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bluecatwine

NO FRUIT from my Passionfruit Vine

bluecatwine
16 years ago

I planted two Nelly Kelly passionfruit vines 2 years ago and both are healthy and lush. I have plenty of flowers but they just die and drop off.

I had 1 small fruit through the first Autumn crop but it was the size of an egg, thick skinned and no fruit inside. I have a neighbour up the road who has them and they get so much fruit I am amazed.

It is fairly dry here but I do give them a good drink once a week in compliance with our water restrictions. The only thing I haven't done is give them animal manuer however they do get a dose of my compost and dynamic lifter when its time to fertilise.

Is there something I am missing or do I have dud plants?

Comments (12)

  • gardenlen
    16 years ago

    g'day,

    you may have to try some hand pollination? necessary if pollinators like bees are scarce, i believe it is as simple as uing your finger and give each flower a wipe from one flower to another.

    have also been told a good application of citrus food will help with flowering, i gave ours a couple good waterings of my wee water can't claim it helped but it didn't hurt.

    we planted a jamacian or hawiian gold and had similar feeling early on but it naturally started fruiting and hasn't stopped since, might be some varieties are too hybridised and thus need more mollycoddling?? keep plants as close the heirloom status as much as possible, they seem to be more reliable fruiters?

    len

    Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

  • jdbcomo_gmail_com
    13 years ago

    I had the same problem with my most recent grafted nellie kelly (GNK). The previous one was fantastic.

    Planted two vines at opposite ends of a trellice three years ago - one nelly kelly (GNK), the other panama red (PR) (not grafted). The GNK grew prolifically and was covered in flowers - not one produced fruit. The PR grew slowly and produced very few flowers, but almost every one had a BIG fruit.

    I tried hand pollinating with a small brush, and noticed that the GNK flowers had barely any pollen, whilst the PR had massive amounts of pollen.

    The rootsock of the GNK was taking over the garden, with suckers 5 or 6 metres away - the suckers flower & produce fruit, but not the Nellie Kelly. I've now given up, pulled it out and planted an ungrafted variety.

    I do wonder whether there have been some had batches of the GNK sold around australia over the last few years. my previous GNK certainly didn't have such an invasive rootstock and produced masses of fruit.

  • joecas_tpg_com_au
    13 years ago

    i have two vines planted together lovely position they have lots of flower s but all fall of this is the first season we herd don burke tell some radio callers not to give to much attention to the plans please advise what to do many thanks joe

  • wellerb_downlands_qld_edu_au
    12 years ago

    I have three passionfruit vines (a black, a gold and a red)all purchased at Bunnings. Firstly the black and the gold one would not flower so I gave them some phosphate - both started flowering profusely and the gold one is setting masses of fruit (some have ripened and are delicious). However the black one flowers and then the fruit drop off despite my attempts to hand pollinate. The red one is too small yet to flower so can't comment. After reading the comments on this site I am wondering if there has been a batch of 'dud' black plants sold. Thinking of ripping it out and letting the other two take over.

  • jolynn76
    11 years ago

    I found this page at the University of Florida for anyone in Florida with questions about how to grow in Florida.. However it has general plant info which could be useful to everyone..
    I copied a small section on pollination from the attached link I listed below..

    Pollination is essential for fruit production on passion vines. Flowers of the purple passion vine normally set fruit when self-pollinated, but many yellow passion vines will not set fruit unless their flowers are dusted with pollen from a different vine that is genetically compatible. Thus, 2 plants grown from cuttings taken from the same vine cannot pollinate each other. Moreover, some vines from a group of seedlings can cross-pollinate and others cannot. This must be learned by trial and error as the plants develop. Ordinarily, many opportunities for cross-pollination exist in a large seedling population.

    Here is a link that might be useful: University of Florida

  • Gail54
    11 years ago

    I have had the same problem, I also bought 2 GNK from bunnings & planted them on opposite sides off a trellis, 1 died, the other gets lots of flowers but the fruit is the size of an egg & empty inside. It also has long runners throughout the garden which I keep pulling out. I am beginning to think you may be right it's a dud batch. I will leave mine for this season & try to hand pollinate if I have no luck, I will pull it out & try a different fariety.

  • henrygray
    8 years ago

    I have this great passion fruit vine. It is green and lush. It gets plenty of water and fertilizer. I attend flowers and move pollen from the stamens of one to the pistils of others. Cross fertilisation applies. But no fruit ever sets. This is the third rotation of flowers I have had and all are failing. Why?

    Poor Old Henry

  • Rapeepan Cash
    8 years ago

    I have planted yellow passion fruit on March 2014 it's so healthy and had 2 fruits in November 2014 then it's started to flowering again in March this year but all failing until now still not have any fruits yet. Any suggestion please!!


  • captleo
    8 years ago

    My two vines came from fruits seeds after I have made a juice, I dried the seeds and planted then separate, 9 months later I get dozen of flowers and not one fruit yet WHY, thanks captleo.

  • captleo
    8 years ago

    I need help with my passion fruits vines full of flowers and no fruit before I pull then out of the ground.

  • Ola Ananina
    8 years ago

    As far as I know passion vines need a lot of water especially when setting fruit. I planted 2 purple vines 8 months ago and had 4 fruits few months later. I do hand pollenise them, not cross, but each flower gets it's our pollen. It's March now and vines are full of blooms and I made an experiment, handpollenised 3 first flowers and did nothing to the 4th. 3 set fruit already amd the 4th is dead. I live in SW FL in humid climate but still water at least once in 3 days, but now when set flowers I water daily!

  • Clark Fan
    5 years ago

    I have same problem as yours. Planted 5 vines from seeds. They are all healthy, each produced a lot flowers, a couple hundred of flowers every year but no fruit. There were a lot of bees working around and I also manually pollinated. Just no fruit! It has been 3 years. I cut them down all this March.

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