itself is non toxic, I dont care! (There is nothing green growing in my pet area, where my chickens poop! They eat is ALL!) But I have pigeons also! I dont necessarily want the plants taking over all 3 of my acres? They have the potential to spread the plant, dont they?

MMMMM, I need to think about it more, if anyone else has input, please chime in....

Tina

 

[wclawrence]

Passionfruit (AKA maypops) is good for anything that wants to eat it.
I love them, you can eat them right off the vine, or juice them in a blender on low, the seeds are hard and usually don't break easily and if they do they really dont have any flavor.
Added to other fruit juices, they really bring out the flavor.
Carpenter bees pollinate them so make sure you treat them nicely.

 

[patandchickens]

I cannot see any possible reason why it'd be a problem for the chickens. Goats eat it just fine (well of course goats eat lots of things just fine ) and the fruits are quite edible once fully ripe.

You really SHOULD give some serious thought to the invasiveness issue though. If it is already feral in your neighborhood/area then fine, but if it isn't, introducing it isn't just your own decision, it's making the decision for everyone else (including all future residents), you know? I don't know how bad passifloras are in CA but I know in many other warm regions where it is not native it can cause serious problems (talk to a Hawaiian about it :>) and even in NC it can get pretty rampageous.

Problematic invasive species can be darn near impossible to do anything about once they get a toehold. Be a shame, if maypop is like that in your region, to be introducing it *on purpose*.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat, perpetually considering trying maypop along the foundation of the S side of our house... but quite confident it will not naturalize up HERE, lol

 

[vfem]

Invasive here that they are! We also have severously invasive plants known as trumpet vine... so many people love this stuff, but it is the main issue with our property! Not liking it one bit here.

I would chose a spot away from the chickens and only let them have it when you offer it. Keep it on its own trellace area where it can't spread quickly and easily on to other structures. Remeber to cut it back when you can and release the chickens if you see its reseeded itself.

It seems to be a lot of work, but at least this stuff fruits.... trumpet vine just kills my trees and has some itchy oozing stuff on it that kills me when I'm cutting it back