The Tropical Fruit Forum

Thanks i quess i will just pinch the new growth, sic3 i dont want to wait for it to grow and harden, its very small atm so not a loss in any way.
I understood the girdling idea, can try that on other plants in the right occasion.

Yes, the first flowers did set definitely, they are visible in the photos, the fruits are getting bigger. The second row of flowers looked like they did take in the start, they even had the separation line of the flower. Later, they got yellower and wiggly and soft, i removed them before they yellowed all the way.
The new buds i am seeing some yellow on are still firm and do look kinda fine though, will leave them a little bit longer, will let them decide what to do....

My plants have quite a few flowe buds right now, i wonder if i should remove a few, there are some branches with more than 2-3 on them, in close proximity.
One person suggested i should leave no more that 2 per branch. I really dont want to remove any as i dont know which one could be succesfull at hand pollination. The first 5 flowers all set fruit, the second 5, on both plants, sll aborted, despite the mix of pollen between the 2, my mother pollinated the failed ones. I wonder what went wrong with those....
Anyway, i would like to keep them becouse of having more potential for fruit .
The set fruit from the very first flowers are also visible.

Thanks, i quess i will wait and see, i hoped that the corking on the ribs would be a hint. I will wait for some heavy new growth and ultimately flower buds, for the id.
The new growth is more slender and does not have those long ribs, like my other ones, but the plants is a barely rooted cutting so that is surely also affecting the look.

Yeah, the whole thing is not the sturdiest of trelises, my plant will be potted and in theory should not get as big as my inground ones.
I will use rebar for the fixing of the top, i will do 3 pieces that go right trought the pipe and i will fix the top to them. I will post a picture once i'm ready.
The plants will firstly go into a smaller pot, the concrete will have like 30 sm of soil on top of it, needless to say, i will habe to support this thing via other ways, until i get to the point of using a bigger and heavier pot, which could surely weight it down.
My goal with this trelis is for it to be small and compact, as i will have to houl the plant in the house for the winter. It needs to be as compact as possible.

I made a trellis/support for 2 of my dragon fruit plants, megalanthus seedlings, grafted onto undatus.  I used a pvc pipe, as a base i casted cement, which extends also up into the pipe itself, i also used some metal sticks for an additional strength.  So does fresh cement work well with pitaya roots? I mean, being so freshly casted, will it affect the plants if i happen to use it tomorrow?
I want to repot and change some of the soil of the plants, will add better draining one, also want to place them on the new trellis as i just saw that  they have their first flower buds, i need to make the plant a bit more compact so i can put it into the greenhouse, so that those buds have a chance. Its getting colder outside.
I would've left the cast to cure, but i am preshured right now, so want to use it now. The plants will be in a pot.

You can pollinate dragonfruit flowers after they close. You are good for at least 24 hours afterwards at 100% success, and up to 60% success for up to 48 hours. That data is from a scientific study done in Israel (?). I often do not see the flowers have bloomed until they have closed and have done this hundreds of times. As long as rain hasn't ruined the stigma and you have decent pollen.

 
Thanks ,i will add more pollen this evening, i habe spare pollen anyways.

I have the last 4 flowers on my 2 plants, that will be blooming tonight. I am currently not at home and theres no one else to pollinate them, i will be back tomorrow evening, will it be too late to pollinate them then?

My decaisneana is kinda late this year, blooming wise. I am just now seeing tiny flower bud starts, i think previous years at this time i had at the least ,bigger flower buds.
For me it blooms heavily in september and start of october.



I collected the caerulea pollen from the anthers, placed it into a small jar with a sillica gell pack. I will now replace the silica gell pack and will place a new one and place the whole thing into the freezer. The amount of pollen is very small, but should suffice for a flower or 2. I badly neglected my caerulea this year, again, thus it is not flowering alot, just a few flowers.

My mini vac costed also 20$ , i even tried it if it worked and it did, not alot of suction but i think it will do the job just fine.
The flowers  are hard at the base, where the yellow part begins there they are noticeably soft. The oldest flowers bloomed 6 days ago so its still early but i am also noticing a slight bulging on the bases of the first ones.

Wow very nice, i saw your update on the plant in your topic also. Mine will be flowering for a third or fourth year, nothing ever came out from self pollinating it. I wonder if the problem is the size of the plant, it cant get exponentially large , since it has to fit in a greenhouse, i am pruning it from time to time.

Anyway, i have silica gell packs that will be using as a dessicant.

John B , i have thought about the exact same thing, being that they have been used as rootstocks for the moon cactus, they should teoretically be a variety that is well known and easily available. I think they have a high chance of being the ordinary white inside, pinc outside df.  I hope they set something and it ends up being good tasting too, i mean, ive ate storebought white ones, they do not have alot of taste or sweetness, but i still liked them .
I would want to add some varieties to the plants, but that i will start doing next year, depending on the taste the current plants have( if they set fruit), i will add varieties or totally topwork them in the course of a few years.



Timbogrow , i wish you lots of luck with your dragons, its very nice to have something in return for the care provided!
I will have the next 2 flowers open today, on one plant. Collected the pollen from the one flower on the other plant, will use it along with the new pollen.

 By the way those flowers were 35-40 sm wide when opened, and 30- 35 sm long, they looked literally like a animal eating flower from a movie....