Growing Passionfruit is not nearly as hard as people make it out to be. In-fact growing your own fresh passionfruit is very easy, and I’ll share my experiences with you.
Like most plants, passionfruit needs a well drained soil, water, nutrients and some care.
Firstly you will need something to grow the passionfruit on, as they are a climber a trellis or mesh fence is a great starting point. It needs to be strong, as over the next couple of years your passionfruit is going to hang off it. You don’t want to have it collapse in a heap.
You will need to condition the soil you want to grow the passionfruit, dig the hole three to four times as big as the pot the plant came in. Make it a big wide dish shaped hole. Try not to mix the sub soil with the top soil too much. Maybe make a pile for the top soil, and a pile for the sub soil, put the subsoil back in first followed by the top soil.
Passionfruit are gross feeders, which means you will need to feed them a lot of nutrients over their life time. Set aside the dirt that came from the hole and mix it with well rotted cow, sheep or horse manure as well as some blood and bone. My grandmother always put some offal (liver, heart etc) in the hole and covered it over before planting, over time this would break down into a great nutritious food for the passionfruit.
Indirectly water the area with a sprinkler so the water can permeate slowly, not breaking down the soils composition. This may take two hours to get all the way through, a wetting agent such as Wetasol can be used to speed up the process.
Planting out Passionfruit Vines
Dig a hole in the prepared soil, gently remove the vine from the pot and tease the roots. A healthy plant should have white outer roots, this indicates new healthy growth. Old brown roots are still ok, but the plant is not in it’s optimal state. It’s good to check the roots of plants at the nursary to see that they are healthy before you buy them.
Place the passionfruit vine into the hole and cover with soil. Ensure you do not cover the trunk above it’s original ground level.
Gently water the plant to remove any air bubbles around the roots.
Mulch generously if you live in a warm climate, this will help keep the ground around the plant cool and prevent moisture loss.
Growing Passionfruit from Seed
There has been many requests for the method of growing Passionfruit from seed. Before we begin, the result of your seedling may not grow the same fruit as the vine that it came from.
Step 1
Remove the fruit’s seeds and wash the yellow pulp from around the seed (I like to put the seeds in my mouth and eat the pulp then spit the seeds in a bowl). Plant seeds right away in seed-raising mix. You can plant more than 1 seed per pot, just put them a few centimeters apart, separate them when they grow larger. Cover lightly with mix (~1cm), water them well and put in a warm spot to germinate.
Step 2
Your new plants should pop up in 14-28 days.
Step 3
Once the plants are ~5cm tall, separate them into individual pots. To help the plants grow upright, include a stick or small growing frame in the pot to ensure they don’t droop over the outside. In 12 months your seedlings should be flowering.
Varieties:
Varieties include Nellie Kelly , Red Ambrosia, Panama Red, Panama Gold, and Sunnypash. The golden varieties are better suited to more tropical climates and growers may have problems with fruit ripening in cooler districts of the southwest. Passionfruit have relatively short life of between 5-6 years as they are so vigorous and heavy fruiting.
Above is a photo of my new passionfruit vine. It is a Panama Red, and the fruit will grow to be around 5cm in diameter. I have mulched the soil with rotted horse manure, and I will cover that with shredded newspaper. The fence is to keep my dog from digging it up. I have installed temporary shade cloth (70%) to the galvinized iron fence and the other side of the mesh to provide some protection from the hot sun. I will remove this when the plant becomes established.
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71 Comments
when is the passionfruit ready for picking? Do I wait until it turns from green to purple and wrinkled, or do I pick it green? thank you
I have only recently discovered the great taste of passion fruit!
I live in a small area in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
I Hope that I can get a tree to grow in my yard.
It would be wonderful to be able to have passion fruit fresh for part of the year!
I think I’ll try the Panama Red variety
Thank you for your tips on growing passion fruit.
