Dragon Fruit thread.

[mango_kush]

[Mark in Texas]

I would agree that the white flesh and pure reds I've tasted and grown were not worth it. The magenta's will have a place in my garden. If they are not worth it, why are you still growing them?

Cause they have purty flowers.   

Thanks to running out of of fuel the last minute (during 6 days of sub freezing winter storm temps) I'm not, except for the one survivor.   See that garbage can?



Sugar:

[Mark in Texas]

This has been my favorite DF for the last 12 years. Even though the fruit are small, they make up for it on production and taste. Plus, they are self-fertile.

Based on the required inputs and the  meh quality of the fruit, I think growing pitaya is a waste of time.

blasphemy!

Seriously, there is good DF that is worth growing.  It doens't seem to take much input either. 

I'm sending you some DF this summer mark.

Thanks bud, I'll graciously take it and a few sticks of JB if you can spare it, PLEASE.  Looks like my Pinkerton is only pushing rootstock shoots.  Am thinking about putting GEM (which is growing like a weed) and/or JB on it in about a month. 

When I said "inputs", you're right, it really isn't a pain to water occasionally and the Osmocote addition is a no brainer. The pain is when they are all over the place, crowding out my walking space next to a multi grafted key lime tree, growing 14' up the greenhouse wall!

June of last year.

[MorroBay]

I’ve been putting off building like 6 trellises I need to build.  Unfortunately they want like 90$ for a redwood 4x4.  I’m having to do some thinking about how to build these damn things.  Can’t use concrete (I’m doing planters) and I don’t want them to be ugly (some in front yard).

[spaugh]

This has been my favorite DF for the last 12 years. Even though the fruit are small, they make up for it on production and taste. Plus, they are self-fertile.

Based on the required inputs and the  meh quality of the fruit, I think growing pitaya is a waste of time.

blasphemy!

Seriously, there is good DF that is worth growing.  It doens't seem to take much input either. 

I'm sending you some DF this summer mark.

Thanks bud, I'll graciously take it and a few sticks of JB if you can spare it, PLEASE.  Looks like my Pinkerton is only pushing rootstock shoots.  Am thinking about putting GEM (which is growing like a weed) and/or JB on it in about a month. 

When I said "inputs", you're right, it really isn't a pain to water occasionally and the Osmocote addition is a no brainer. The pain is when they are all over the place, crowding out my walking space next to a multi grafted key lime tree, growing 14' up the greenhouse wall!

June of last year.

Yeah it does tend to get a little out of control sometimes.  You can sell some cuttings on Facebook and make some bucks.  There seems to be a lot of people interested. 

[Kurt001]

Hi All,

I have a purple haze that's budding like crazy, but I don't have another breed to pollinate it with.  I didn't expect this because I grew the plant from a cutting two years ago, in a container, on my little balcony.  Can anyone mail me some non-PH pollen?   I can give you a tall cutting if you want to exchange.

Kurt

[Timbogrow]

  Cool thread! Here is my dragon fruit project going on 4 months. I rooted all the cuttings in pots except the palora yellow and they grew for some months before as well as the seedlings from store bought fruit. The only thing I added to the sand was roughly 2-3gallons bio char mixed in the bottom of hole and filled back with sand. This is around 10.5'elevation and there is a depression the yard drains in so it doesn't get swamped out. It gets full sun from 9am-2pm and pine tree filters light for a few more hours untile they get full evening sun.. Rats and bunnies like to chew on everything here though so I have to make the cages.We have 1 post cosmic charley, 1 post haleys comet, 2 post palora yellow, 1 post Vietnamese white mixed with seedlings, and 1 post Susan red mixed with seedlings. Seems the slowest to have new growth is cosmic Charley. The palora yellow showed new growth faster on the north side of the posts for some reason. Vietnamese white seems to grow about .5" day.

[K-Rimes]

I’m having my best DF season yet by far. They overwintered in the greenhouse which I’m sure helped them, they grew a lot even Dec-March which is my coldest period. I count at least another 6 flowers on one plant (the one with all the flowers open at once) and the others are probably just around the corner.

You can push DF insanely fast with fertilizers. The 4 of them by my generator were just cuttings 6 months ago and most are over the top of the trellises.

