Passion Fruit - Setting Fruit
Answered by: Inge Poot
Question from: Peter Wilson
Posted on: December 15, 1998

Please tell me about the life (growth cycle) of the passion fruit vine?

When the vine is grown under glass it will produce rapid growth in the spring and growth gradually slows towards the fall. In limited indoor space the vine can be cut to about 30 centimeters in the fall before coming in for the winter. It will bloom the most in the middle of the summer and if no bees are around to pollinate the flowers you will have to do the honours by transferring some of the pollen from the five stamens to the three stigmas in the center of each flower -using a Q-tip. If no fruits set as a result of your pollination, try transferring pollen from one flower to the stigmas of another flower.

What should it be fed?

Since you want lots of flowers both to enjoy and to set fruit with, use a fertilizer with a high middle number- high phosphorus.

Do the fruits start as flowers?

Yes they do. The flowers have to be successfully fertilized before they will grow into fruits. In this species the fruits are ripe when they turn purple.

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