Todd
The fruit will quickly turn from green to deep purple (or yellow) when ripe and then fall to the ground within a few days. They can either be picked when they change color or gathered from the ground each day. To store passion fruit, wash and dry them gently and place them in bags. They should last 2 to 3 weeks. The fruit is sweetest when slightly shriveled. Both the fruit and the juice freeze well.
Can I grow a Yellow Passion fruit from the fruit sees that I will bring from Peru? and I wonder if the rainy weather of Washington State would help or not?
I wouldnt be bringing in seeds from another country as they could contain deseases that could cause the local passionfruit vines to die.
Growing Passionfruit from seed can be done. but is not the best way to go. If you have a hybrid variety it will not grow the hybird variety from the seed, also if you do not live in a true tropical area your root stock will not be resistant to Fusarium wilt. Grafted plants generaly will not get Fusarium wilt.
I might give this a try this year. I’ve been going big on growing my own food for about a year now and this year am also adding blackcurrents and mushrooms to the produce I already grow at home. I figure that my garden is closer than the supermarket so I’m saving time as well as money and getting better food.
I am living in South Africa in the Northern Cape (Kalahari) which is semi arid. We have very hot summers and cold winters with frost. Will they grow in our region and how can I protect them in winter?
How often must they be watered in summer and during winter?
Danie Terblanche
Hi —– I have grown a magnificent 6 m trellissed granadilla.It bares large flowers and then drops the flowers one by one never reaching the fruit stage. The plant is now 6 years old and to date has never given a single fruit.
Is there a solution to this problem or is this just a rogue plant that looks fabulous.
Kevin
Kevin,
There are a number of reasons that you vine may not be fruiting.
- Poor pollination. This is the main cause and can be due to bees not working the flowers, temperatures being too low or too high for pollination or rain directly reducing the viability of the pollen.
- Extended periods of overcast weather. This may cause flower drop regardless of pollination problems.
- Boron deficiency
The first two can be difficult to control, but add some boron. Just mix up a teaspoon of Borax (from the supermarket) with 10 litres of water and water in well.
Also try adding some Sulphate of Potash, it encourages flowering and helps the plant resist disease.
I heard it is possible to grow passion fruit in Chicago–is that strictly inside or….Also loved the “banana” passionfruit I ate in New Zealand as a child-any news on obtaining those plants?
Thx U
i have a case of passion woodiness how is it controlled
I have had a passionfruit vine growing over my clothes hoist in the backyard for many years, it is an unusual passionfruit that was given to me, on the top of the passionfruit there is a stub that is attached to the passionfruit and it has quite a soft outer casing.
It could be either the Alata or a Granadilla I am not too sure but the problem is that it does not get any passionfruits on it, it gets the flowers and then they drop off without going to fruit.
Do you know what can be wrong with the passionfruit vine.
The passionfruit is even more than the Panama Passionfruts
Regards
Sandy
hi, i live in fresno, california is it possible to grow passion fruit as its very hot and very cold climate. also, does anyone know where i can buy a passion fruit tree? thanks much
Hello, I am from orange county, calif. and they sell them at home depot.I bought a passion fruit (purple) at a store and fell in love with the juice. i took the seeds and put on paper towel and planted in the ground. well I forgot about it, and one day, a year later. it started to grow. It is so beautiful, and this is my third year of fruit.
this year it is already full of fruit about a hundred or more, I can hardly wait until they ripen. my problem, I ready don”t know how to juice them .
I have an unusual amount of passion fruit growing wild on my property what should I do with them.
Thanks so much for the information on passion fruit. We have found a
huge fine growing beside our building at work and it is now producing fruit. As we know nothing about the fruit, can you tell us how long before the fruit is ripe, etc.
Thanks again.
Nikki
i am growing passionfruit for school, and was wondering if you can help me with any advice. I live in Australia, so would the techniques for growing these be any different from that of in america?
thankyou kinkdly.
Emma.
Its funny, this things are weeds here in North Carolina.
