Sifh, I am almost at my wit's end. A friend gave me a very ripe Passion Fruit. I eagerly took it home, cut it open drank the juice and planted the precious seeds. This was 3 weeks ago and none have germinated. I live in Malaysia with 2 main seasons, rain or hot very hot. few years ago I bought some vines that grew from cuttings. I had tons of fruit. But there are only 2 types here, the Yellow ones and the Purple ones. I have both. I want to try new varieties and so far the seed gods are not smiling upon me. I soaked the seeds in h202 but have not tried warm water nor scarifying them on sand paper. Those will be my next desperate steps.

If all else fails, use the paper towel method so you can see what is going on and avoid issues with too much/too little water.

Soak the seeds overnight and then place them on dampened paper towel and seal in a zip-lock bag. Place somewhere warmish and keep an eye on them. If any signs of mold show up, remove the seeds, clean in a very dilute bleach or peroxide solution and return to a fresh bag/towel environment. Remove seeds as roots appear and carefully pot up.

When I have more than a few seeds I generally also plant a few in a mix of peat, perlite and vermiculite (4:2:1) or some other mixture with good drainage.

You just never know. I had ten precious p. antioquiensis seeds awhile back and sprouted a few each way. Eventually each resulting plant succumbed to something or another. In disgust and despair I put the remaining potted seeds outdoors in a semi-shady spot. Months after planting, one of the seeds has sprouted and is looking good :-) My last chance!

I was told,that the sand paper method is very effective. Use the sand paper to scratch both ends gently and just sow them in your medium of choice.

Here's a slightly different take on the sandpaper method which works very well on spinach seeds (notoriously poor germination):

Line the sides of a small container (pill vial, etc.) with a piece of fine sandpaper. Put your seeds in the container, snap on the cap and shake vigorously (more side-to-side than up-and-down, so the seeds will hit the sandpaper as they move around).

Take the seeds out and soak for 24 hours, then plant.

I got this idea from someone on the vegetable garden forum and it really makes a difference with spinach, so why not passiflora?

i had planted some several months ago from a fruit i ate.
I figured the pulp (which i left a little on the seed)
would help them germ.
NONE . I waited a few weeks, nothing.
Last week 2 came up. may have been more, but i re-used the soil in 1 container, the rest were in the ground,i think lizards or something got to them.

I have some now, from cuttings, but if i do it again,
i will scratch the seed coat first. and soak them for a day.

different varieties may germinate differently as well.
Mine were edulis

Would you happen to have access to some gibberellic acid (GA3)?

I had great results soaking stubborn seeds in a solution of water and GA3.

Acids work great. I think someone mentioned orange juice. Then gibberellic acid, even humic acids. What a seed is basically is natures more armored case coating. Think about how long and dormant some seeds last. You need some strong cup of joe to wake that thing up. I personally use 10ml of humic acid to gallon of water. Then I separate 100 seeds yielded from one passion fruit onto a paper towel after I removed all the pulp with my teeth (watch a good movie). Put the paper towel in one days long of full sun to dry out. Then let sit over night in a dark place. I pour that gallon into 10 cups, separate them out and from there follow traditional germination methods.

I had miraculous results with lillikoi (P. edulis flavicarpa) seeds my friend gave me from Hawaii that were a year and a half old and stored encased in some masking tape :) I scraped one long edge of each seed with fine sandpaper (220 or so) several times until I felt like I had almost scraped all the way through the outer shell. I then soaked the seeds in a small amount (1.5 tablespoons or so of each ) of fresh squeezed orange juice and strong black tea. I placed them in a small plastic souffle cup on a heat mat in a sunny window where the liquid proceeded to evaporate. After about 24 hours the liquid had been reduced to almost a syrup, and I added enough water to get it back to the original amount. After 48 hours I planted the seeds about a half inch deep in half miracle grow seedling starter mix and half perlite, and encased the container in a large bag with the top slightly open to trap the humidity, and placed this on the heat mat in the sunny window. Because it was so hot over the week (sunny, humid and around high of 95F) I checked the soil temp and it was around 97F so I stopped putting the heat mat on during the day, and only put it on at night. Then over the weekend, I went on vacation and accidentally left the heat mat on during the day. When I came back from vacation, one of the seeds (a year and a half old!) had already sprouted.... this was only 7 days after planting!!! Within 3 days, two more had sprouted. I am not sure if these results were because flavicarpa is particularly hardy and vigorous, if there is something about storing them stuck between masking tape that preserves viability, or if it was the pre-treatment effects and warm soil that made them so viable, but whatever the factor, I am pretty pleased with this ultra fast germination and wanted to share in case anyone else can use this info :)

Every year, I take an overripe passionfruit from my vine and stick the whole fruit, uncut, into the ground. It overwinters and I get some new vines growing! Very unscientific, but it works!

I’ve tried 2 years now and nothing!

1) scratched the surface- nothing

2) kept wet inbeteeen cotton wool- nothing

3) inbetween tissue-nothing

4)even in the fridge- nothing

5) straight in soil- nothing

im going to try scratch them again, put them in oj overnight and then plant in soil and some in tissue and see... this is so disheartening

Place seed in fridge around 1week temperature keep around 10_18*c in soak damp towel