A step-by-step guide to profitable passion fruit farming

Passion fruit farming is still one of the least explored yet profitable kinds of fruit farming.

Apart from the fact that passion fruits, like any other fruit, have their good and bad seasons, when properly looked after, these fruits can enable a farmer to generate significant income.

However, they cannot just blossom; they must be properly planned for to get the best fruits and results. Thus, knowledge of the best agronomic practices is vital.

Lydia Nantabo, a Kenyan agronomist shared a step-by-step guide to successful passion fruit farming, from land preparation to harvest, storage, and marketing.

Land preparation

The best soil for cultivation of passion fruits is sandy loam soil. But that is not a limitation on where to grow them. Once you have set the land for planting the passion fruits. Do the following:

• Properly plough the land to allow easy penetration of water and nutrient before making the planting holes. Make them 60cm by 60cm (2ft wide and 1ft down)
• Separate the first 30cm of the soil and mix it with the manure you are going to use for refilling.
• Get well-decomposed manure and place it in the hole you are going to plant in, two weeks before planting.
• You can drench the soil-manure mix with fungicide to kill any fungi that might be in the manure.
• If you are preparing to plant during a dry season, water the holes a day before but if it is during the rainy season, you can go ahead and plant.
• The spacing from hole to hole or plant to plant is 3m by 2m or 10ft by 7ft. The size of the holes is determined by the labour for at the pruning stage. If you are doing it on your own, you could make bigger spaces or according to your preference.
• If you have no labour, avoid planting them too close to each other as this will be tedious during pruning.
• During planning, make sure you remove the polythene bags that wrap the seedlings and dispose them off properly because they prevent water retention in the soil.
• You can dip the seedling roots into a root stimulant. This allows proper and easy growth of roots.

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Varieties

The major ones are the local purple traditional and the local purple hybrid. However, there are different varieties of passion fruits although, these are identified or classified according to areas.

Soil and nutrition

This involves indulging in practices or applying substances that improve the soil’s qualities. This can be in terms of how fast the soil absorps nutrients or the rate at which the weeds will grow during the planting season.

Applying the right soil nutrients can improve its structure and yield better results.
Nantabo recommends using organic manure as this helps to balance up the soil although it is better to take a sample of the farm soil for testing so that you know of any missing nutrients.

Passion fruits grow best with soil nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium. The amounts of these nutrients vary at the various stages of growing.

You can add a soil conditioner such as humate. Application of the conditioner helps in soil enhancement, which allows the soil to quickly absorb of necessary nutrients.

If you used manure while planting, you are advised to add NPK (nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium) after a month. In the second month, use TSP (Triple Super Phosphate) or SSP (Single Super Phosphate). You can then interchange it with CAN (calcium ammonium nitrate), which helps in the fruit tissue development and strengthening of the cover of the fruit.

Once you give the plant good manure, at planting and after three months, you can start harvesting as early as after six months although poor manure distribution to the seedlings delays harvesting even up to nine months.

It is recommended to use the fertilisers (organic and inorganic) interchangeably.

Marketing

There are different buyers depending on the target market. These different markets or buyers range from traders, wholesalers, retailers, hotels, restaurants, supermarkets and individual customers.

Depending on availability of market that is where the farmer will sell. Prices range from Sh1,500 to Sh10,000 or more depending on the market.

Weeding

During land preparation, the garden must be free of weeds. After planting, introduce grass bands which should be kept short to prevent it from overgrowing. The dry grass can then used to mulch or feed animals.

If you decide to weed, do not leave the ground bare. You can intercrop the passion fruits with strawberries. They are good cover crops, which help to keep the soil covered.

Storing

The fruits can stay for more than two weeks when stored in a place with room temperatures. It is advisable to apply CAN before harvesting so that the shelf life of the passion fruits is prolonged. However, for many local farmers, what is produced is sold immediately.

Care and management

Pests and diseases in passion fruits are a result of planting infected seedlings or using infected seeds, over-cropping, or transfer by animals from one place to another. Some of the common pests and diseases that affect the fruit and can result in poor fruit quality and quantity.