The Tropical Fruit Forum

This forum needs to organize a group expedition. I'd totally go.

My experience has been over many, many travels that large groups really slow down any type of expedition like this. The sweet spot is everyone fitting into one 5 person car, translators, guides, and all. Even adding just one more car makes it harder to organize. A bus, forget about it.

I am hoping to do a trip next year, this said. I am fluent in Portuguese so that takes out one layer of translation at least.

What legal import permits would I need for legally bringing in seeds?

There is no permit that I know of that allows you to carry seeds on your person, they must be shipped to USDA in your area, you pay USDA for post-inspection postage, and they send them to your door.

Do you think I could just cut the bottom 2” of flesh off (while leaving the spine) then add 2” of top dressing (my pot is only 1/2 full).

Only cut off if it rots, no need to do so prophylactically. Another option you could consider that I trialed this year with tomatoes that overwintered in 5g pots, was that I put 3 of those 5g pots into a 25g tray and then filled the tray with soil, believe it or not I am still harvesting cherry tomatoes and it is December. You could just let your DF root into a bigger pot below it, alternatively.

K,have u seen dragon fruit rot? I assume there’s no saving once it happens. Btw  how many fruit do you get off a 25 gallon? I got 6 last year off a 5 gallon pot.

Oh yeah, I have personally caused it a bunch by doing exactly what I told you not to do here haha. It's not a death sentence, you just use a sharp knife and cut all the goopy brown jelly off and leave the wooden spine bare. The plant continues to grow totally fine. I have to do it periodically on the top of the canopy as well when I get cold damage.

I think my conditions are problematic for DF, way too hot in the day, then cold at night, being on the edge of their climactic desires so I sometimes get a lot, sometimes not much, it's year dependent. This year was a very poor year for me. Most of my 25gs produce around 20-60 fruit usually. This year, some only made 5-10. I could have been more dutiful pollinating.

I add a good layer of chicken manure / woodchip mix that you can get from Home Depot annually, and the plant gobbles it up. Once a DF is in a 25 gallon, it can usually stay that way up to a really impressive size. Chicken manure is an annual addition, then I rock it with a high P slow release by the cupful the rest of the year.

Just be sure to keep the manure away from the plant itself, if buried and wet it can rot it.

Here’s that tenuipedunculta

Yeah, I go to Champa all the time. They're really not an online outfit, so far as I can tell, and that's a new addition to their business within the last 6-8 months or so.

They're legit, a no BS sort of place with no frills.

Don't really know their shipping situation, or if it's just some kind of drop-shipping from someone else.

In any case, their plants are very good quality, cheap, and clearly direct from FL.

Edit: it's a bit of a haul for you, but recommend just driving up there. It's worth the trip. I think they will honor the black friday still, they let their labor day sale run all the way til now. I didn't see cherilata when I was there last, but did have tons of grafted cherimoya and atemoya so maybe it was there. Didn't look closely.

Congratulations! That is absolutely amazing, and hilarious that whoever owns the building / does the landscaping is letting them continue there. They must know what they are?

They look really out of place being so tall against that wall.

Is that a south facing wall?

Did the E. tenuipedunculata make it it through the summer? It’s by far my favorite Eugenia with beautiful leaves both mature and immature.  I just hope the fruit is halfway decent and can survive our full sun next year.

It's still very much alive, didn't grow a whole lot this year, but it did grow a ton of roots. I think you gave it to me in a 1g, and it's now in a 3g square iirc, and doing nicely. It's in the greenhouse so it should continue growing for winter. I'll get a photo of it next time I remember.

I have read the fruit quality is very good on it. I'm hoping to get some more seeds of it soon so I have a mate for it in the case it's not self-fruitful.

I find most eugenia really accelerate as they get into 3-5g size, so I hope it spends all winter rooting and blasts off hard in Spring.

Hopefully I can get down to see your collection in 2024 as well!

Looks pretty small, and that it's not getting enough sun? Give it a good dose of fertilizer and let it get bigger.

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).

35gal trash can and a pump from home depot

This looks like a simple solution that I think I can jury rig at home, I have a pretty high gpm water pump sitting around somewhere in my bins (I'd set it up to fertigate an indoor grow tent but didn't end up using it).

I tried using the hose end sprayer and didn't even get through one watering cycle before it plugged up. I have gallons of free nutrients to use up somehow and need some way to reliably dose it.