Informative DF variety list.
Although on the smallish side, the winners, as far as sweet taste goes, is the 'Colombiana' and the 'Yellow Dragon.' Surprisingly, both are of the yellow variety. According to the chart, these varieties unfortunately do not tolerate well extreme temperatures of heat and cold. Nevertheless, in locations where these temperature extremes are uncommon, they may turn out to be must have varieties for those of us who love to grow this fruit.
These two varieties appear to be great candidates for further development/improvement; either by planting their seeds to arrive at better selections; or crossing them with other varieties like 'American Beauty,' 'Delight,' or 'El Grullo;' or by more scientifically inclined means like improving their characteristics by the noble technique of using bacteria to appropriately and safely change the DF variety's genetic makeup; or by selecting the best candidate from a group of potential candidates, after their genetic makeup has been randomly altered from being bombarded with 'photons' shot from a special type of 'gun.'
It's great to see things moving in the right direction in the DF industry. It appears that as a result of these DF variety comparisons of their characteristics, this will lead to new and improved varieties, bringing us closer to the day when a DF of high quality sweet taste will be available to the general public.
LEOOEL,
I know that you are a big fan of of the Yellow Dragon Fruit from Colombia, but not all the experts agree that it is the best candidate for commercial growers.
At today's Pitahaya Dragon Fruit Festival the experts and the University doing
research for commercial growers rate the following order of priority for new commercial varieties:
#1 - self-fertile
#2 - harder skin
#3 - taste
The problems mentioned for the Yellow Dragon Fruit are; thorns, lack of color (red skin & red flesh preferred), small fruit, long time for fruit to ripen (6 months compared to 30 days), in addition to the low tolerance to low & high temperatures.
You also can't assume that a higher BRIX score will always taste sweeter. Yes, the Yellow Dragon fruit is the sweetest tasting, but the red flesh (small fruit) Sugar Dragon (Thomson S-8) in some taste tests has beat the Yellow variety. With some of the other varieties with high BRIX scores, higher
acid taste lowers the taste preference for some people.
I have never heard anybody mention using bacteria to change Dragon Fruit's genetic makeup. The experts doing research on new varieties do it the old fashion way by cross pollination and growing the seeds to maturity and then evaluating the fruit.
F.Y.I. At today's Pitahaya Dragon Fruit Festival it was mentioned that Florida is the BEST state for growing Dragon Fruit in the U.S.