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Probably the most common problem for passionfruit grown in home gardens is poor fruit set, which is generally due to a lack of flowers being pollinated. We have listed tips to grow more passionfruit flowers.
This can occur for a number of reasons, the main one being a lack of pollinators. This means there are not enough bees around to pollinate the flowers. One remedy is to hand pollinate your passionfruit flowers yourself. Alternatively, it might be a nice idea to plant other bee loving natives, like lavender, close by. When hand pollinating, use a small brush to transfer pollen from one flower’s anthers to another flower’s stigma. Stroke stigma in a downwards motion and do this in the morning. Repeat this process until fruit forms.
Other factors such as cold weather, wind, rain and frost can delay flower and fruit set. Be patient.
Pruning your vine to encourage new growth before flower onset is important too. Flowers grow on new growth. Prune early spring.
Make sure your purchased vine is self fertile. This means it doesn’t need pollinating from other passionfruit vine varieties.
Don’t give your passionfruit vines a high nitrogen fertiliser. This will encourage leaf growth and not fruit. To promote flowers and fruit, liquid feed with Searles Liquid Potash. Potash is a bloom booster agent.