My neighbor brought back two small sprigs of a passionfruit vine and 11/2 years later it has taken over everthing….My husband is cutting it back and I want to save the fruit if possible,Can I ripen it off the vine? I believe it is a yellow passion fruit not a 100% positive.
Thanks for your help ,
Lorraine
I live in Singapore and have planted 14 vines of 2 different varieties, unclear exactly the species but I was told they were fruit bearing varieties by the nursery that sold them to me. One variety has the three pronged leaf while the other is a single blade.
The trouble is while they appear to be growing well, some have not flowered at all, and the ones that do flower never fruit. They are all around 6 months old now.
I fertilise regularly with slow release pellets, maybe I should try the borax trick I read about above ?
Any suggestions welcome.
Great work with your 14 vines!
You should add potassium to the plants. Potassium is the K in the N:P:K for fertiliser. Nitrogen (N) is for leaf growth, Phosphorus (P) is used in photosynthesis and is required for any growth to occur, and Potassium (K) encourages disease resistance, flowering and fruiting.
I use Sulphate of Potash on my vines, follow the directions on the packet (you can make it a bit stronger for your passionfruit) and repeat every three weeks.
Another way to encourage more flowering is to pull the tips out of all of the stems, this will encourage bushy growth and will give you more fruit.
Let me know how you go with the potassium, and stay in touch if you’ve got any other issues.
thanks for the tips.
Maybe I will get a few photo’s together.
i have a case of passion woodiness how is it controlled
It was the flower that “caught” my eye last year — at another location I had seen it, this time it had the fruit on it. Both locations were in the wild here in South Carolina. This link gave me wonderful information thanks
I live close to the Virginia border of North Carolina and it is growing wild in the field by my house! When I take my dog for a walk daily, I always check the fruit to see if any is getting ripe. I just hope I can beat the deer and other critters to the bounty! Maybe I’ll get lucky and get one or two to get the seeds.
…dear advisor,i live in sydney australia,i have two passionfruit vines that are growing extremely well…both very different in leaf size,colour and texture,both flower but as yet no fruit,they are nearly 18months old..the flowers are different also…do you need a male and a female plant? ,like some other plants,ie avocado..or with the right minerals and bees pollinating should each plant/vine produce fruit?.
Righto, the difference in you passionfruit vines is most probably variety. I have a Nelly Kelly and a Panama Gold, these two are completely different in their leaves.
Passionfruit flowers have both male and female parts to them, that means that you only need one plant, it doesn’t hurt to have more though.
If you are getting flowers but no fruit, you may have a pollination problem, try going out in the mornings and checking for flowers, use a cotton tip to gently take some pollen and place it on the stamens of the flowers. You should also fertilise your vines with a good dose of Sulphate of Potash, this helps the plants produce more flowers, where as nitrogen encourages leaf growth. You can apply it at double the recommended rate on the packet for the first application, then at the recommended rate there after.
I grew commercial seeds. The thing grows well in sandy backfill by the house. It does okay here in Zone 6 Michigan (Detroit) but it dies back to the ground every year. We get flowers and fruit late in the year. I haven’t figured out how to handle the fruits, as I have to pick them green when cold weather comes.
I have a few passion flower plants in pots that I bring in, but those have not flowered.
My neighbor got a start from a relative and grew passiflora for many years on a western wall with a trellis.
hai,my name is khairul but i also known as mr k.im from malaysia and a friend told me passion fruit is good for curing asthma so im interested of planting a passion fruits,but im wondering if i plan to plant the fruit at malaysia does it has any problem, i mean is there any precaution that maybe you can share with me it will be very great.
How can i get information about this (how to sow,cultivate ,etc
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the info. I’m transplanting my potted vine to the arbor soon so your info makes me less frightful. We had the best passion fruit vine growing here in California for 10+ years. Hummingbirds nested in it and it produced so much fruit every summer. Friends thought it to be the strangest fruit – glad to see it’s more popular.
Eventually a really bad frost got it. Good to protect them from frost. The seed came from Madeira Island, Portugal and it may have made it’s way there via Brazil – not 100% sure.
