Picture of large yellow S. Megalanthus

[simon_grow]

One of the forum members asked me to post a picture of the large S. Megalanthus I ate when I was in Hong Kong so here are the pictures along with some pictures of some other stuff.  Note how expensive the strawberries are.  Back about 4 years ago, 1US dollar was about 8HK dollars. 
Simon

[simon_grow]

These fruit were purchased at a department store called SOGO.  The bottom/underground of SOGO had a higher end supermarket that sold specialty fruit.  I believe the Mangoes, Annona and S. Megalanthus were grown in Australia while the strawberries were grown in Japan.  They also had Melons and other fruit at unbelievable prices.  The strawberries did not taste as good as California grown strawberries although every single berry in the box was absolutely blemish free.  That Annona which I believe is an Atemoya or Sugar apple or a combination of some sort was not very good.  It was not very juicy, not too sweet and had almost no acidity.  The large S. Megalanthus was extremely sweet, almost syrupy sweet.  I like sweet fruit but this was almost too sweet for me.  I do not recall how much I paid for the S. Megalanthus but I do remember it was quite expensive.  The Mango was very good from my recollection.
Simon

[thao]

Mike T, had posted similarly large yellow dragon fruit available in Australia too.
http://tropicalfruitforum.com/index.php?topic=228.275

Wonder, if it's the same strain found in Colombia? I saw a YouTube video about the yellow DF farm, a while back. Can't seem to find it now, since it was an accidental find, while searching for pitaya, but it was all in Spanish, so no luck in finding it now.

[HMHausman]

Any idea the approximate weight of the fruit?

[simon_grow]

I'm just comparing it to my NDM mango which I recently weighed and I'm guessing that S. megalanthus was somewhere in the 12 oz range. This was about 4 years ago so it's a rough estimate. I have an S. Megalanthus that is supposedly from a large fruiting variety that I got from a grower in San Diego and the fruit is already larger than the fruit that Leo Manuel was growing and my fruit is still green. I don't think my fruit will get too much bigger this year because the largest fruit is a double fruit right next to each other. I hope that the fruit will get to the size in the picture next year if I remove all doubles. I will weigh my fruit at harvest and take some pictures.
Simon

[simon_grow]

I'm still looking for cuttings or seeds of the giant yellow S Megalanthus if anyone has this. Thanks,

Simon

[HMHausman]

I'm still looking for cuttings or seeds of the giant yellow S Megalanthus if anyone has this. Thanks,

Simon

I would second the motion on asking for cuttings of this elusive plant material.  I want it too.

[ricshaw]

Is the "Giant" Yellow Dragon Fruit different from the Yellow Dragon Fruit that some So Cal growers have?

[simon_grow]

Interesting read if anyone is interested in S Megalanthus crosses.
http://jhered.oxfordjournals.org/content/94/4/329.full.pdf
http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/46/11/1497.full

Also toptropicals has a selection of S Megalanthus called Sunshine. They also carry an unnamed variety. They did not specify that it is a large fruited selection so I will pass. The variety I'm looking for is Huge, fruit probably around a pound or so. My original estimate is off because I just weighed my current fruit and they average 6-8 oz. this pic is not my largest nor smallest fruit, it's about average sized.





And here's a nice fruit basket I just gave to my mother in law, a nice color assortment for the sweet fruit lover. A mix of X large Simons Purple, Yellow Dragon and cherimoya.

[simon_grow]

Is the "Giant" Yellow Dragon Fruit different from the Yellow Dragon Fruit that some So Cal growers have?

Hey ricshaw, yes it is different than the common Yellow Dragon we have here. The one I'm looking for is a special selection of Yellow Dragon or as Megalanthus that is extremely sweet and very very large in size. I purchased the x large s Megalanthus at a high end department store called SOGO in Hong Kong. I believe the fruit was from Australia or Isreal but I don't remember. The common Yellow that we get around here only gets to about 8 oz max. I have a variety that is an extremely high producer but fruit are of average size. I also have a very small cutting of another selection from a member of this forum that is supposed to have larger fruit but it will be a couple years before I can confirm. I was informed that this other selection has wider fruit thus giving more edible flesh.

