There is a lovely place in our orchard at the moment near the passionfruit vines. The aroma is the first thing that I notice as I near the trellis, there is a heady spicy scent in the air. I am then stopped in my tracks by these strikingly beautiful flowers which are produced in great numbers. We have the hybrid vines in the orchard these are a cross between the Giant Grandilla, Passiflora quadrangularis and the Sweet Lilikoi, Passiflora alata, both of which have equally beautiful flowers. It can be a little difficult to get them to set fruit and often hand pollination with a soft paint brush is the only way to ensure fruit set but they are worth the effort for their delicious fruits and are stunning if grown for the flowers alone. Picked flowers can be used in shallow saucers as table decorations or they are gorgeous when used to scent rooms with their magnificent fragrance, I often bring them up to the office to enjoy both the amazing complicated flower and the unusual perfume.
"It can be a little difficult to get them to set fruit"
ReplyDelete1. What does the passionfruit do when it is not pollinated properly does it start to fruit then shrivel up and die?
2. How exactly do you hand pollinate with the brush?
If the flowers are not pollinated they will either drop their fruit as Correy describes or they will just not set and the flowers will drop. Pollination problems can be caused because there are no pollinating insects in the orchard or the plants may not accept their own pollen, in which case they will require cross pollination with the pollen from a different plant.
ReplyDeleteTo hand pollinate you will need a small soft paint brush to move the pollen from the anthers of one flower to another, collect the pollen and move from flower to flower.
Hi Kath
ReplyDeleteI just love the scent of passionfruit flowers, not to mention eating the fruit. I put in a Gold Panama vine last Spring and had loads of flowers and bees but no fruit. I have another well established vine in the garden too. I have heard though a vine can take a few years to fruit - could this be why I didn't get any fruit this time?
cheers
Greenfoot, is your vine in the full sun? It could be a pollination problem, you could try hand pollinating with the pollen from your established vine, use a soft paint brush to move some of the pollen onto the flowers of your panama gold. As the weather is cooling off now you may have to wait until spring time to try this.
ReplyDeleteWe have a giant granadilla (badea/granadilla real)with lots of flowers, some just opened, some will open in the next few days and others are closed already. We have only one fruit. We want to hand pollinate but don't know how. Can we use a Q-Tip or do we need a special brush and where would we get it. What time in the day is best and exactly where do we brush off the pollen? Please HELP
ReplyDeleteI have a p. alata and also the hybrid vine. Both have grown vigorously and have plenty of flowers but, alas, not a single fruit set. I have tried hand pollination several times, but no luck. It seems to me that either a different pollinator is required, or these plants are sterile. Has anyone had any fruit with either of these two passionfruit varieties?
ReplyDeleteI have a plant that is only 6 months old. Its first flowers opened today (three of them) and I missed my opportunity to hand pollinate. :( In future, I will try to take pollen from one flower and transfer to another. All part of the grand experiment!
ReplyDeleteEarly this summer my purple passionfruit was producing flowers but no fruit. Lack of water, extreme variations in temperature or absence of pollinators can all cause this. Now, with more regular watering, milder temperatures and hand-pollinating a lot of fruit is being set. Helpful?
ReplyDeleteGood Morning People,
ReplyDeleteCan you help us please?
We planted a Black Passionfruit vine 2008. It did take a little while to settle in. It has grown well and is now established. Problem is there are no flowers or even any suggestion there will be some. What would you suggest we do to encourage flowers and therefore fruit please?
Thank you,
Glenis and John
I live in Panama and have a couple beautiful passion fruit vines (maracuya). The first year they just grew no flowers or fruit. The second year I have been getting flowers but no fruit set.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is because the soil has been amended with manure and nothing else the plant is missing some vital nutrients. My plan it to get potash or just some ashes to add to the soil to increase the phosphorus. Or it could be a pH issue.
Most passion fruit attract hummingbirds and bees to no end, so I am sure it isn't pollination. The other option is maybe I just need to be a little more patient and wait for next year.
I am in Sydney with a vine of some sort from a dormant root that has grown after some 2 or so years. It is bountiful with flowers, no fruit. Have just started to hand polinate. What part of the frower should I concentrate on? Brushing the lot at the moment, but need to buy a soft brush. Will see what eventuates. Many flowers have been wasted.
ReplyDeletei live in south east qld and have three thriving passionfruit vines but no sign of any flowers as yet. is there anything i can do or add to the soil to encourage flower?
ReplyDeleteFor all of you wanting fruit on your passion vines, try buying seed or a plant of the species passiflora caerulea. It is the main cross-pollinator for most passionvines. You may get fruit that is hollow or the seeds stay white if not cross-pollinated. After obtaining caerulea, and if you can get her to flower at the same time as your other passions, you should get good fruit set. You may have to use the brush as mentioned already, but here i have plenty of bees and wasps and they do the cross-pollinating for me.
ReplyDeleteI have a nelly kelly passion fruit. Been in the ground for about 2 yrs now. Never fruited. Flowers but the flowers drop off after they close.I have manually pollinated the flowers and the same thing happens. It is on a fence in a north facing position in full sun.
ReplyDelete