Dragon Fruit thread.

[Forester]

Bruni

[Tortuga]

Guys are my yellow dragonfruits going to stall and not finish up? They flowered the first of October. Here in Myrtle beach the lows all month have been in the 40s. Any lower than 45 and I push them in the garage that stays 60.

[spaugh]

Those still need many months to finish. 

Thats why i quit growing megalanthus.  Takes too long to ripen.

[Tortuga]

Spaugh which varieties would you recommend for someone out of the growing zone? I just want fresh dragonfruit!

[K-Rimes]

Spaugh which varieties would you recommend for someone out of the growing zone? I just want fresh dragonfruit!

S8 is a very reliable performer, but it's later, and likes heat, but honestly Brad was right about this for years now. It's probably the only one worth having, the rest are novelty in comparison to how reliable s8 is, and how sweet the flavor is. S8 though is not that cold hardy, so don't leave it outdoors in SC too late.

This said, here is my experience with the varieties I do have.

I have really good luck with Asunta, it is the first to flower, it sets almost every single flower, and the fruit has crazy long hang time... It's just not that awesome of a cultivar, unfortunately. Flavor is meh. I think most all of the purple flowers are "just ok" on flavor.

Cosmic Charlie is good for me as well, reliable, but it's self-sterile. This is a serious drawback. I don't really bother collecting DF anymore, and the only reason I keep this one is that it's my biggest plant and is somehow more cold resistant, and more disease resistant than others.

Purple Haze is good flavor, decent productivity, self fertile, but super prone to rust.

Dark star is great flavor, but productivity is not great. It doesn't grow that well for some reason, maybe my roots have issues dunno.

If I had to pick another one for the list to collect, I would like American Beauty.

I used to be crazy about dragonfruit but have backed off. I will probably break down some of my stands next year and chuck the plants in the woods to die and then re-do them with all S8 (and concrete posts).

[spaugh]

S8 is the best.  Just my opinion.  Cant beat it.  Theres one called pink panther thats really similar also does great.  I quit caring for my DF plants and just let them go and we only get fruit off s8.  Lots of fruit with zero effort.  And taste is best and the vines are hardy.

[Tortuga]

Thank you both. I may grab a few cuttings of S8 and start growing it while deciding over the next year or two which adult dragonfruit needs to go

[Jose Spain]

The good thing about megalanthus, at least here, is that it's ready in spring when the rest of them are still in vegetative mode. Flavor-wise, as with everything else, it depends on personal preference. megalanthus is my wife's favorite, it tastes like a big white grape. For me, a good CC or PG is hard to beat. S8 is very good too but this year some of them had like a dish soap aftertaste (also present and more marked in Pink Panther) which was kind of weird, don't know if it had to be with the fertilizing regime or what happened, previous years S8 was the best for most of us.

[Timbogrow]

I got a mislabeled American beauty from home depot and it turned out being a white flesh. The first fruit was about 1.5lbs and was really disappointed when I cut it open to a white flesh. 10seconds later the disappointment went away because it's packed with sweetness and complexity. Seems self-sterile though. Haleys comet was the sweetest and had the best berry like flavor out of all. Then cosmic charley with a sweet grap flavor. Then that mislabeled white flesh. Pink panther was real enjoyable also. Next year I should have several other cultivars to test including s8, which was large but for some reason didn't flower at all. In 2 years there will be about 30 or cultivars fruiting to evaluate.

[John B]

The good thing about megalanthus, at least here, is that it's ready in spring when the rest of them are still in vegetative mode. Flavor-wise, as with everything else, it depends on personal preference. megalanthus is my wife's favorite, it tastes like a big white grape. For me, a good CC or PG is hard to beat. S8 is very good too but this year some of them had like a dish soap aftertaste (also present and more marked in Pink Panther) which was kind of weird, don't know if it had to be with the fertilizing regime or what happened, previous years S8 was the best for most of us.

Over the years, some of our S8 have developed what you call "dish soap aftertaste". I consider it a very floral taste. Maybe in the last 5 years I started taking mental notes on it. I have a perceived correlation to the flowers that were pollinated more. It was more pronounced in the ones when I used to pollinate by hand. But since I no longer do that, that taste has become more subtle. I actually really enjoy that flavor profile because it is unique. But on nice warm sunny days when there are tons of bees in the flowers, I think excess pollen really fertilizes the fruit and makes the flavor more pronounced. The fruit are typically larger as well.

That is just a hypothesis. Maybe this spring I'll try to label some and take pictures to see if there's a lot more seeds in the ones that have that flavor. I ruled out the length of time the fruit was on the vine but we'll see.

[spaugh]

I would call it floral rather than dish soap flavor.  Some people percive cilantro as dish soap flavor also and find it bad.  It maybe the same kind of thing.  Some people just dont like that flavor.  For me, i think it makes the s8 taste good.  The only thing is there no acid in the S8.  Its floral and sweet but lqcking acid.

[Jose Spain]

I would call it floral rather than dish soap flavor.  Some people percive cilantro as dish soap flavor also and find it bad.  It maybe the same kind of thing.  Some people just dont like that flavor.  For me, i think it makes the s8 taste good.  The only thing is there no acid in the S8.  Its floral and sweet but lqcking acid.

It's funny because I love cilantro flavour but I've been eating it since childhood, while most Spanish don't and often complain about that aftertaste I never noticed. Now I know how they feel, I started to notice it with PP, and just after it appeared also in S8 but never so strong as in PP. I'll try to convince my brain that is floral during next season 

[Tortuga]

The wait is almost over! Dragonfruit is major slave labor on the east coast zone 8 with no greenhouse. Too much humidity and storms. I Lost a few branches and fruit during a December tornado but still got 3 for a tasting. I really really hope fresh picked DF blows store bought out of the water like some claim.