PROBLEMS AND OPPORTUNITIES IN PASSION-FRUIT CULTURE AND DEVELOPMENT

About 3500 metric tons (MT) of purple and yellow passion fruit (Passiflora edulis Sims and P. edulis f. flavicarpa Degener) and hybrids between these two forms are produced in the world annually. Growers of this crop are con fronted by fungal disease that attacks the fruit, leaves, stem ana roots. Also, expensive trellising must be erected to support the vines, and the fruit must be harvested at frequent intervals by picking it up from the ground where it falls when it ripens. Purple-fruited cultivars tend to fruit in spring and early summer, but do not flower well during hot weather, unlike the yellow passion fruit which thrives under lowland tropical conditions. Current breeding efforts are aimed at crossing inbred purple- and yellow-fruited lines to obtain F-1 hybrids with maroon fruit, that bear well all summer. One collection from the wild, Pl. 424814, was found to have genes for dwarfness and the ability to hold mature fruit on the vine a month or more after color break. Another accession, M-32025, had genes for extra locules (up to 5 versus the usual making a dense, firmly-packed fruit. Combining all these traits can produce dwarf cultivars with disease-resistant, dense fruit that may be collected from the vines as needed rather than picked off the ground after it drops.