Passion fruit, also called passion fruit, passiflora edulis or granadilla, is a tropical plant whose oval-shaped fruit has many nutritional and medicinal properties. Its seeds and pulp can be used, usually in juices or desserts. Its consumption provides us with large amounts of vitamins A and C. Many people wonder how to maintain the potted passion fruit in order to have it in their garden.
For this reason, we are going to dedicate this article to telling you everything you need to know about caring for a potted passion fruit and what its requirements are.
Contents
How to grow passion fruit in a pot
It is a very decorative vine that can be up to 9 meters long, and thanks to its many tendrils it can get tangled up in any stake or trellis, filling it out after a few months. It is a very attractive plant for its large bright green leaves, picturesque exotic flowers and colorful fruits. Use fresh seeds. Freshly harvested passion fruit seeds germinate quickly.
- Buy ripe passion fruit from the supermarket a few days before planting. Open it and collect at least six seeds.
- Spread the seeds on the burlap and rub until the juice bags burst.
- Wash the seeds with water, let them dry for 3-4 days, then wash them again and dry them in the shade.
- If you sow immediately, they should sprout within 10 to 20 days.
- Prepare a container as a breeding box. Ideally, you should plant your passion fruit vines in a separate, protected pot.
- Fill the container with a potting soil made up of equal parts compost, topsoil and coarse sand. Fill a container with 4 inches (10 cm) of this mixture.
- Use a stick to scrape the soil into the container that will be used as a nursery, spacing the resulting furrows 2 inches (5 cm) apart. These grooves will act as shallow drains and help prevent moisture from flooding the seeds or their budding roots.
- Sowing seeds. Place the seeds in each row, 1/2 inch (1 cm) apart.
- Protect the seeds by covering them with a very fine compost.
- Water immediately after planting the seeds. Moisten the soil, but do not soak it.
Potted passion fruit from cuttings
Prepare a bed of sand. Fill the plastic pots with a mixture of 3/4 agricultural sand and 1/4 topsoil. Thoroughly mix the soil components so that they are evenly distributed in the container.
Cuttings get most of the moisture they need to grow from environmental humidity, because at this stage they have no roots. In this sense, you should not use soil that retains a lot of moisture.
Choose healthy, mature passion fruit plants for cuttings. Cut the part of the vine that contains at least 3 branches, if not more, directly below the lowest branch. New growth is more active, so it is best to choose new parts of the vine rather than old ones. Plant this cutting right away in your sand bed.
Keep the cutting in a moist environment. The best place to prune the vine is in the greenhouse. However, if you don’t have access to it, you can build a humidity chamber by stretching a sheet of clear plastic over a bamboo frame. If you need to generate additional humidity, you can do so with a humidifier or by placing a slab of gravel covered with water around the bottom of the cutting. The cuttings will form new roots in 1-2 weeks.
advice and care
- Keep it in direct sunlight and place it in a place with humid air.
- After planting, use a watering can or hose to lightly water the seedlings.
- Make sure it’s moist, but don’t let mud puddles form, as this could indicate you’re providing more water than the soil can absorb and drain.
- Once the plant has grown, mulch and fertilize around it. Spread some slow-release organic fertilizer around the base of the plant. Also spread an organic mulch, such as straw or wood chips, around the base of the plant.
- It is necessary to use compost and mulch throughout the root system. For best results, after spreading compost and mulch around the base of the plant, gently push or dig some of the mulch into the top layer of soil.
- You must pay in the spring and every 4 weeks in the summer. It also needs to be fed in mid-autumn. Use slow-release, organic fertilizers that are low in nitrogen. Chicken manure balls are a good option.
- If you live in an area that gets a lot of rain, you may not need to water your plants as often. However, if you suffer from drought or only live in moderately humid conditions, you will need to water the vines at least once a week. Never let the floor surface dry out completely.
- As the vines spread, you may need to train them to climb the fence, trellis, or other support structure. Plants are healthier if vines are encouraged to climb, and healthy plants produce larger crops.
- Keep 60 to 90 cm of space on each side at the base of the vine, free of weeds. Use organic methods to eliminate weeds, without chemicals.
- Prune every two years in the spring. Be sure to do this before the plant blooms. Pruning after flowering can weaken plants and limit your harvest.
- Ripe passion fruits usually fall from the vine as soon as they are ready. The drop itself will not harm the fruit, but you should pick it a few days after the drop to ensure the best quality.
- If you have a passion fruit variety that does not fall off, simply remove each fruit as soon as you notice the skin starting to wrinkle.
I hope with this information you can learn more about how to care for the passion fruit plant in a pot.