Hybrid #1 Passionfruit seed

This seed is the beginning of a project to select new passionfruit varieties. We are inviting you along to participate!

We crossed Giant Brazilian Yellow (GBY) with Bounty to create hybrids, using GBY as the female parent. In 2023 we set out 10 or so of those hybrids in a not so fertile section of dry hillside land on our farm. One vine in particular thrived and sets tons of fruit. We are calling this winning vine Hybrid #1 for now.

GBY passionfruit are very large, but require hand pollination between two vines. Bounty passionfruit are small, but set fruit readily without hand pollination as a single vine. Our hopes of crossing the two was to generate seedlings with large fruit and with high self fertility so growers will not need to hand pollinate. Incredibly, our one successful fruiting vine from the project accomplished both of these goals. The fruit size is roughly half way between the two parents and it is self fertile. The seed on this listing was saved from this vine – “Hybrid #1”. Other vines that bloomed seemed to also be self fertile but were not healthy enough during bloom to carry much of a crop. Their failure to thrive probably has more to do with growing conditions than genetics.

Our hybrid vines that have fruited have all had yellow fruit, but a friend we shared seed with got purple fruit. Seeds grown from this seed pack may display all kinds of variation in color, fruit size, productivity, sweetness, etc. Our hope is that self-fertility continues to be a dominant trait in this population and most, if not all seedlings will not need hand pollination though at the time we have no way of knowing if this will hold true.

People receiving this seed may simply enjoy growing some tasty passionfruit but may want also to participate in our breeding efforts. Exceptional vines may be cloned via cuttings if a real winner is discovered. We would love to hear back if you get something special.

We have subsequently pollinated Hybrid #1 blooms with GBY pollen to generate hybrids that are 3/4 GBY to hopefully continue to increase fruit size while maintaining self fertility. If these hybrids yield valuable traits we will offer that seed in the future, as well as other crosses we continue to make.

This listing is for 25 seeds of Hybrid #1.

Passiflora edulis flavicarpa x Passiflora edulis