Homely CapersHow to Grow Passionfruit
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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116 Responses to “How to Grow Passionfruit”
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About Me
My name is Ben, and I'm a self confessed gardenoholic. My other interests include growing plants, looking at plants, drinking coffee and taking the odd photo. My wife thinks I'm mad, but is getting into the whole garden thing, possibly going mad as well. In my spare time I'm a geologist (must be something about dirt and rocks...)- Get me on Twitter
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I have experienced every thing mentioned on this site. I have both yellow and purple varieties that I bought from a nursery. Sometimes they flower and they dry up and fall off, and then after about a year the flowers were pollinated by lots of bees and set fruit… hundreds of them. I scoop them out and have frozen a lot for the winter. I have tried the hand pollination but without sucess. They have now taken over all the fence lines and now grow up into the trees and upon my roof. To everyone keep trying and you will be rewarded. Im in parcha heaven. Near Tampa Fla
Passionfruit in England ? yes I planted mine last year and now it is full of fruit slowly changing colour. I intend to make a Tiramasu and some jam.
It has been great learning about how to grow passion fruit plants. I am beginning a mango plantation in the middle belt plains of Ghana and have tried some seeds of yellow passion fruit I brought back with me from Tanzania in July 2008. A couple of them have germinated and exactly eleven months after they are flowering and fruiting beautifully. I am really excited and am eargerly waiting for the fruits to mature so I can expand production. With the information you have shared on how to grow passion fruits, I cannot wait to establish a plantation of passion fruit.
Thanks.
I would like to know more about passion fruit. Im from southern part of India. And im badly in need of Yellow Passion fruit for conducting a study related to my thesis. Do you know in what season passion fruits grow? Here it is rainy season now. It is not much marketed here in India. So i can only manage to get it in its season, by finding out someone who is growing it. please give your suggestions on this.
Thank you
I live in Glorious Fresno, California and i am passionate about passion fruit. I would love to have a garden, but i am afraid it is too hot here. In the summer temperatures can reach 110. Is there any way i can grow a variety of passion fruit in this climate? Perhaps with shade?
I have grow the passion fruits almost a year but there is no fruits yet. I don’t know what’s wrong. It grows quite fast and strong but strange no fruits yet. I let it grow on the fence and I put enough fertilizer and watering. Can anybody help?
i was prunning ,and mistakenly cut main trunk, can it be saved
I was delighted when I found your site and found it very interesting, I am growing Passion Fruit over my Pagoda and have loads of fruit, but I was told I could not eat it, that it was ornamental only in this country [North West England] Is this correct?
I have a passion fruit plantation on my terrace. It’s four month plantation now and and flowering has started. I have made mesh structure on four poles. I sowed only four seeds in a vase measuring 1′ deep. It has been fed on kitchen waste and sheep dung. Very soon it will spread horizontally on the meshed structure. I would love the shadow beneath when it fully occupies. I do not get east sun which is good for the plantation but, a west sun which is harsh. Despite this it has flowered within four months. I love the aroma of the fruits as the name suggests.
My mum has got a super passion flower plant.She does not know name of plant as was gift many years ago. This produces lots of lovely orange passion fruit, she would like to know if these are edible. We live in south of England if that has any baring on subject. Many thanks for help , Chris
I live in England. We have a large passion fruit bush with plenty of flowers but no fruit.
We had fruit about 2 years ago but none since. Any suggestions?
I lived in Kansas for nine years and the vine grows wild there. It was the southeast corner of Kansas and could be harvested in most of the state. Even though winters could be very cold (-50F wind chill ) and hot and humid (low 100′s F) in summer. They have a beautiful flower and are harvested for herbal use.
I am growing passiflora edulis from seed I bought in Hawaii. I neglected the seedlings for a few years in a pot- now they are in the ground here near Mission Bay in San Diego. The vines have taken over the backyard the last two years- and it finally started flowering late this summer. Still blooming here in early fall. Some flowers are white- some are purple. I have not seen any fruit- the flowers only last about a day and fall off. I have lots of painted lady butterflies in my garden- they lay eggs on the vine and the caterpillars chew on the leaves. I have a problem with spider mites- I probably don’t water enough. After reading comments I will fertilize w/ potash and see if that helps- I would love to see some fruit! I have bees in my garden- but I always see them crawling on the flowers before they open. I have tried hand pollinating- have not seen any results. I also think maybe it doesn’t get enough sun- I have a small fenced in yard that gets shaded by adjacent buildings and an increasingly large ficus tree- which the vine keeps trying to take over!
my new passionfruit plants `( about a month) leaves have gone crinkly ,any suggestions ?
