Dragon Fruit thread.

[ricshaw]

Yes they absolutely take longer to ripen the fruit and the most important aspect is that once the fruit ripens, they can hold on the vine for many months. Some of my Yellow DF have been ripe for several months and they still appear to be good at least looking at the outside of it. I will cut one open later to verify the Brix and texture are still ok.

The regular DF do not hold well on the vine and easily become mushy.

Simon

I think I remember hearing at one of the Pitahaya festivals I attended in 2014 that if you want Dragon Fruit in Jan/Feb, grow Yellow Dragon Fruit.

I do not have any experience growing Yellow DF and the time the fruit can be left before picking.

[simon_grow]

Yup, Frankies Red takes about the same amount of time to ripen as the Yellow Dragon. Frankies Red flowers earlier and thus ripens a little earlier but I still do also have two fruits left on Frankies Red. I'll cut one open tomorrow and report back with fruit quality this late into the season.

If you see the pictures on reply #5 of this thread: http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=13533.0
You can see that my fruit were already ripe in December 15 and if I remember correctly, some were actually ripe in November. I looked at my old picture from the December 15 post and compared them to my fruit today and it sure looks like some of the same ripe fruit from December are the same fruit I harvested today meaning that they held on the vine for about 3 months if not longer because they were actually ripe before I took the picture.

The Yellow Dragons I harvested today look pretty horrible with many small brown and reddish specks all over the fruit but the eating quality is still excellent. I remember that I was still harvesting some straggler Simons Purple, American Beauty and Halkeys Comet when the Frankies red were ripening so if I'm able to somehow stimulate these varieties SP, AB, HC to flower early, I can almost get year round harvest as long as my Yellow can continue to hold on the vine for another month or two.

I will try to leave one of my yellow fruit for as long as possible to see just how long they can hang without going bad. I think April and May will be the months that are most difficult to get ripe Dragon Fruit.

Simon

[simon_grow]

Here's a picture of a Frankies Ared still on the vine picture taken today. I also harvested one fruit.

Simon

[Jexton]

Here's a picture of a Frankies Ared still on the vine picture taken today. I also harvested one fruit.

Simon

Simon your FR are driving me crazy!  I look up and down the internets every week, but no one has them. Does anyone in Florida know where I may get a cutting? 

[Josh-Los-Angeles]

Yup, Frankies Red takes about the same amount of time to ripen as the Yellow Dragon. Frankies Red flowers earlier and thus ripens a little earlier but I still do also have two fruits left on Frankies Red. I'll cut one open tomorrow and report back with fruit quality this late into the season.

If you see the pictures on reply #5 of this thread: http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=13533.0
You can see that my fruit were already ripe in December 15 and if I remember correctly, some were actually ripe in November. I looked at my old picture from the December 15 post and compared them to my fruit today and it sure looks like some of the same ripe fruit from December are the same fruit I harvested today meaning that they held on the vine for about 3 months if not longer because they were actually ripe before I took the picture.

The Yellow Dragons I harvested today look pretty horrible with many small brown and reddish specks all over the fruit but the eating quality is still excellent. I remember that I was still harvesting some straggler Simons Purple, American Beauty and Halkeys Comet when the Frankies red were ripening so if I'm able to somehow stimulate these varieties SP, AB, HC to flower early, I can almost get year round harvest as long as my Yellow can continue to hold on the vine for another month or two.

I will try to leave one of my yellow fruit for as long as possible to see just how long they can hang without going bad. I think April and May will be the months that are most difficult to get ripe Dragon Fruit.

Simon

It's too bad the frankies take so long to ripen (or yellow DF for that matter). I wonder if anyone is crossing them to see if a yellow can produce on a normal DF schedule.

[Dezperado]

Hi,

I`m a bit concerned about two of my DF, both Physical Graffiti variety. As they came out of winter and AFTER I water them two times in one week I began noticing that they were becoming brown in the sun side:



One month ago this one was like this:



The others (American Beauty, Halleys Comet and Purple Haze) are normal (for now...)

I understand that the spring awakening can cause some problems but this is not normal...

The sides that are not faced to the sun have a perfect green. Temperatures in the last couple of weeks  range between 75ºF and 45ºF. Could this be frost damage for the high temperature range?

P.S. One year plant

[Dezperado]

A close up:





Any help?

[ricshaw]

Any help?

