hello,

what color were the passionfruit in Africa? i grow a small purple variety called purple possum, a larger yellow called sweet sunrise and a red variety in between called panama red.

they would definitely need winter protection below 40 degrees. they like alot of humidity and warmth.

Most of the grocery stores around here carry P. edulis. A lot depends on the variety that you have but most are easy to start from seed and the fresher the better. You can clean the seed prior to planting or plant it with the aril still on (but remove the juice). Barely cover the seed with potting mix and keep it warm. You can cover the pot to hold in humidity but remove the cover when it germinates.

If it is an edulis you can probably grow it outside in the ground. It might die back during the winter but will grow when it warms up. Since there's loads of seed in each fruit try some inground and keep some in a container with protection. They might need cross pollination to set fruit and hand pollination might be necessary. If it's edulis I think the purple variety is self pollinating but not the yellow variety.

Most like full sun and don't want wet feet. Make sure they are in well draining soil. They are average feeders and I honestly feed my passies infrequently. Potassium increases flower production. I dig a bit of chopped banana peels into the soil around my plants. I don't remember where I heard about doing that but the plants seem to like it. You might want to check out the passiflora forum.

I would agree with Karyn that you will likely find a ton of info in the Passiflora forum. You can search for "edulis", as that is likely the type that you are trying to grow. Be aware that the seeds can take a long time to germinate, though the fresh ones are definitely faster.

Possibly a better option would be to buy a plant from a reliable source or trade with someone on the Passiflora forum. That way you can get one that will reliably fruit on it's own, (not all of them do).

Good luck!

I just took my seeds and threw them in an old unused bot of dirt and on day i has vines and here it is now growing throw my lime tree which still bares fruit too.

{{gwi:44410}}

tracydr: they sell the edulis (frederick) variety at home depot around here in Chandler AZ.. you should hunt around and get a full size vine from them, they sell for about 25 bucks

A trick I learned to break the dormancy. Cut the fruit in half and plant with the cut side uppermost about 2 inches deep. You will get a little clump of PFs. The seeds need the fruit acid to germinate.

Thanks ifraser! Glad you gave me this tip. I will,try this and get some mature vines at home depot. I'm trying to replace a wall of ugly cats claw in part- shade but I'll some in the sun too, just to be sure.
In Africa I was on a dive boat for 10 days. They took out crates and crates of all different color fruits. Makes me think they were pretty cheap relatively.

The method I use to induce excellent germination is to soak the seeds in strong coffee overnight. Works great.

Not to worry if they die back in Winter, they will still grow back, creeping all over the place. There is a you tuber who has this "problem"