This year on Spaugh’s recommendation I started using koolbloom which is 5-50-9 and definitely seems to work. I suggested it to a friend who also got one of brads plants counted 26 flower buds this week after the heatwave.


Purple Haze


Natural mystic


Cosmic Charlie


Dark star in back, Asunta / Yellow megalanthus / frankies red front left, Isis / baby cerrado middle, Ax / guatemala purple far right


Cosmic Charlie has been by far the most productive this year with more than 12 flowers, only have two fruit sets now

[MorroBay]

Amazing results K Rime!  What exactly is your feeding formula and schedule?  I’m not doing nearly as well up here.  We are having a super cold summer.

[K-Rimes]

Amazing results K Rime!  What exactly is your feeding formula and schedule?  I’m not doing nearly as well up here.  We are having a super cold summer.

I'm throwing the whole dang cart of fertilizer at them.

I brought them out of the GH maybe around March or April or so and when I saw them growing actively again once it warmed up I started giving them Vigoro slow release avocado citrus. They're all in 25 gallon plants so I'd put on a good handful or two and have put on a good handful or two every 2 weeks. I've been smoking through a 30lb bag of Vigoro every couple weeks, dosing the whole yard. It's good enough for how cheap it is, but doesn't last as long as Osmocote.

Once we're into heatwave territory I'll leave the DF dry for a week or so then hit them with about 1tsp of Koolbloom per gallon of water, about a gallon of water per 25g pot. I'll then water them every 3-4 days with the same recipe.

I seriously just blast these things with fertilizer and they never burn or slow down. They EAT.

To get fruit sets, always leave them dry for as long as possible. I find that's the secret sauce for sets.

[MorroBay]

Good stuff.  I’m going to get more active on feeding.  Most of my stuff is very young so I’ve been going light but I think they are established enough to get serious.  Beautiful little spot you got going. 

[Farmerchris]

I’ve been putting off building like 6 trellises I need to build.  Unfortunately they want like 90$ for a redwood 4x4.  I’m having to do some thinking about how to build these damn things.  Can’t use concrete (I’m doing planters) and I don’t want them to be ugly (some in front yard).

I've been using pressure treated 4x4.  They're cheaper ... haven't seen price of redwood here out on the Delta lately.  But Nov last year, 4x4x12 redwood (cut into 3 pieces) was just under $31 per.  I also use their concrete piers at just under $10/ea .. this is used as the base of the trellis. 

[spaugh]

90$ for a redwood 4x4,  lol

I'm making concrete ones for under 10$

[K-Rimes]

90$ for a redwood 4x4,  lol

I'm making concrete ones for under 10$

All the people who buy cuttings from me now I say build it out of metal or concrete, don't bother with wood.

[MorroBay]

I’m working on a new design using Doug fir that’s more of a frame around my planters and doesn’t sit in the soil.  Should be cheap, the days of redwood are gone.  I’ll post some pics when I got them done. 

[John B]

$90 for 4x4 is crazy. Fortunately I picked up some 4x4x12's of heart grade redwood before the consumer rape of wood. You can still get a 4x4x8 redwood post for $25, though. Probably cheaper if you went down to a lumber mill and got the 12' sections. You just need the rough common grade redwood.

With the common grade, add linseed oil to help preserve it while the df grows. Once the df grows around the redwood, you don't need to treat it again. The KEY is to concrete the post all the way up to the soil line. Use the 6" quikrete post forms to keep it going straight up.

Concrete and metal are great if you are going to have a permanent location because they are heavy! Definitely a two person job weighing nearly 200lbs.

 I'm going to experiment in this row and bend the tops of the df without creating wood top.

[Seanny]

Not a good time to buy lumber.

[John B]

Not a good time to buy lumber.

It's not a good time to buy anything, yet it still happens. Hell, you could use that graph to show the price of DF cuttings in the classified section.

[nosoup4u]

Hi All,

I have a purple haze that's budding like crazy, but I don't have another breed to pollinate it with.  I didn't expect this because I grew the plant from a cutting two years ago, in a container, on my little balcony.  Can anyone mail me some non-PH pollen?   I can give you a tall cutting if you want to exchange.