I’m currently growing passionfruit and I’m in the Philippines. I don’t know what variety it is, i got my fruit from Hong Kong and I brought it to the Philippines, it’s hot here but it’s growing! I started to plant the seeds during summer (early March) and temperatures were between 34-40 degrees celsius. I’ve planted it in medium size pots with good soil and drainage and now it’s growing like crazy. I’m training the vines to coves the entire wire trellis fence to cover my ugly neighbors house (LOL) and it’s doing it’s job. I just don’t know when it’ll start to flower and fruit.
I am in the Southern Portion of the Phils. I grew Passion Fruits just to cover my vermi plots. It has given me enough cover from sunlight because be sometimes have temp. of 28-32 C. It has produced for me some delicious fruit juice & combined with pineapple or mango juice do make it excellent.
Each fruit gives me so many seeds that now I have Passion Fruit plantables growing out of my ears! If any one need the seeds or the plantables, say it !
I’ve purchased a Black beauty passionfruit plant today, Your info above should give me a great start to success. Its summer here in New Zealand and the temperature is 26 0C, I intend on doing as you’ve suggested and its sound to me like a recipe for success.
Thanks and I look forward to fruit within the next year or 2.
Michelle
From New Zealand
Tender Passion fruit leaves make great healthy green salad. Cut into tiny pieces mix with onions, salt, grated coconut, and juice of lemon.
i have plenty of green fruit on my vine when do thy change colour to eat mine is a nelly kelly
I am interested in starting a passion fruit plantation in the North Coast in Perú and have a few questions for you:
1. What is the best time of the year to plant?
2. What season can I expect the fruit to start coming out, summer perhaps?
3. Are there any insects to fear? Or maybe plant disseases?
Thank you in advance for your answer.
My passion fruit plant has lot of followers but hardly become fruit. What should I do? There is a way to hand pollinate?
Im apassion fruit grower in masaka distrct,uganda but igot a problem with my plantation.Most of my plants started wilting at the stage of flowering,was that a disease or pests?Then what advise do u give me to stay safe with my plants?AWAIT 4 YO ANSWER.
I have recently planted some passion fruit seeds and most of them have grown into seedlings.. however, 13 of the seedlings are green but one of them is red. Is something wrong with it?
hi all
Will some reply me on the places where passion trees were widely found in UK . it may be forest, farm , garden any thing .
kindly provide all the places please
Hullo. I am from Serere District-Uganda-East Africa.
My Passion for passion friuts is quite tremendous.I am starting a plantation of about 5 acres of passion friuts. My biggest worry are the crazy children and the apes when the friuts start to mature.Questioin:what do I do with these Crazy pests?
I am posting about the fruit that I picked from a neighbor’s vine today. I am pretty sure it is a variety of passionfruit but I would like some confirmation. Would someone please come to my blog in the next day or two and let me know if it is?
Thanks.
We live in Long Beach, Southern California, and have had a passion fruit vine for the past two years. We bought it at a local nursery in a 5-gallon container. My hubby planted it aginst the west-facing wall of our home and strung some wire for support. The vine started to grow vigorously, and when the flowers appeared, my hubby hand-pollinated them, one by one, using one of my cosmetic brushes (we do not have a lot of bees any longer). Last year we had about five dozen fruits, and this year, we stopped pollinating st 200 — we are enjoying a bumper crop ! As the last fruits ripen, we fertilize the soil and are now watching the second crop of blossoms develop. With luck, we should have fresh fruits until Christmas or beyond!
I have 3 passion fruit trees and have not had flower or fruit for about 2-3 years. I hear that some plants to not give fruit. what should i do to get flower or fruit ?
I Live in Melbourne Victoria Austalia
I plantet a passiofruite in a sunny position, Plant deos not grow vety well and no Fruit. What shall I do to get some Fruit.
i have seed and try to geminated couldnt get anything its very hard i live in z0n 9 usa south louisiana
semi tropical weather alot of rain…iam excatly neat the missisipi river… how make plants? any one knew , this tree was to grow wild in the woods and has many names
please i wish to know where i can get passion fruity seeds in uganda for planting
Ah… This is the fruit I’ve been wanting to eat again for the last 12 years. I first had this fruit when I was in Bacolod, Negros Occidental Philippines. I don’t know the native name of this fruit that’s why I can’t tell my auntie to bring some for me back in Manila. The taste of this yellow-lemon-like fruit is citrus but mostly enjoyed with some salt sprinkled on it when it’s open then scoop every seed and eat it.
