diff --git a/test/plugin.jelly b/test/plugin.jelly
index bab0d61a..18360702 100644
--- a/test/plugin.jelly
+++ b/test/plugin.jelly
@@ -237,10 +237,11 @@
             <j:forEach var="someProperty" items="${listOfProperties}">
               <sysproperty key="${someProperty}" value="${context.findVariable(someProperty)}"/>
             </j:forEach>
-            <u:tokenize var="listOfJvmArgs" delim=" ">${maven.junit.jvmargs}</u:tokenize>
-            <j:forEach var="somejvmarg" items="${listOfJvmArgs}">
-              <jvmarg value="${somejvmarg}"/>
-            </j:forEach>
+            <j:set var="jvmargs"
+               value="${pom.getPluginContext('maven-test-plugin').getVariable('maven.junit.jvmargs')}"/>
+            <j:if test="$">
+                <jvmarg line="${jvmargs}"/>
+            </j:if>
             <formatter type="xml"/>
             <formatter type="plain" usefile="false"/>
             <formatter type="plain" usefile="true"/>
diff --git a/test/plugin.properties b/test/plugin.properties
index a06e7145..ed13ce25 100644
--- a/test/plugin.properties
+++ b/test/plugin.properties
@@ -9,4 +9,5 @@ maven.junit.dir = ${basedir}
 maven.junit.usefile = true
 maven.test.dest = ${maven.build.dir}/test-classes
 maven.test.reportsDirectory = ${maven.build.dir}/test-reports
-maven.test.skip = false
\ No newline at end of file
+maven.test.skip = false
+maven.junit.jvmargs=
\ No newline at end of file