Kurt

If you don't get a response here you can try one of the Facebook groups - I think there's one for San Diego specifically.  The info shared in those groups is hit or miss (lots of pseudoscience and scammers), but there are often nice people happy to share pollen.

Got off to a slow start up here in the Bay Area; we had a fairly cool spring. But now it's warmer and my dfs are loving it - got 6 buds on my Cosmic Charlie, ~10 and counting on Sugar Dragon, and over 20 on my Condor.  It's the first year flowering for the latter two (and my first year w/ multiple types flowering) so I'm pretty excited to not have to drive around madly searching for pollen the week beforehand.  I'm worried the Condor is overexerting itself, but I guess it'll just abort some of the fruits if there are too many.

[FV Fruit Freak]

$90 for 4x4 is crazy. Fortunately I picked up some 4x4x12's of heart grade redwood before the consumer rape of wood. You can still get a 4x4x8 redwood post for $25, though. Probably cheaper if you went down to a lumber mill and got the 12' sections. You just need the rough common grade redwood.

With the common grade, add linseed oil to help preserve it while the df grows. Once the df grows around the redwood, you don't need to treat it again. The KEY is to concrete the post all the way up to the soil line. Use the 6" quikrete post forms to keep it going straight up.

Concrete and metal are great if you are going to have a permanent location because they are heavy! Definitely a two person job weighing nearly 200lbs.

 I'm going to experiment in this row and bend the tops of the df without creating wood top.

Hi John,
I’ve found beeswax and jojoba oil work really well for protecting wood too, and I swear the bees are attracted to it I used it on my raised beds and it works great, you can see the water bead off. You just melt the bees wax down and then add the jojoba oil, you need to use clean beeswax, if it’s dirty it doesn’t work well. It’s also great for your skin, no gloves needed!

[Timbogrow]

Aluminum is lighter than wood and concrete!! Or you just tig weld some aluminum and it's good for the next 2000 growing seasons and not having to fix wood or look at a failed design saves you money and ego. At least when we get a huge hurricane my d.f. posts will be there still 😆. 

[RobPatterson]

Things are finally starting to kick into gear here in Ontario (California, no Canadia). The sugar dragons are coming into their own, with the other species starting to show some blooms. The heat is always a problem in the summer here, but thankfully we've only had a few days of 100+ temps, which screws with sensitive new buds and fragile bloomed flowers. Orejona and American Beauty have a few flowers and alot of buds, but the S8's started blooming a full 40 days ago, which is a little unusual for my plants.

[Seanny]

Dad kept old growths so they flowered early.
We ate a couple of American Beauty.

Some more are almost ready.

[John B]

Hi All,

I have a purple haze that's budding like crazy, but I don't have another breed to pollinate it with.  I didn't expect this because I grew the plant from a cutting two years ago, in a container, on my little balcony.  Can anyone mail me some non-PH pollen?   I can give you a tall cutting if you want to exchange.

Kurt

Sorry, I missed this. Those buds look small, you need some now? Have a couple s8's blooming next couple days. No need for cuttings, I've got that one.

[John B]

$90 for 4x4 is crazy. Fortunately I picked up some 4x4x12's of heart grade redwood before the consumer rape of wood. You can still get a 4x4x8 redwood post for $25, though. Probably cheaper if you went down to a lumber mill and got the 12' sections. You just need the rough common grade redwood.

With the common grade, add linseed oil to help preserve it while the df grows. Once the df grows around the redwood, you don't need to treat it again. The KEY is to concrete the post all the way up to the soil line. Use the 6" quikrete post forms to keep it going straight up.

Concrete and metal are great if you are going to have a permanent location because they are heavy! Definitely a two person job weighing nearly 200lbs.

 I'm going to experiment in this row and bend the tops of the df without creating wood top.

Hi John,
I’ve found beeswax and jojoba oil work really well for protecting wood too, and I swear the bees are attracted to it I used it on my raised beds and it works great, you can see the water bead off. You just melt the bees wax down and then add the jojoba oil, you need to use clean beeswax, if it’s dirty it doesn’t work well. It’s also great for your skin, no gloves needed!

Nice, please share that ratio of bw to jo. I've never heard of that but always willing to learn something new.