The Tropical Fruit Forum

   About 20 years ago, I read online that yellow passion fruit needs to be cross pollinated with a flower from different parents/seed stock. Hence my frustration when I grew a purple passion from 8 inches tall to 300 feet of vines with over 3000 blossoms after 6 years and got NO fruit ! It turned out this "purple" was really a yellow (so my seller was misinformed). I realized this after finally getting 2 fruits that turned yellow but were hollow inside. SO -I bought another yellow, got blossoms, hand pollinated, but still got no fruit. The vines on the old plant were choking several fruit trees so thinking it was "sterile" I chopped most of it down. Two months later I started getting fruit; the pollen source was my second plant -a Sweet Sunrise variety that was supposed to be self-pollinating.
     The original completely died of old age recently leaving me with one seed stock - about a dozen second generation plants from the 3 Sweet Sunrise fruits I got 2 years ago. I found an article a year ago online about pollination of yellow passion fruits in India and more recently some info with pictures about the same topic from Australia. Here is the critical info :
***THE POLLEN IS MOST VIABLE RIGHT AFTER THE FLOWERS OPEN BUT...
***THE FEMALE STIGMAS ARE NOT RECEPTIVE UNTIL LATER IN THE DAY ! I had noticed on my flowers that when they opened some of the female stigmas were pointed straight up and some were flat (horizontal almost touching the male anthers). I had suspected that the angle of the stigmas had something to do with being receptive and sure enough, the Australian site said that they need to be in the flat position and showed pictures.
     Regarding the pollen collection, I started by removing the entire anthers and putting them in a small 35mm film container which has a tight fitting lid. But - I got little or no results so started thinking that entire removal of the anthers might be shocking the flower to the point of failure. I also was putting a silica gel packet in the container and storing it in the refrigerator. I now think that these last two ideas were bad since this would speed up drying out the pollen. I now am getting great results following these procedures :
***AS SOON AS FLOWERS OPEN, COLLECT POLLEN BY SCRAPING IT OFF OFTHE ANTHERS WITH A SHARP FLAT METAL BLADE INTO AN AIRTIGHT CONTAINER. EVEN SHAKING THE FLOWER WILL CAUSE A LOT OF POLLEN TO FALL. DO NOT REMOVE THE ANTHERS. CLOSE THE CONTAINER AND KEEP AT ROOM TEMPERATURE.
***AT DUSK, POLLINATE THE STIGMAS USING A NATURAL HAIR ART BRUSH. I read years ago online that if it rains within 2 hours after pollination, no fruit will set. I think this is not because the  rain will harm the pollen, but because it will completely wash the pollen off since yellow passion pollen is very heavy, dense, and fluffy. This is why wind will not do the job. This is why bees won't do the job either because they steal all the pollen early in the afternoon before the stigmas are receptive. If there is a little moisture on the stigmas at dusk, I think it actually makes the stigmas more sticky and holds the pollen better !
***POLLINATE THE SAME BLOSSOMS AGAIN THE NEXT MORNING AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. THE FLOWERS WILL HAVE CLOSED, SO TAGGING MIGHT HELP IF IT IS HARD TO TELL WHICH ARE NEW. THIS IS REALLY JUST A BACKUP PLAN IN CASE THE DUSK ATTEMPT FAILED. IT MAY NOT BE NECESSARY BUT I FEEL CERTAIN THE STIGMAS ARE STILL RECEPTIVE AS THEY ARE STILL LIGHT COLORED AND THE POLLEN SEEMS TO STICK IN THE MORNING AS WELL.
I don't think many yellow varieties will self-pollinate, but I recommend trying this procedure on any varieties of passion fruit.

Hi - this topic is almost 4 years old, but I just saw it today. I noticed the same 2 different types of blossoms on my Canistel : most have a fruit-shaped blossom with a pistil sticking out which i think is the female blossom. A few blossoms are the light green flower type which seem to have pollen in them (so they are the male blossoms). I am hoping for my first fruit this year on my 4 year-old 9641 as I now have over 75 blossoms. Since this fruit comes from Central America where the two seasons are rainy and dry, I thought that this fruit is NOT restricted to springtime-only blossoms and I was right. We had 4 weeks of continuous rain here in Ft. Lauderdale from early May to early June and out came new growth with lots of blossoms ! Does anyone know the history or naming of the 9641 Canistel ? Keith

I have noticed the same thing on my 9641 Canistel here in south Florida. The tree has been in the ground one year, is grafted, and has about two dozen blossoms on the 6 foot tree. The light green buds with a little flower sticking out (about 20% of the group) have been partially open for several days. After not opening fully, I began to suspect that perhaps they will not open further. With my horsehair pollinating brush I was able to get noticeable pollen out of these flowery buds. I think they are male and the ones with little anthers (?) sticking out are female and will not open. Can anyone confirm this ? I can't find confirmation of the internet.

      I have tried several times to grow Mangosteen in a pot. The best sucess is when you can provide a greenhouse for protection from the sun and wind and give very HIGH constant humidity. Constant misting also will imitate the rainforest enviroment the trees are native to. Cow manure compost will provide high nitrogen - I once got new leaves over 10" long in early winter after using a healthy dose of same. This was on a four foot high plant !
      Mature Mangosteen plants/trees are getting very expensive and hard to find but all readers BEWARE of "mangosteengrower.com"  run by one David Bennett in Hawaii. I paid $300 for what was promised to be four 30" high plants. What was sent were 8" high with only a couple of leaves each. Three of the four died within a couple days. I emailed photos of the size to Mr. Bennett. He admitted that he had someone helping him ship and that the wrong size may have been sent. No replacements were offered, no compensation offered, and he did not reply to any of my further emails. He only accepts checks (no credit cards or Paypal), so I was out $300.