Hi all, I want to ask you folks about my passion fruit vines. I have 3 vines planted in the ground, vigourous vines with already many fruits setting. I noticed since 1 week ago that all the flowers have no pollen on them (each day i have around 20 or 30 flowers), in the begining i managed to find 2 or 3 flowers with pollen which are usually hidden under the canopy, but today i couldn't find a signle flower with pollen to make the hand pollination.
Here are some information that may give some clues to this mystery :
- It has been windy for 3 weeks in a row here (could it the wind that is shaking the anthers and the pollen falls ont the ground? even though i doubt this could be the origin of the problem. i find a little trace of pollen on some petals but it is traces only).
- I find a lot of ants on each flower (around 10 ants on each flower), and bees as well (i don't know if ants can eat or transport the pollen and leave the anthers pollen free as if they were washed?) to me this the more likely cause since it is present in the three vines.
- I am witnissing this phenomenon on 3 separate groups of vines in 3 different areas of the garden (each one is formed from 4 or 5 seedling plants so we may consider as they were 12 vines). If it is something related to nutrition, the chances that it happens to all the vines at the same time are very low i think.
- I didn't ferilize the vines this year, but the soil is rich clay and the vines seem to grow well.
Today i didn't find any pollen so i didn't hand pollinate. I profited from this fact and i marked many of today's flowers to see if they will set fruit later. in case the ants turn out to be doing the job for me. I will keep you updated.