Author Topic: Dragon Fruit thread.  (Read 940338 times)

LEOOEL

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #725 on: July 25, 2014, 12:23:49 AM »
I got my 'David Bowie' Dragon Fruit variety from PIN. I wonder what is the corresponding name for it in California.

I have never heard that David Bowie was a renamed California variety.
David Bowie may be a Pine Island Nursery original.

So far, yours is the only 'info' that I have to go by, and it sounds good to me. An original, huh? Very nice, 'thanx.'

If you trust dragonfruitplants.com...   ???  it says California is the origin.

Thank you for the investigative 'David Bowie' DF geneology. So, my 'David Bowie' DF is from California, was named there, and the name survived the trip from California to PIN in Florida with no name change! As an owner of a 'David Bowie' DF, I did not know this, I find this 'info' impressive and I appreciate your sharing it.
'Virtue' should be taught, learned and propagated, in order to save others and oneself.

ricshaw

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #726 on: July 25, 2014, 12:37:33 AM »
I got my 'David Bowie' Dragon Fruit variety from PIN. I wonder what is the corresponding name for it in California.

I have never heard that David Bowie was a renamed California variety.
David Bowie may be a Pine Island Nursery original.

So far, yours is the only 'info' that I have to go by, and it sounds good to me. An original, huh? Very nice, 'thanx.'

If you trust dragonfruitplants.com...   ???  it says California is the origin.

Thank you for the investigative 'David Bowie' DF geneology. So, my 'David Bowie' DF is from California, was named there, and the name survived the trip from California to PIN in Florida with no name change! As an owner of a 'David Bowie' DF, I did not know this, I find this 'info' impressive and I appreciate your sharing it.

How do you know that PIN did not name it David Bowie?

simon_grow

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #727 on: July 25, 2014, 07:34:01 PM »
Here are some updates of my DF. The Frankie's Red appears to have set some fruit. My Halley's Comet has some large fruit which appear to be 1-1.5 lbs. The American Beauty has fruit that appear to be from 0.5-1 lbs. The Simons Purple has some very large fruit this year, normally they are about 0.5 lbs but this year, some of them are in the 1lbs range. The Yellow Dragon has many flowers on it this year. Unfortunately, I have a big extended family so my family only gets to eat about 1/5 of the fruit we produce but I'm try to encourage my extended family to plant edible gardens of their own.
Simon










fyliu

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #728 on: July 26, 2014, 01:17:19 AM »
Wow Simon, that's a lot of flowers! One of these days I'll have to come over and see how you train these things.
I think mine are suffocating at the roots. They're producing much fewer fruit than before a foot of clay was dumped on top of the roots. I used to have fairly loose soil with organic matter mixed in.

simon_grow

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #729 on: July 26, 2014, 05:11:44 AM »
Hey Fang,

I have all my dragonfruit in pots and my setup is really poor. They grew so fast and I was so busy with my kids and work that I had very little time to take care of them and train my DF properly. I pretty much let them grow all over the place and nailed some 2x4s into my patio to hold up the vines. I have two layers of DF, one below the shade of the patio and another on top that gets full sun. I started the upper layer this year in an effort to try and maximize production.

The upper layer is all new growth but there is already some fruit and more flowers on the way. Most of the fruit from the first round of blooms is about ready to harvest and the second bloom is just beginning. My Frankie's Red and Yellow Dragon are not even really trellised, I used an old topsy turvy pole and duct tape to bind everything together. Shoot me a pm next time you come down and I can show you my setup.
Simon

Rannman

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #730 on: July 26, 2014, 06:36:56 AM »
Hi Simon, just out of curiosity, are your Frankies Red self pollinated or crossed.

simon_grow

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #731 on: July 26, 2014, 02:55:43 PM »
There were no other DF varieties around with open flowers so I pollinated each flower with pollen from another branch of Frankie's Red. They appear to be developing nicely and all flowers that opened appear to have set fruit .
Simon

MassSpectrum

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #732 on: July 31, 2014, 12:26:56 AM »
There was some work published that said if the pollen is dried first it can keep in the refrigerator for a fairly long time, even longer if it is frozen.  I'll look up the reference at work tomorrow.

Richard

That would be some quite valuable datas....

simon_grow

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #733 on: July 31, 2014, 03:50:35 AM »
Some of my DF varieties are ripening up now but many of them are splitting this year so I have to harvest them early before they fully color and sweeten up. The largest fruit so far is my Halley's Comet and it weighs 1 lbs 11oz.

My American Beauties are coming in around 1.5 lbs and my larger Simons Purple are also around 1.5 lbs. even though these fruit were picked early due to splitting, there brix was still pretty good. The Americsn a Beauty came in at 18% and the Simons Purple came in at 20%.  I have not tasted the HC yet, it's in the fridge chilling so I'll report back with its brix after I eat it.

