The Tropical Fruit Forum

What the hell is this lol. Bud turning into a stem?

Quote from: Brandon909 on September 02, 2018, 11:03:58 PM

Does anyone know how to effectively dry and store pollen for Dragon fruit?

Here's the simple version of my process:
1. Use some sort of object you can insert into the flower, without damaging it, as far in as you can get it, and tap on the flowers stem to dislodge the pollen. I have an ice scoop that I've cut and reshaped to fit the flowers geometry, but another good idea Ive hear is to take a 1 litre soda or water bottle, and basically cut half the body of it out to form a scoop, then trim whats left of the body into a point, with a curved tip (no sharp or pointy edges), so it had a triangular shape.
2. Dump your pollen onto a white, or other lightly colored, plate so you can go through it and dig out anything that isnt pollen, like ants, flower parts, etc. Use tools like tweezers or sewing needles. Avoid touching the pollen directly.
3. Spread your pollen out on a folded paper towel or a napkin, not in clumps, but as an even powder. Place it somewhere shady, not in direct sunlight, but warm, and let it sit for 8-24 hours. Beware of strong drafts that might blow your pollen off its resting surface.
4. Place the towel/napkin back on your plate, fliped over, and pat/flick the dried pollen back onto the plate surface. Reexamine for anything not pollen. At my house its usually cat hair.
5. Here's the important part. Using as small of a container as possible, you can now store your pollen in your freezer. The colder the better. But the container is key. I have small sample vials I picked up from Ebay that I use. The idea is that you was as little air in with the pollen as possible. For a single flower, using something like the glass tubes free perfume samples used to come in would be a good size. Whatever you find, the container needs to be as small as you can find and air tight. Oh, and clean, too. Any moisture in the air can degrade the pollen when ice crystals form.
This process should give you pollen that will last a couple weeks in storage.

Thank you Rob I'll try this when my flowers bloom

Sugar Dragon keeps on impressing me! It’s the last week of winter, insanely dry,  with temps in the last week down to 0 degrees Celsius and my Sugar Dragon plants have decided to start flowering! This variety has survived on rain for the last 5 months(very little), temps down to -2.5 Celsius and continued to flourish, while also not being attacked and consumed from within by cactoblastis, which is making a mess of quite a few varieties . Over 30 flower buds on 8 two year old plants! Not a bad effort!

That's why it's one of my favorite varieties they're tuff and always producing

Yes to your question Brandon. As long as you can get access to the pistil stem without damaging it, you can still apply pollen up to 2 days after bloom. The flower petals spread and wilt quickly, but the flower is still fertile until the pistil starts to degrade, usually from heat. The issue is the waspy thin petals can get a bit clingy once they wilt, so you have to use extreme care to not only peal them away (try not to tear them) but to put them back, so they can protect the pistil as it accepts the pollen and begins fertilization. On self fertile fruits, I often give the flowers a good shake in the morning, after they've closed, just incase theres any remaining pollen on the anthers, just to see if they can make their way down to the now drooping pistil.

As a side note, if you have flowers on the cusp of blooming but you have to be away for some reason, the opposite is true as well, where you can force the front of the flower open and slip some pollen onto the pistil. Figure you have at least 24 hours in both directions to fertilize a flower from its optimal bloom state.

Thank you Rob for the info I'm glad I can still pollinate the flower

Thank you spaugh but the flowers are going to bloom tonight so I'm a little late. I'm going to try to find some local people that grow Dragon fruit

Does anyone have pollen they can share?

I lost at least 20 flowers I was so excited to get my first fruit but the heat killed them all except 2 purple haze and a couple of American beauty

Is delight self fertile? Some people say it is but some say it's not. I have some buds on mine just want to make sure. it's a fast grower I bought it February just under 2ft and now it giving out fruit

I recommend sugar dragon it's a perfect pollinator

It could be either one I've had some new growth convert in to flower buds. I have some Sugar Dragon cuttings that are flowering got them 5 months ago

Quote from: Brandon909 on November 22, 2017, 06:58:54 PM

Quote from: JF on November 22, 2017, 03:25:57 PM

I may have 7 gallon
Birula
La Habra sun
LH Prolific
LH blanc
Anona rosada
In summer check in May

does the anona Rosada grow well in southern California? Some people say it does and some disagree

do you sell the fruit?

I may have 7 gallon
Birula
La Habra sun
LH Prolific
LH blanc
Anona rosada
In summer check in May

does the anona Rosada grow well in southern California? Some people say it does and some disagree