101
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« on: July 22, 2016, 06:48:03 PM »
Will H. Undatus cross with Megalanthus?
The Internet's Finest Tropical Fruit Discussion Forum!
"All discussion content within the forum reflects the views of individual participants only and do not necessarily represent the views held by the Tropical Fruit Forum as an organization."
Show Posts
This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.
I might reconsider the use of a Perrier bottle. It's a 3 layers of laminated plastic, and once you start cutting it it delaminates. But you can't just remove the inner layers because they're tightly joined at the neck. Maybe I'll buy a bottle of Sprite tonight and try that.
, so I can take a video of the Perrier bottle in action.
From everything else I've seen online, she's going to pop tomorrow! And the flower to the left should pop 3 days hence.It popped tonight, as planned!
It's too late for me, but there are two other flowers on this plant that I think will pop tomorrow. If anyone's interested, PM me for the address.
Here was the Manhattan Beach flower on Monday night:
The ideal shape for inserting into a flower is an open hand, palm up. If you remove the rest of the area I marked that should do just fine. The stamen vary in length sometimes and you want to have as much open area to capture as possible. BTW, the plastic bottle is a great idea for a collector. I will be sure to use that as an example for people in the future when they bring it up.
What about taking a neighborhood friend out for breakfast / lunch / dinner and sweet-talk him / her to do it hahahah.Unfortunately for me the only people I know in the area are my ex-wife and ex-girlfriend, neither of whom are inclined to provide me any botanical help. At least I don't think so. Maybe if I offer her a cutting…
I have a 2.5-yr-old vine that grows vigorously, but that does not produce useful fruit. But it must have a good root system, and the base of the plant is about 1" thick. I'm going to cull it, since it doesn't produce.
I have another 1-yr-old vine that is a true Frederick, purchased from a retailer, that makes tasty fruit. I'd like to graft some cuttings from this onto my 2-yr-old rootstock, just for the heck of it. I know I don't have to do this, and I could just rip out the old vine and let the new one take over, but what fun would that be?
What type of graft would be best for this, given that the diameters will be mis-matched by a gigantic factor?
How mature of a cutting should I take from my younger vine? I have some light-green new growth that's about a month old, and then I have dark green growth from last year.
Los Angeles is warm right now, with days in the mid- to high 70s and nights in the mid- to high 50s.
Any other tips for someone who has never grafted anything before? Thanks!
The first, and most important, is the collector. Its just a cheap scoop, like you would use for ice or rice (etc) that Ive cut down a little to match the shape of the inside of the average flower, although ive used many other things in the past. A small, clear or darkly colored plate, like a tea cup plate, works well too and is a good size. I like glass or dark colors because it helps to see the pollen on the surface once you have it. I just stick my collector into the flower, under all the anthers but inside the pedals, as far as I can get without harming the flower, and literally just shake or tap on the flower. As long as you get to the flower before the bees and bugs strip it clean, the pollen will sprinkle right off and onto your collector, and you'll have pure pollen to use, without any extra flower parts to sort out. On my self fertile plants, like the S-8, when I collect the pollen I also take hold of the female stamen and dip it down into the pollen Ive collected, just to make sure theres good pollen contact. You wont hurt the flower or fruit production by doing this, but avoid touching the pollen itself, as the oil on your fingers can make it unviable.
When I collect my pollen, its JUST the pollen. I shake it loose from the flowers and harvest it that way. Then I air dry it out a bit to minimize the damage caused by ice crystals forming, then into the freezer it goes. Its the drying part that makes freezing much more successful.
This is one nights collection, from about a dozen S-8 flowers, after I did my rounds pollinating the other species that happened to be in bloom that night.
You can probably pollinate 100 flowers with what I harvest each night
If youre ever in the area of city of Ontario (where the Interstate 15 meets Hwy 60) Id be more than happy to pass along some pollen to you. . . .
Thank you for sharing, Rob!
I've been wondering if there is a reputable source that lists each variety's pollination needs: cross pollination, self-pollinating, self-fertile... Some online sources are self-conflicting
Thanks for the info Mark, I've just been giving them whatever I had laying around and they responded very well. I just started Foliar feeding them on and in between the leaves and they really started to take off.
.You probably have about 2 weeks before a 1 inch long bud opens as a flower (at least in Florida you would).
You probably have about 2 weeks before a 1 inch long bud opens as a flower (at least in Florida you would).
What about Megalanthus?
If you do happen to need pollen from someone else's dragonfruit, it's always worth offering to pollinate their flowers at the same time. Return the favour so to keep everyone happy and I'm sure they would be stoked to see dragonfruit on their own plant. Especially if it hadn't produced before.
They're all cuttings, so they're all genetically identical. But my Lomita White is probably at least a year from flowering, so I need to find a mature plant elsewhere from which to pollinate my La Verne Pink this year.By "parents and grandparent" of your Lomita White, does that mean grown from a seed?
The parents and grandparent of my Lomita White are about 15 minutes away, on my drive to work. I'll have to check with the residents of both houses to see if I can trespass at midnight during pollination season.
The good news is that I drove by this morning, and both plants have buds on them that are about the same size as those on my La Verne Pink, so these two varieties are calendar-compatible.
If grown from a "cutting" then the "parent" flower pollen will genetically the same as your Lomita White flower.
I'm not familiar with that pink variety but given that a lot of varieties need to be cross pollinated for successful fruit set, you should keep an eye out for other dragonfruit flowering in your neighbourhood just in case you want some pollen.
BTW, is that plant with the buds on it your 'white' fruit variety?
