Awesome Yellow Dragonfruit hybrids

[simon_grow]

Click on the link to view some cool S Megalanthus hybrids.

http://www.bgu.ac.il/life/Faculty/Mizrahi/GeneBank/Intergeneric%20hibrids.pdf

Simon

[LEOOEL]

Click on the link to view some cool S Megalanthus hybrids.

http://www.bgu.ac.il/life/Faculty/Mizrahi/GeneBank/Intergeneric%20hibrids.pdf

Simon

The 3 Yellow Dragon Fruit Laws

YDF First Law: (Thank you Simon for showing that) - There are indeed different varieties of the Yellow DF.
YDF Second Law: (From the Threads on this T.F.Forum I've learned that) - The Yellow dragon fruit is currently the sweetest of all the DF.
YDF Third Law: (If the First and Second Law hold - Now the question is which variety of the Yellow DF type is the sweetest?) - The sweetest variety is yet to be determined.

Also, is the DF variety offered for sale by TT and Excalibur the same, or are they different? If they are different, which one is sweeter/higher-quality?

 

[murahilin]

Great link Simon. These are the types of posts I love seeing on the forum.

Do you know of anyone in CA doing these types of hybrids as well?

[mushroombob]

Leo Manuel in San diego is growing and crossing some dragon fruit. I think his favorite fruit and most impressive to me are the mangoes. Although his lychee is pretty amazing too. But he told me a couple of years ago that dragon fruit has been taking up most if his time.

There is another guy doing a lot of dragon fruit in San diego area too, but I can't remember his name

[simon_grow]

LEOOEL, the sweetest selection of Yellow DragonFruit, S/H Megalanthus that I have tasted has got to be the X large fruited selection I purchased in Hong Kong. Both my wife and I thought it was so syrupy sweet that we thought it was too much. I did not have a Refractometer at the time but if I ever get a hold of another fruit, I'll surely test it and report back.

TT has two different Megalanthus varieties listed, one of them could very well have larger fruit.

Sheehan, i just visited Leo Manuel and he's got a Megalanthus crossed with a Costariciensis(spellcheck) that may be promising. I already have a Frankies Red which is supposed to be a Megalantus crossed with a red fleshed variety. The Frankies Red cross has diluted down the sweetness of the Megalanthus but has not decreased the size of the fruit( FR vs H Megalanthus).

Just like the article that rickshaw shared, Frankies Red with 3n chromosomes is a Fall fruiter with fruit ripening in between yellow and red Skinned DF varieties. This is the first year that my Frankies Red has fruited and I actually still have a few fruit ripening on the vine with some fruit still green while most my Yellow DF are fully colored up and I already harvested more than half my crop.

I also wanted to mention that there is so much variability between the size of the fruit of my Yellow Drahonfruit. Some are only about golfball sized and fully colored up and tasted the same as the regular sized fruit while others on the same plant are much larger. I bet I could have gotten some nice sized ones if I heavily thinned.

Simon

[simon_grow]

Here's a picture of a Frankies Red, still green on the vine and also a good sized ripe Frankies Red.



And here is a picture of my Yellow Dragon vine with all fruit yellowing up and a few flower buds just forming. Flower buds are not visible in the picture. This Yellow Dragon is the small fruited variety with fruit averaging about 6-8 oz. I'm looking for the very large fruited selection of S/H Megalanthus in case anyone knows where I might be able to find it. The large fruited selection of Megalanthus is about 2-3 times the size of the largest fruit on my Yellow Dragonfuit vines.





Simon

[LEOOEL]

So, super ("too much") sweet Yellow Dragon Fruit does exist! This is progress and this is good to know, thank you Simon.

We're all familiar with DF varieties that are not sweet enough.
Now, Xtra! Xtra! Read all about it: Simon and his wife have encountered a Yellow DF variety that is too sweet!?
What's now needed is to find/create the DF variety that has just the right amount of sweetness and make sure that it's available here in the USA; and elsewhere.

LEOOEL, the sweetest selection of Yellow DragonFruit, S/H Megalanthus that I have tasted has got to be the X large fruited selection I purchased in Hong Kong. Both my wife and I thought it was so syrupy sweet that we thought it was too much. I did not have a Refractometer at the time but if I ever get a hold of another fruit, I'll surely test it and report back.

TT has two different Megalanthus varieties listed, one of them could very well have larger fruit.

Sheehan, i just visited Leo Manuel and he's got a Megalanthus crossed with a Costariciensis(spellcheck) that may be promising. I already have a Frankies Red which is supposed to be a Megalantus crossed with a red fleshed variety. The Frankies Red cross has diluted down the sweetness of the Megalanthus but has not decreased the size of the fruit( FR vs H Megalanthus).

Just like the article that rickshaw shared, Frankies Red with 3n chromosomes is a Fall fruiter with fruit ripening in between yellow and red Skinned DF varieties. This is the first year that my Frankies Red has fruited and I actually still have a few fruit ripening on the vine with some fruit still green while most my Yellow DF are fully colored up and I already harvested more than half my crop.

