A passion for passionfruit
It’s almost time to harvest this delectable fruit
Peak passionfruit season is mid to late autumn so it’s an ideal time to start thinking of all the delicious ways to use this delectable fruit. Perhaps spread over the top of a pavlova or cheesecake, made into sorbet, added to a tropical punch or turned into heavenly passionfruit curd.
Passionfruit can be harvested when the skin turns from green to wrinkly purple, though most fruit will fall from the vine when they’re ripe. Check for fallen fruit underneath vines regularly.
Keep passionfruit vines wellwatered while the fruit are maturing as moisture stress can result in premature fruit drop.
You can start feeding passionfruit vines again in spring with a potassium rich fertiliser, which will help encourage lots of flowers and wonderful fruit.
Small space apples
If you don’t have a big backyard, being able to pick your very own apples doesn’t need to be just a dream. There are lots of varieties of apples that can grow in a sunny spot in tight spaces as well as pots, meaning that home grown apples can be a wonderful reality.
The Ballerina range of apples are columnar, which means they have an upright habit, making them ideal for small and narrow spaces.
Ballerina Polka grows to around 3m tall but only 60cm wide, however will be smaller if grown in a pot. It has medium sized round fruit, which have green skin that develops red areas where exposed to the sun.
The apples are crisp and juicy and are delicious when eaten straight from the tree but can also be used for cooking and drying. In spring the tree is smothered in very pretty white and pink flowers, which bees adore, and produces fruit on spurs close to the main trunk.
Polka will need a pollinator to ensure the best possible fruit set and other compact apples such as Ballerina Waltz and Bolero are ideal.
When planting apples in the ground, mix a handful of Yates Dynamic Lifter Organic Plant Food into the bottom of the planting hole.
This not only helps to improve the soil’s water and nutrient holding capacity and structure, but also
provides the apple tree with gentle, slow release organic nutrients as it establishes.
For container grown apples, choose a good quality potting mix
and a large pot with good drainage holes.
For more information and inspiration visit yates.co.nz