10 Facts about Passion fruit

10 Facts about Passion-fruit

1.      Passion fruits are produced by fast-growing vines that can grow as much as 20 feet in one year. They can only survive a maximum of seven years. In ideal conditions you can get fruit within six months  of planting.

2.    If you are having trouble sleeping or feeling anxious most of the time, regular consumption of passion fruit might help. Passion fruit juice and the leaves and flowers of the passion vine contain the alkaloid, harman, which has a mild sedative effect and can aid in inducing sleep.

3.    If you want to grow a ripper passionfruit vine, plant it under a smallish, short lived legume tree that's native to your country or along a fence to save work building a trelli.

4.    In selecting passion fruit for eating, choose those that are plump and ripe, and heavy for their size, as this indicates juiciness. Do not be put off at the sight of slightly wrinkled skin, since these are actually the sweetest. Or wait till they fell down and eat them directly <3

5.     Growing passionfruit from seeds is not hard. The seed just needs to be fresh. For some reason old seed takes a lot longer to germinate. So buy some nice passionfruit, separate half a dozen seeds from the pulp, and plant them as soon as possible. They take about ten to twenty days to germinate.

6.    OR Take a cutting. Choose a mature, healthy passion fruit plant to take a cutting from. Snip off a portion of a newer vine that contains at least three buds, if not more, and cut directly below the lowest, immediately plant this cutting into your pot or bed.

7.     Like all fast growing plants passionfruit needs a lot of nutrients. Passionfruit vines need fertile soils, and they appreciate all the compost and mulch you can spare.

8.    They also need full sun, a warm climate, and protection from wind. A sunny, sheltered site in a frost free climate is ideal.

   

9.    Watering: the root system of passionfruits is small for the size of the plant it has to sustain. Especially while a passionfruit is fruiting it needs a lot of water. It needs a very regular water supply at all times. However, passionfruit can't handle waterlogged soil. Make sure your site is free draining.

10.            Don't be shy; take your cutters to it. In the tropics you can prune a passionfruit as soon as it has finished fruiting. In cooler climates prune passionfruit in early spring.

Best of all enjoy, the marvelous flowers and fruits in your garden, I don’t know a better feeling than having a fresh passion from your vine as a break while gardening….

Carlotta

Informations  from:

http://servingjoy.com/fun-facts-of-passion-fruit/

And from one of my favorite websites about gardening in the tropics : http://www.tropicalpermaculture.com/growing-passionfruit.html 

- Photo of passion fruit  by Glen Carrie -