Hi Ben,
Thanks for the tip, these could very helpful if I can find some passion fruit seeds. I missed eating this delicious fruit which reminds me of my childhood and recently became the main ingredient in one of the cooking challenge in master chef.
Thanks again, From the Philippines,
Ken
am looking for passion fruit seedlings were can i get them and how much can it cost for a couple of square ft in my garden.
Have recently planted a grafted Black passionfruit.My last vine lived for8 years and produced kilos of fruit every year.I live in western N.S.W Australia .Temperatures range from minus5 to 45 degrees. So wherever you live give them a try.
Good Luck.Pete.
I have planted a passion fruit plant for the last two years and they get a lot of flowers but not much fruits … reading from it , must I use human assistance to polinate the flower and if so how to do it , can someone help me ?
thanks , appreciate the answer ?
sc
I have a Nelly Kelly bush I have just found that my passion fruit are falling of the bush they are quite large and very green.
Why is this happening they get plenty of water.
I live in Perth Western Australia
I am a farmer in Kenya western province, Busia district and I realy want to groww passion fruit on large scale Will i get the market for this commodity
Hello, I have a passion fruit vine that has taken over a large portion of my yard, it grows quite
fast and has gone about 20 feet up a palm tree where it has kind of gathered. I live in San diego and the leaves are very similiar (VERY) to Marijuana and the flowers are the most beauitiful and intricate that I have seen. This is the first time it has flowered in 2 years. It has grown out of the pot and into the earth with a root the size of a golf ball in diamater. What can I do to ensure that it will produce fruit? It is covered in flower buds and they are just opening up.
We live on the south end of Vancouver Island, BC Canada, and I would love to be able to grow some passion fruit. Do you think I would have any luck?
Passionfruit or liliko‘i, is a rampant vine that produces beautiful, exotic flowers and delicious fruit, which can be yellow or purple, with hard shells or soft ones they grow in hot climate. Passion fruit is suitable for growing on trellises and they can e good to cover and old wall or ugly building.Passion fruit will do well if you plant them in area that is protected from wind.
Passion fruit is also a medicinal plant. you can brew the fresh leaves into a tea that can help to induce sleep. This tea can also help to ease anxiety, especially that caused by high blood pressure.
i have grown passion fruit plant over 6 months.there are lots of flowers but no fruits at all.what can i do about it?All the flowers just dry and fall off.i feel dissapointed.please tell me what to do??
My passion fruit plant has lot of flowers but hardly any become fruit. the flowers drop off . is it bugs or birds or lack of pollination . There is a way to hand pollinate?
thanks
We really love the taste and would hate to be without.
We will try to grow a vine now we live in New Zealand.
cheers, Pete.
I live in sourth sourth part of Nigerie and planning to go into passion fruit plantation and production,
can any one advice me on how to go about it?
Hi I’m an Aussie living in Lancaster Ca I want to try to start a passionfruit vine. I have some seeds that are dry that I got from a passoinfruit. What is the correct way to start the seeds because they are dry and have been out of the fruit for sometime. I would appreciate any suggestions you could give me. Thank you just love the fruit.
Please can anyone help me. Last year my passionfriut provided beautiful friut.This year leaves are yellow and friut drops off or is warty looking. I imagine it is lacking something?But I do fertilize and I placed epsom salts around the base of the vine.
i am an Ethiopian living in ethiopia.no one knows very well this passionfruit in ethiopia.
i would like to cultivate this fruit in a large amount in my farm. Will i get the market to sell it
Gday mate have a great nellie kelly plant has heaps of fruit they are all green at the moment and its winter here just want to know when should i cut it back and give it a good feed cheers mate.
We live in Northern Virginia, US. Past 6-7 weeks ago, my wife bought a passion fruit from Whole Food store for $2.49, it is imported from New Zealand. I sowed some seeds and after 4-5 weeks we’ve got 4 plants. I would like to plan them in my back yard. Will they survise the winter of the mid-Atlantic East Coast of the US and bear fruits? Many Thanks!