So far, my favorite tasting variety is Simons Purple because it tastes very sweet and has the most acidity. There was still a lot of green on all three varieties so i believe the later season fruit will have brix in the low to mid twenties. Thanks for looking!
Simon








ricshaw

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #734 on: July 31, 2014, 12:07:59 PM »
Some of my DF varieties are ripening up now but many of them are splitting this year so I have to harvest them early before they fully color and sweeten up. The largest fruit so far is my Halley's Comet and it weighs 1 lbs 11oz.



How old is your Halley's Comet plant?

Rtreid

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #735 on: July 31, 2014, 01:16:56 PM »
Simon,

Even with the splitting, those are some nice looking Dragon Fruit

Richard

merce3

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #736 on: July 31, 2014, 01:30:59 PM »
can anyone tell me if this is ready to pick?

located in west central florida area and i'm not sure what cultivar it is (first df).

Rtreid

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #737 on: July 31, 2014, 01:32:25 PM »
There was some work published that said if the pollen is dried first it can keep in the refrigerator for a fairly long time, even longer if it is frozen.  I'll look up the reference at work tomorrow.

Richard

That would be some quite valuable datas....

The paper is Metz et al., Hortscience 35(2):199-201, 2000

Their results are that after drying the pollen under vacuum for 1 -2 hours. pollen stored in a freezer still gives 100% fruit set and normal sized fruit after 9 months of storage in a freezer.  Fruit set with dried pollen stored in a refrigerator was 60-70% with smaller fruits, but they still got fruit.

I am trying this myself, using dried stored pollen, and can let you know how it works  in a couple of months (just attempted the pollination on Tuesday)
Richard

simon_grow

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #738 on: July 31, 2014, 02:23:24 PM »
Some of my DF varieties are ripening up now but many of them are splitting this year so I have to harvest them early before they fully color and sweeten up. The largest fruit so far is my Halley's Comet and it weighs 1 lbs 11oz.



How old is your Halley's Comet plant?
The Halley's Comet is two years old from a 4 foot rooted cutting. They grow really fast with lots of water and fertilizer.

Thanks Richard, I did get some fruit that didn't split. I'm eat all the split fruit and the perfect fruit will go to friends and family.

Merce3, your fruit is ready to eat, the longer you leave it on the tree, the sweeter it will be but it will also get softer and mushy as it's left on longer. Let us know how it tastes!

I'll update with pics of the Frankie's Red soon. They appear to be developing faster than my Yellow Dragons developed last year.
Simon

cos

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #739 on: July 31, 2014, 04:12:44 PM »

Rtreid  :  How are you producing a vacuum? How will you know what the pressure is?
thanks

simon_grow

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #740 on: July 31, 2014, 05:51:30 PM »
Here is a shot of my Yellow Dragon exploding with flowers, it doesn't have a lot of branches but has over 60 flowers.

The other picture is the Frankies Red developing.

Simon






cos

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #741 on: July 31, 2014, 05:57:39 PM »
congrats Simon thats the very best I have ever seen megalanthus bloom!

merce3

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #742 on: July 31, 2014, 09:39:08 PM »
taste was excellent! glad it was a red, but i have no idea what cultivar.


simon_grow

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #743 on: August 01, 2014, 03:58:55 AM »
Thanks cos,

I've learned recently that lots of flowers don't necessarily equate to lots of fruit.

Merce3, that fruit looks really good. I wish more members had refractometers so that we can get a gauge of brix readings from the different varieties and the different locations where the fruit are grown. Thanks for sharing!
Simon

Doglips

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #744 on: August 01, 2014, 07:31:43 AM »

Rtreid  :  How are you producing a vacuum? How will you know what the pressure is?
thanks
I've used a food sealer and put dessicant beads in with the pollen, and left then in there.

cos

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #745 on: August 01, 2014, 07:59:41 AM »
Thanks Doglips ,   Very clever!!


fyliu

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #746 on: August 01, 2014, 11:42:42 AM »
merce3, it looks like one of the 8s, arizona purple, houghton bunch. They're all similar.

merce3

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #747 on: August 01, 2014, 11:05:52 PM »
thanks guys. i'm going to look into a refractometer now. would it work on other fruits?

simon_grow

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #748 on: August 01, 2014, 11:48:59 PM »
Yes and refractometers are only about $30. Make sure you get one that is in the range you want. Mine reads between 0-30 Brix.

Simon

dmk

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #749 on: August 04, 2014, 01:24:02 AM »
hey guys,
What would be the ideal height of a trellis?