Thanks again from a fellow gardenholic. Happy Gardening all.
I planted my passion fruit as per instructions, within one week all the leaves had fallen off. Where did I go wrong.After planting I gave the plant some liquid feed( over the leaves), did I do the wrong thing.I used a solution of fish liquid fertilizer. Will the plant survive.
I planted a Panama Red grafted vine this time last year (late spring here in Australia ATM) and it’s still really small because each time I coax it to grow new shoots, something eats all the new leaves. What can I do to protect it from whatever insect is eating it? I’ve thought of covering it with mesh but I don’t know how big this insect is and whether it’ll simply crawl throuh the mesh holes. Is curtain material too tightly woven to use? I wonder if it will block the sun too well. Any help is really appreciated.
I have a passion fruit vine. It bears good no. of fruits. We make use of it for making juice. If the juice is stored in freeze is it O.K? I have made wine from the juice. The wine tastes good.I need more information regarding making wine from it.How do I use the passion fruit for other purposes. does appling the juice on your skin helps?
I have a passion fruit vine in my front yard. I have just moved to Cairns, Australia. I was wondering how to tell whether the fruit is yellow vs. purple (they stay green and then drop off the vine, they are almost ‘pear shaped’) and when to harvest. Thanks.
I have a Nelly Kelly black passionfruit in Australia which is about 3 years old. Is quite large now, covering a big area. This year I was quite excited to see all the flowers (hundreds), and was expecting a nice first crop. However, I am very dissapointed because virtually all of these flowers shrivel up and fall off the vine after blooming. So far I have only 3 passionfruit that have formed (it is the first month of summer here). I went to the plant nursery and asked their opinion. They said the problem was that the rootstock had taken over… because the shape of the leaves was star like. Apparently the Nelly Kelly variety is supposed to have plain oval shaped leaves. Does this sound right? I can’t see what else it would be. I give it regular water and there are lots of bees in the garden. I haven’t fertilised it though… just covering the area below it with well rotted chicken manure.
James,
I’m in Australia also, the summer season has given me some challenges in the garden!
I too have a Nelly Kelly passionfruit vine, and the leaves are star shaped with three prongs.
The problems sounds pretty common, chook manure is great to get the leaves growing and too bulk up your plant, Potash (Sulphate of Potash) is the key to getting strong flowers, good fruit and disease resistance. FYI Potassium is what the plant uses to produce chlorophyll and that’s used to make energy for the plant.
I would be getting two big handfuls of Sulphate of Potash, mixing it in a watering can and watering around the roots. Then creating a thick layer of mulch about 10cm thick all around the base, being careful not to get it close to the trunk, to keep the shallow roots cool and moist during the summer weather.
I’ve heard of people not getting any flowers for three years, then applying Potash and not knowing what to do with all of the fruit!
hi please advice if passion fruits can succeed in plantation in mindanao philippines?
one of the comments earlier asked – what can i do with such a large amount of passionfruit. whoo you are so lucky. ever since i was a child i’ve been coveting a flourishing passionfruit vine. my grandmas boyfriend grew one and he used to freeze the pulp in ice cube trays. 100% pure passionfruit ice block. amaaazing. i finally am growing my first passionfruit and i soo look forward to the day when i can freeze the pulp.
Hi I am in Sydney Australia, my problem is lots of fruit and no flesh inside the fruit.
I feed, I water but still nothing.
What do I do
Thank you
John
I have two types of passionfruit vines one has a thin three prong leaf
which has 8 fruit on it the rest of the flowers have died off the other vine has a broad three prong leaf and has no sign of flowers for the last 2 years, there is no problem with the foliage I have fed both vines cow manure and potash. why is one vine has fruit and the other has not?
James, I think chicken manure is high in nitrogen and apparently high nitrogen levels feeds abundent leaf growth rather than fruit growth. So in addition to adding the potash, maybe lay off on the chook poo.