I can't help, but if they produce new growth they should be okay.

I have a ugly yellow stem DF that produce lots of flowers.

[simon_grow]

As long as the plant is still growing, you should be fine. My DF vines don't like it when it gets too hot, they get burned if sun is too hot and they lack water. I also noticed my plants yellow a little in the Winter.

Simon

[drummer]

So I just got some frankie's red cuttings a couple days ago and I just noticed they had flower buds. I know the plant can't have fruit since it's just a cutting.So my question is should I just take the bud off or will it just die off? Thanks

[starling1]

So I just got some frankie's red cuttings a couple days ago and I just noticed they had flower buds. I know the plant can't have fruit since it's just a cutting.So my question is should I just take the bud off or will it just die off? Thanks

Should be god either way man. If you don't remove them they will drop off, but the energy to create them has t come from somewhere so you're better off removing them.

[cchighman]

Hi,

I picked up a Hailey's Comet from Home Depot while in Miami and I live in the midwest where the lightning and weather is not suitable.  I didn't have any idea what I was actually picking up until I got home.  Abut 90 days later, it's clear my dragonfruit is not getting the light it needs as its showing very clear signs of etiolation.

I've been searching for what specific lightning I need to grow this plant indoors as if we were considering very minimal, if any, sun.  So far, from reading this forum and other sources, I need to obtain a 300 watt LED light that is in the red/blue spectrum and specifically with Red at 660nm and this light should be on the plant for about 12-15 hours a day.  Does this sound right?  Do I need 300 watts?  Is this the only light needed?  I've read many places that all types of lights will work while others have had mixed results.

The setup in my below pictures is using a 24in draining pot that begins with rocks, Perlite, Peat Moss / Perlite / Vermiculite/ Potting Soil / Compost, Compost, and compost starter containing desired fungus.  This was initially one plant but I cut off several branches and began trying to plant them in a circle with a goal of pruning to be a tree of sorts.  My goal at this stage is to fix the lighting situation and begin setting the root stalks.  Any advice would be really appreciated!











Thanks!

[NathanC]

Leo's Costa Rican Dragon will be available to those that are willing to drive to Leo's home in late summer.

[nullzero]

Hi,

I picked up a Hailey's Comet from Home Depot while in Miami and I live in the midwest where the lightning and weather is not suitable.  I didn't have any idea what I was actually picking up until I got home.  Abut 90 days later, it's clear my dragonfruit is not getting the light it needs as its showing very clear signs of etiolation.

I've been searching for what specific lightning I need to grow this plant indoors as if we were considering very minimal, if any, sun.  So far, from reading this forum and other sources, I need to obtain a 300 watt LED light that is in the red/blue spectrum and specifically with Red at 660nm and this light should be on the plant for about 12-15 hours a day.  Does this sound right?  Do I need 300 watts?  Is this the only light needed?  I've read many places that all types of lights will work while others have had mixed results.

The setup in my below pictures is using a 24in draining pot that begins with rocks, Perlite, Peat Moss / Perlite / Vermiculite/ Potting Soil / Compost, Compost, and compost starter containing desired fungus.  This was initially one plant but I cut off several branches and began trying to plant them in a circle with a goal of pruning to be a tree of sorts.  My goal at this stage is to fix the lighting situation and begin setting the root stalks.  Any advice would be really appreciated!
Thanks!

This 300watt LED off ebay looked good; http://www.ebay.com/itm/MarsHydro-300W-LED-Grow-Light-Kit-Horticulture-Full-Spectrum-Hydroponic-Plants-/151374521551?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item233e9fe4cf

Your also going to want a grow tent (unless you have grow area setup), so you can increase the reflectivity with the LED grow light. Look for mylar indoor grow tents that are around 6ft tall and maybe a 4'x4' L/W. You may also want to get some side LED lightening . If you face grow tent door opening out toward the window, you can have the plant opened up during the day time and then at night you close it up and run the lights for 8 hours or so.

[dmk]

Happy to say the df I have in a pot has reached the top.

Do I cut the top off? I read this helps in horizontal growth.

And can I repot this cutting? The plant is about 7 months old.

[MangCau]

Unknown purple giant DF with flower buds in march?

[Josh-Los-Angeles]

Unknown purple giant DF with flower buds in march?

Fantastic! How big is your plant? And is it getting any supplemental lighting so it blooms this early?