The fruit I ate in Hong Kong was super sweet, I would say too sweet. I still remember it reminded me of Agave nectar. I wonder if Ramiro Lobo, Sven Martin or Steven Spangler can help acquire this variety if they don't already have it.

I came across an article the other day showing that there are other countries that are putting a serious effort at selecting large fruited better tasting selections but I can't find the article anymore.

Simon

[Mike T]

The first pix by Simon are the large selection of the typical megalanthus.The more spherical larger seeded Ecuadorian one that grows wild and is around a pound at most seems to be something else.Maybe it is another subspecies.Those yellow skinned hybrids like the ones out of Israel can be big but they are poor in taste and not a megalanthus (well half maybe).

[simon_grow]

Here's a video of some large fruited Yellow Dragonfruit.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_JyDDXPprHc

Simon

[Rtreid]

Interesting video Simon, thanks for posting. Have you contacted Jim West?  Maybe he has a source for those large fruits. 

Richard

[simon_grow]

Thanks for the lead Richard!

Simon

[ricshaw]

Here's a video of some large fruited Yellow Dragonfruit.
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_JyDDXPprHc
Simon

I am not convinced that the Yellow Dragon Fruit in the video are a different variety from the ones commonly grown in Southern California.

Any size difference in fruit size may be from climate and local environment.

[simon_grow]

You could be right ricshaw. Some of the fruit look large but some look normal sized.  I do know for sure, however that there is a large fruited selection.

Simon

[simon_grow]

I'm still looking for cuttings of the large fruited S. Megalanthus but in the meantime, I waslucky to revive a single seed out of 14 that were given to me by Leo Manuel. There is a chance some of the others may sprout but the seeds are over two years old and Leo said I would have a difficult time sprouting them. Here is a picture of my only sprout so far of this elusive giant fruited S. Megalanthus.

Simon

[hrnsyrk]

Hi Simon,
Longtime i runned after big size meg. But i couldnt find any. I ended up growing seeds from the fruits i got in spain. I guess ecuador importations. It has been 2 years. They have good size right now. I dnt know what ll be the result. Then i can share cuttings with you.
regars
harun

[simon_grow]

Hello Harun, I'm glad you were able to finally obtain seeds and grow them out, hopefully they do well for you. I hope mine will survive. I ate the large fruiter Megalanthus in Hong Kong but didn't save seeds. At least I have a sprout now and hopefully there is someone out there with cuttings. Thanks for the offer of the cuttings but I believe our country may not allow the shipping of cuttings from other countries. I really want cuttings but I don't want to risk our whole DF industry by being selfish. Thank you very much for the offer. I'll keep everyone updated with this seedling.

Simon

[simon_grow]

Hmart in San Diego has these giant Megalanthus again. They’ve pretty much had them year round but they were the slightly smaller ones. They got a large shipment of these larger ones that weigh over one pound. I bought one just to get a weight and take a picture. This fruit is 1.17lbs



Simon

[Mike T]

I got seeds from Jim West and they grew up and fruited pretty fast.The fruit are not as rounded as most giant Ecuadorians pictured here being  bit more elongated but still way larger than standard small yellows.

[pineislander]

This fellow was able to find enough stem on a storebought Ecuadorean Palora Megalanthus to get a graft to take and suddenly has several good clones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsYMCdJmwds

[simon_grow]

I have a friend that did the same thing with the store bought fruit and the graft took. I’m sure there are many people with the giant yellows now. Brads got multiple selections of the giant yellow at his orchard, hopefully they will fruit next year.

Simon

[spaugh]

This fellow was able to find enough stem on a storebought Ecuadorean Palora Megalanthus to get a graft to take and suddenly has several good clones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsYMCdJmwds

That guy is the man.  He has excellent videos and excellent results and a great attitude. 

[ammoun]

This fellow was able to find enough stem on a storebought Ecuadorean Palora Megalanthus to get a graft to take and suddenly has several good clones:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsYMCdJmwds

That guy is the man.  He has excellent videos and excellent results and a great attitude.

I concur! And I just invited him to this forum.