Giant yellow megalanthus update

[echinopora]

Been growing and fruiting a number of these seeds acquired from dragonfruit101 a few years back. I’ve had 4 vines give a few fruits each now. Still lots of growing to go on the vines but here’s what I’ve noticed so far.
- although the offspring have been similar in vine appearances, there have been some noticeable differences in the fruit. One vine seems makes a fruit similar size to what gets posted online, the other 3 give smaller fruits. Only 2 of the vines really puff up and get rounded fruit. The one making the biggest fruit is also the smallest vine.
- I’ve given away a number of seedlings and cuttings, so might be a bit of a lucky dip if you acquired a giant yellow from northern New South Wales in the last few years.

Here are some pictures and observations (I’m going to catch hell for the amount of green but at our location it seems they go watery and insipidly sweet at full yellow. At this stage still very sweet and still some flavour. After eating a few side by side the giant may be a little sweeter but probably couldn’t tell them apart blindfolded.

Regular mega
-this is probably my second biggest one this year of the second crop (I usually get a few big ones late summer then more smaller ones in spring).
- long spines brush off easily, standard shape.
- vine is scalloped, usually pretty thin about 2 inches.
Giant seedling with bigger fruit
-2 this sized and a runt for this flowering.
-short spines, still pretty easy to brush off but the shorter spines near the base are a little tenacious. Rounder with less dimples. Skin seems a bit thicker.
-vine not scalloped, a bit thicker, maybe 3-3.5 inches on the newest growth.
-haven’t had any diseases on any of the yellows. We get some stem rot here on reds/whites/hybrids.

Giant vine


Giant weight


Regular vine


Giant on the vine


Regular on the vine


Regular weight


Cut open


Anyone else pulling fruit off these seedlings yet?

[knlim000]

wow! almost 4lbs.  I had a white one that was almost 2-3lbs and I could not finish all of it by myself.

My sister bought the fruits and my mom planted the seeds and gave me the  planted  a year ago.  Some are over 12inces , I will put them out into the ground next year. 

[simon_grow]

Thanks for the update. I got seeds from multiple sources including Leo Manuel, Dragon, Ecuador and Peruvian fruit. The vines are over at Brads place and we hope to get fruit maybe next year.

I also have a friend that was able to take the tip of the vine off a commercial fruit and grafted it. The graft took so I will hopefully get the true commercial giant soon.

Simon

[echinopora]

Just pulled another crop off the giant mega seedlings. The vines have been pretty slow to grow but getting a little size. Fruit sizes are increasing, most around a pound. Biggest this year was a bit fuller/rounder than this one but didn’t make it back to the house to be weighed. The different seedlings are still showing variations between one another.  This one tends to have a thicker shell and be less round than the others. Definitely showing promise here as they grow well organically and get nice blemish free fruit during our slow period for tropicals.