[MangCau]

Josh,
the plant is only about 3ft tall with a few arms. No supplemental light. It might be the street light and recent heat waves.

[simon_grow]

Leo's Costa Rican Dragon will be available to those that are willing to drive to Leo's home in late summer.

Hello Nathan, do you have any information on Leo's Costan Dragon? Is that the one he crossed with the S Megalanthus.

Simon

[simon_grow]

It looks like I will be close to having Dragonfruit year round. My Simons Purple DF is now popping out flower buds all over the place. It's always the first to flower for me followed by American Beauty and then Halley's Comet. It's still going to be a while before I harvest any fruit but at least my Yellow Dragon still has ripe and still good quality fruit on it.

I just harvested my last Frankies Red because it got sunburned on one side and it was still great tasting so late in the season. The Brix was at 17% but it tasted very sweet and the texture was firm and the fruit has more than just a hint of Watermelon flavor. I still have one Frankies Red in the fridge.

I will leave my last couple Yellow Dragonfruit hanging on the vine for as long as possible in order to see if it will hold till my Simons Purple is ready. I Think that if I harvested a fruit and keep it in the fridge, it may very well hold till the Simons Purple is ready.

I did not do anything special to get my Simons Purple to flower, I think they just naturally flower around this time of year.

Simon

[simon_grow]

Sorry, here's the pics: Frankies Red



Simons Purple flower buds



Yellow dragons still on the vine

[darkcoolboo]

Leo's Costa Rican Dragon will be available to those that are willing to drive to Leo's home in late summer.

Hello Nathan, do you have any information on Leo's Costan Dragon? Is that the one he crossed with the S Megalanthus.

Simon

Yes, It's Leo's newest selection. It is a H. costaricensis X S. Megalanthus.  It is a top selection made in 2005 that sports fruit that is NOT spiky, unlike Frankie's Red and S. Megalanthus. It doesn't have any H. Undatus in the mix. It appears to have a dark purple-ish flesh that could be interesting. Leo said on the Yahoo! group that it will be ready by the end of the summer. I don't live in California, so could someone shed some light on experience with it?
The fruit is featured in the second half of ricshaw's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRtO7J6ZKX0

[ricshaw]

Yes, It's Leo's newest selection. It is a H. costaricensis X S. Megalanthus.  It is a top selection made in 2005 that sports fruit that is NOT spiky, unlike Frankie's Red and S. Megalanthus. It doesn't have any H. Undatus in the mix. It appears to have a dark purple-ish flesh that could be interesting. Leo said on the Yahoo! group that it will be ready by the end of the summer. I don't live in California, so could someone shed some light on experience with it?
The fruit is featured in the second half of ricshaw's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRtO7J6ZKX0

Pretty much everything has been said about it.

This is the picture Leo posted on his Yahoo Group:



I don't remember anything about the taste except that it was good.

[simon_grow]

Thanks for the information, it looks to be good size and has the benefit of no spines so sounds like a keeper. I'll try to get a Brix reading from one of Leo's fruit this year.

Simon

[Josh-Los-Angeles]

It looks like I will be close to having Dragonfruit year round. My Simons Purple DF is now popping out flower buds all over the place. It's always the first to flower for me followed by American Beauty and then Halley's Comet. It's still going to be a while before I harvest any fruit but at least my Yellow Dragon still has ripe and still good quality fruit on it.

I just harvested my last Frankies Red because it got sunburned on one side and it was still great tasting so late in the season. The Brix was at 17% but it tasted very sweet and the texture was firm and the fruit has more than just a hint of Watermelon flavor. I still have one Frankies Red in the fridge.

I will leave my last couple Yellow Dragonfruit hanging on the vine for as long as possible in order to see if it will hold till my Simons Purple is ready. I Think that if I harvested a fruit and keep it in the fridge, it may very well hold till the Simons Purple is ready.

I did not do anything special to get my Simons Purple to flower, I think they just naturally flower around this time of year.

Simon

You're getting blooms too? I haven't gotten anything on my Halley's and American Beauty, other than tons of new growth. The plants are huge and I'm blasting them with 300 watts of light to try to force them into bloom mode. Maybe I've used too much ferts? I'm using standard Osmocote Plus amounts and a little Vigoro Citrus/Avo. Our temps are great, I'm not sure what's wrong...