Andrew, don’t know about yellow versus purple but my dad’s vine drops fruit once they are ripe. He never picks from the vine, just waits for them to ripen and fall off themselves and they are delicious and full of juicy pulp. BTW he has a purple nelly kelly and they change colour on the vine (to purple) before dropping off. I have read of other people who have the same problem and if they leave the fruit for a couple of days, it apparently ripens in the fruit bowl.
Also just to update in case it helps anyone else… re: my problem with something eating the passionfruit leaves while trying to establish the plant – I went ahead and put some very tightly woven sheer curtain material around the plant to keep the hungry insect out and it’s worked!! The material didn’t block the sunlight as I had worried it might and I now have a flurry of fingernail sized leaves and more leaf buds on the plant. And no insect nibble marks!! YAY!!!
Hi guys, I am in Brisbane, Queensland Australia. A passionfruit vine started growing in our backyard last year, and just over 1mth ago the first fruit appeared – a MASSIVE passionfruit, bright green. there where no other flowers on the vine at this stage. It has eventually turned yellow, but still over a month later has not dropped from the vine or wrinkled. a second large fruit has since grow (same green colour) and heaps just last week heaps of flower buds and new fruits have started growing. I wanted to know if we need to pick them off in order to ripen? or perhaps the slow ripening of the first fruit had something to do with the vine being so young? Any advice would be great
I live in Sydney Australia, About 8 monhs ago I planted 1 Nelly Kelly and 1 Panama Gold passionfruit plants(Both Grafted). I have already tasted (about 10) of the Panama Gold, and at present,(March)there appear to be a couple of hundred of flowers. Many unfortunately dry up and fall, but a reasonable number, are bearing fruit.
I fertilise the plants with: chicken and cow manure dilute and left for 2, or 3 weeks or even more in a large 200 litre container, and applying it with a watering can, from time to time add more fertiliser so it gets stronger and efficient for the plants.
Regards
Anthony
In the Galapagos Islands we harvested from the ground under two large spreading trees, hundreds of passion fruit whch we subsequently juiced. The juice was excellent, even better than the frozen Parcha concentrate we bought in Puerto Rico.
do some passion fruit grow on trees?
I leave in Northern Virginia, I do love passion fruit, please let me know where to get passion fruit and how to plant the fruit? Thank you for your help.
I just wanted to say that I found the info and the messages helpful and interesting. I am 39 years old and my great grandmother whom was from New Zealand, came here 2 the states (Florida) and brought passion fruit seeds. She was one of, if not the first,in Florida to grow Passion Fruit. I think they even wrote a newspaper article on her for it. Anyway the bees would not pollenate the flowers so every day she would pollenate a certain number of flowers with a feather and log it in her diary. She planted it in potting soil and good ol’ sandy florida soil, fertilized it, every so often,kept it watered and kept it in full Miami sun. SHe grew these until she died sometime in the late ’70′s. So evidently if you live in a more tropical area it is easier to grow unless of course you have to use a feather to pollinate. I have just planted some seeds that were handed down from her and her plants. So we’ll see if I have the touch as she did.
I SAW MY PAQSSION FLOWER COMING OUT OF THE GROWN TODAY APRIL 25, 2009 IN ELLENWOOD GA.
Hi…Thanks very much for all the helpfull info. re passionfruit . Ive prepared the site for several reasnobly established vines , i hope to buy soon from a nursery [sydney inner west..its a warm sheltered north facing spot w zero frost , that gets the winter sun in abundance} Question please
: If i use a large plastic bag as a "mini greenhouse" to potect infant plants, is there any sucess [ in your opinion ] starting a ‘winter crop’…obviously they wont flower yet, but in the right spot would there perhaps be good vine development over winter ? Or, is it better to wait for planting in the early spring ? regards, scott …
I’ve found that it is possible to freeze the whole passionfruit. When ready to use them just cut in half and scoop out the pulp and it is ready to use.
Saves lots of time and fussing around.
Queensland, Australia