I also wanted to mention that there is so much variability between the size of the fruit of my Yellow Drahonfruit. Some are only about golfball sized and fully colored up and tasted the same as the regular sized fruit while others on the same plant are much larger. I bet I could have gotten some nice sized ones if I heavily thinned.

Simon

[ricshaw]

What about DF varieties that have just the right amount of "acid" to offset the high sweetness?



"Sugar" isn't everything IMO.

[gunnar429]

Looks like the 08-31 and 08-32 have promise for the large yellow dragon contest currently underway.

I also thought 12-15, 12-32, 12-31, 12-14, 12-11, and 12-07 looked very cool.  Of course, eating fruit with one's eyes can be deceiving.  Nonetheless, very cool info

[simon_grow]

LEOOEL, the large fruited yellows were extremely sweet, like Agave nectar. They were in fact a little too sweet so I wonder if they would have tasted better if picked a little earlier? The smaller fruiting Yelliw Dragons have a very good balance of sweet to flavor according to my palate. I do really like Halley's Comet and American beauty but the Brix fluctuates a lot between early, mid and late season fruit. Someone will eventually come up with a new hybrid that will combine multiple good traits into one fruit. I can't wait for that day to come.

I think breeding with the giant Yellow DF will be a good start. I would love to cross a Frankies Red with the Giant Yellow until I get a stable strain that is large, sweet, red or purple fleshed and spineless. I would love to throw in some Halleys Comet genetics but this is best left to professionals or at least someone with a larger yard than what I have.

Simon

Simon

[LEOOEL]

Thank you for all the new DF developments regarding sweetness and quality.

These developments are progressing at a pace that is quicker than I would have expected. This is really good news.

Simon, at this pace, I expect that an excellent tasting and quality DF variety will be found in about a year or two. When that happens, we could concentrate on how productive it is.

[ricshaw]

Ecuador larger "Palora" variety of Yellow Dragon Fruit

Sangay Pitahaya

http://www.sangaypitahaya.com/en/

[gunnar429]

are those selenicereus?  They look huge, and with thorns on the fruit!

[BMc]

Are they interested in selling cuttings? 😀

[Mike T]

The Colombian wild S.megalanthus that appears in pix from time to time is allegedly sweet and is certainly large.It looks like a different species.Jim West would have seeds and yellows fruit from seed in less than 2 years.

[lajolla]

Here's a picture of a Frankies Red, still green on the vine and also a good sized ripe Frankies Red.



And here is a picture of my Yellow Dragon vine with all fruit yellowing up and a few flower buds just forming. Flower buds are not visible in the picture. This Yellow Dragon is the small fruited variety with fruit averaging about 6-8 oz. I'm looking for the very large fruited selection of S/H Megalanthus in case anyone knows where I might be able to find it. The large fruited selection of Megalanthus is about 2-3 times the size of the largest fruit on my Yellow Dragonfuit vines.





Simon

Simon- is your frankie's red suppose to be orange?

How long did your yellow and frankies take from cuttings before fruiting?

[ricshaw]

Simon- is your frankie's red suppose to be orange?

See Frankies Red Dragon Fruit http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=12732.0

[simon_grow]

Hello La Jolla, yes the Frankies red is orangish red. Both the Frankies Red and Yellow Dragon took about 2-3 years to fruit from a cutting. You can probably get them to fruit in about 1.5 years if you water and fertilize properly. I neglected my plants.

Simon

[ricshaw]

I just recently got a Frankie's Red cutting and have no experience.

TFF member Adalmoro says; Frankie's Red ripens in between regular DF and the S. Megalanthus yellow DF. The flowers are beautiful and the fruit are similar size to the megalanthus. They start to turn from a green to yellow/Orange/red color as they ripen. Its self polinating and brix 22% for me, but this needs more testing.

Check out Adalmoro's Frankie's Red picture: https://www.flickr.com/photos/adalmoro/15721085932/in/pool-dragonfruit|adalmoro

[lajolla]

Thanks guys. Is frankie's red essentially Selenicereus megalanthus in orange?

[simon_grow]

I believe Frankies Red is a cross between S Megalanthus and a red fleshed variety. My Frankies Red never reached 21% Brix. I believe mine averaged around 19% Brix.

Simon

[ricshaw]

Thanks guys. Is frankie's red essentially Selenicereus megalanthus in orange?

I suspect that Frankie's Red is a H. megalanthus  x  H. polyrhizus hybrid.

[lajolla]

It seems like the s. megalanthus in orange is similar in size as the s. megalanthus in yellow. Frankie's red is definitely larger. Two different species? maybe the s. megalanthus in orange is what people call "Namibia orange" or "Tanzania orange". Any thoughts?

[lajolla]

For reference, this is the S. Meg i am talking about in orange:

http://toptropicals.com/pics/garden/m1/Podarki3/yellow_pitaya5259_1JM.jpg

Doesn't look too much like Simon's Frankie's Red.

[lajolla]

Seems like people knock the S. Meg thorns off, but aren't the thorns suppose to automatically fall off once ripe?