GetCompontentInChildren erratic behaviour

Hello,

I have a game object with a sphere collider and a child named HitParticles. The child HitParticles has a ParticleSystem component. I want the HitParticles to show when there is a trigger enter, but It works erratically. I hit play to run the game, and it works as expected. I stop the game (in Unity), run it again, and it no longer works...

 void OnTriggerEnter(Collider other) {
         
         if (other.tag=="Fruit"){
 
             //Localize fruit object
             fruit = other;
 
             
             //Emit particles show if the object has one
             if(fruit.GetComponentInChildren<ParticleSystem>()){
                 Debug.Log("Emiting Particles");  //This debug doesn't fire when it fails...
                 _particleFX = fruit.GetComponentInChildren<ParticleSystem>();


                 waitToDestroyTimer = _particleFX.duration;


                 if (_particleFX.tag=="ShootingParticles"){
                     Vector3 _emiterPosition = _particleFX.transform.position;
                     Vector3 particleDestination = new Vector3(_emiterPosition.x + Random.Range(-300, 300), _emiterPosition.y + Random.Range(-100, 300), _emiterPosition.z + Random.Range(-300, 300));
                     _particleFX.transform.position = Vector3.Lerp(_emiterPosition,particleDestination ,0.1f); 
                 }
                 _particleFX.Play();
             }