Growing passion fruits: What you need to know

Kidamali Maji Company Ltd Managing Director, Steve Steenkamp demonstrates to the Guardian reporter how young vines (passions) are trained to grow along the wire support of the frames yesterday . Thin rope or string tied from the base of the creeping plant to the wire could be utilized for this purpose.(Photo by Friday Simbaya)

KIDAMALI residents at Nzihi Ward in Iringa District, Iringa Region and Tanzania at large have been advised to go for passion fruit farming in order to uplift their economic status, hence poverty reduction.

According to Kidamali Maji Company Ltd Managing Director Steve Steenkamp, passion fruit farming is still an unexplored kind of fruit farming in Tanzania.

He told the Guardian on Wednesday that apart from the fact that passion fruits, just like any other fruit, has its good and bad seasons, but when properly looked after, these fruits can enable a farmer generate significant income.

Steenkamp said passion fruit vines perform best with regular watering. Water is vital when the vine is newly planted and when it’s flowering and forming fruit.

He said passion fruits do not require special pruning techniques to produce fruit, they are pruned to control their size and spread, and to allow sunlight to filter through the vine to help ripen fruit.

However, he insisted that passion fruit vines cannot just blossom, they must be properly planned for to get the best fruits and results. 

“There is a big potential for the passion fruit farming to change economic status of the people in the villages  because there is potential export market,” he pointed out.

"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," he said. 

He said fruits drop to the ground when fully mature and collected every second day. At this stage, the fruits are shriveled-the best condition for juice processing.

For the fresh fruit market, the fruits are harvested when the whole of the fruit is purple just before shrink and drying sets in.

Passion fruit vines are best suited to subtropical and temperate regions, but they will adapt to other areas as long as they’re protected from frost, according to agronomists.

The passion fruits need bees support for cross-pollination so farmers should have at least a beehive nearby passion fruit fields.

However, Kidamali Maji Company has the passion fruit vines farm for a trial basis which yellow and purple passion varieties have been grown. 

But the company is looking fro donors who can support the passion fruit growing, hence engaging smallholder farmers. 

Kidamali Maji Company which produces bottled drinking water popularly known as ‘Maji Africa’, employ about 90% of people are mostly women who would not be employed to other industry as they require more educated people.

The managing director continued that company have contributed to several villages in different development areas such as Kidamali, Nzihi, Magubike and Kipera, chiefly by offering jobs to their inhabitants.

These sweet raw edible fruits (passion fruits) and mostly preferred in homestead juice making more over passion juice can be mixed with other fruits juice such as mango, avocado, pineapple to increase flavor and test. 

And also used in food industries to make drinks and vinegar so there are highly needed in such ways.

Vinegar is a liquid consisting of about 5–20% acetic acid (CH3COOH), water, and other trace chemicals, which may include flavorings.