Pollinate Passion Fruit
It is very EASY to plant the passion flower or passion vine (Passiflora) but it is VERY hard for it to naturally bear aromatic, tempted passion fruits.
This is especially true if the passion fruit vines are grown in backyard within a crowded residential area where you hardly find lot of bees, butterflies, etc, to pollinate the passion flowers.
How to pollinate passion fruit flower?
Without enough insects to act as pollinator, the passionfruit flowers hardly fertilized simply counting on wind, water, etc, because of the following factors:
1) The unique passionfruit flower structure:
With reference to above diagram taken from passionfruit pollination handbook, the anthers with pollens not only appear lower than stigma but also facing downwards to the floral axis and against the pollen receivers.
Thus, the pollens are much easier to fall down than blew up even the stigma is adapted to catch or tap the pollens.
2) Short life span of the blossom – the passion flowers only open and last for few hours. Usually the passion fruit flowers open at dawn and close about noon, which will likely to bear fruits as that is the active period of pollinators.
Sometimes, however, the passionfruit flowers only open at late evening and close before dawn! This is exactly what happen to my passion flowers :-( Needless to say, the chance to see them bearing fruits is almost zero, as all the natural pollinators are not working after the sun goes down!
To fix this exception, manual pollinating is a must! There are some photos in the gallery showing you how to do hand pollination, if you would like to turn the passion flowers into aromatic fruits.
This is especially true if the passion fruit vines are grown in backyard within a crowded residential area where you hardly find lot of bees, butterflies, etc, to pollinate the passion flowers.
How to pollinate passion fruit flower?
Without enough insects to act as pollinator, the passionfruit flowers hardly fertilized simply counting on wind, water, etc, because of the following factors:1) The unique passionfruit flower structure:
With reference to above diagram taken from passionfruit pollination handbook, the anthers with pollens not only appear lower than stigma but also facing downwards to the floral axis and against the pollen receivers.
Thus, the pollens are much easier to fall down than blew up even the stigma is adapted to catch or tap the pollens.
2) Short life span of the blossom – the passion flowers only open and last for few hours. Usually the passion fruit flowers open at dawn and close about noon, which will likely to bear fruits as that is the active period of pollinators.
Sometimes, however, the passionfruit flowers only open at late evening and close before dawn! This is exactly what happen to my passion flowers :-( Needless to say, the chance to see them bearing fruits is almost zero, as all the natural pollinators are not working after the sun goes down!
To fix this exception, manual pollinating is a must! There are some photos in the gallery showing you how to do hand pollination, if you would like to turn the passion flowers into aromatic fruits.
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2012