About Passionfruit Flower
Whether you call them Passiflora, passion vines or passionflowers, these plants feature gorgeous flowers. They’re more of a vine than a shrub. They can grow over an archway or even up a wall, making an attractive privacy cover. They produce fruit twice per year. You’ll see the first fruit within 18 months of planting.
Climate Needed for Growing Passionflowers
You can find many Passionfruit flower varieties from online gardening sites or your local garden centers. Passionfruit is native to South America, but if you live in USDA hardiness zone 6, you can select seeds or seedlings for planting in your yard. Although Passionfruit has over 400 species, the two most common for home planting are:
- Purple passionfruit (Passiflora edulis)
- Yellow passionfruit (Passiflora edulis f. flavicarpa)
How to Plant Young Passion Fruit Flowers
Before planting your Passionfruit, make sure you have the right soil conditions. This plant requires well-drained soil. For the best results, mix your garden soil with compost and well-aged animal manure. The soil should have a pH of 6.5 to 7.5.
Choose a spot with full sunlight, away from other trees or trellises that you don’t want the Passionfruit vines to grow. Once you find your spot, follow these steps for planting Passion fruit flower:
- Dig a hole as deep as the root ball and twice the diameter size.
- Place the small plant into the hole.
- Fill the hole with soil that you mixed with compost and manure.
- Gently firm down the soil around the plant
- Water the plant thoroughly.
- Apply liquid seaweed fertilizer.
- Attach the lead tendril to a trellis or to a stake to keep it upright
How to Plant Passionfruit Flower Seeds
Passionfruit is easy to grow from seeds. You can either collect your own seeds, or purchase them online or at your garden center. Seed-grown vines grow vigorously and produce plenty of fruit. One more benefit is that they don’t grow as many suckers as grafted vines.
Save the seeds from a few large fruits. Remove the seeds and clean off all the pulp. Dry them with a paper towel. Unlike many plants grown from seed, you don’t want to dry out the seeds. Use them fresh for the best results.
- Sow the fresh seeds in small pots filled with moistened potting soil. Place one or two seeds on top of the soil in the pot. Lightly cover the seeds with more soil. Water the seeds with a seaweed solution.
- Find a warm spot for the pots. You can use a mini-greenhouse or place them in an insulated box, covered with plastic. Keep them in warm, indirect sunlight.
- Mist the soil, so it doesn’t dry out. Your seeds will germinate in 10 to 21 days.
- Allow the seedling to grow to about 2 inches, and then water them with an organic, liquid plant food. Fertilize them again after two weeks.
- Repot the seedlings to a larger pot when they reach about 6 inches tall. Also, place a climbing stake in each pot.
- Plant your young vine outside after about six weeks in the new pot. Follow the previous instructions for planting young Passionfruit vines.
Feed and Mulch
Passionfruit love to eat, so they need organic fertilizer during the first year before the flowers bloom. Also, apply mulch made from pea straw or hay. This helps keep in the moisture and prevents weed growth.
Apply aged chicken manure twice per year. You should do this at the start of spring and at the beginning of autumn. When the flowers start blooming, apply potash to the soil.
Watering Passionfruit
During the first month after you planted your Passionfruit, water two to three times every week. After the first month, you can cut down the watering to a single soaking once per week. If you notice any shriveling of the plant, then it needs more water. When it starts flowering and forming fruit, keep the plant watered sufficiently.
Pruning Passionfruit Vines
As your plant grows, look out for suckers that can drain the energy from the main vine. Use your hand clippers to cut the suckers off at ground level. Keeping your Passionfruit pruned is one of the most important maintenance you can do for your plant.
Since the fruit grows on young vines, cut back the older woody ones in the spring. This helps keep your Passionfruit flower productive.
Harvesting Passionfruit
When you see the fruit starting to shrivel, all you have to do is twist it off the vine. Picking your fruit regularly actually encouraged the vine to produce more fruit. Keep watering even during harvest time and you’ll have a steady crop of Passionfruit.
