The Tropical Fruit Forum

Yes, I agree with what Kevin said above. Sun is very important for poms. Chill factor is equally important. I don't know much about your location and zone, but it could be too warm as well. Flowers grow on second year growth.

Heavily compost and mulch that tree and see what happens.

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.

Funny thing is somehow I stumbled across his videos a couple years ago and I've watched so many even though we can't dry farm here. I find it funny how he calls out his neighbors for spraying glyphosate near his property. Seems he still checks the website

Feasting on red hybrid today

Really like the structure on this tree. How large is it? Do you have a pic of the full tree?

Southern AG nutritional spray is what I use as well. I have only used it once on my small jabos. Make sure to really dilute it if you use it. I use it on my other plants once a year right at spring.

Did you hear about this after watching Harvey's video on his jaboticaba trees? That's where I heard about it. It's just a sulfur, manganese, iron spray. You could just get by with chelated iron and micronutrient spray if you needed.

I'd be more interested in what the graft union looks like under the wrap. Is it fully healed? Cherimoya grafts are known to shrink and fail even with a few leaf flushes. Definitely protect that union so it doesn't snap off and as mentioned cut those rootstock limbs.

Your location is a bit different then mine. My parfiancas are still all green, but did send out additional flowers. I usually get a late push when the weather changes. Most never make it to full maturity before it goes dormant.

Well,

This year has been a bust on my fig trees because of the black fig fly. All but one of my figs so far have been infected - 2 in ground and 3 potted trees.

Went and looked at my multi-grafted orange/citrus tree and noticed more Asian citrus psyllids hanging out after getting rid of them couple years ago. Peeked over my neighbors fence and noticed their neglected citrus trees are severely infested. Seems like a matter of time for HLB infection.

So....for all you in Cali, are you still putting up the good fight? I'm at the point where I think I may want to pull them rather then dealing with disease/invasive flies. I would hate to lose years worth or growth on other trees that do not have these current issues.

What are your thoughts?

Not sure how heavy-duty the top is, but that is a consideration in case it fails in the future. You could just drill rebar into the top of it. How deep will this be buried? I used a full 50lb bag of concrete in a post form that was a good 2 feet deep. Don't want it falling over.

Timbogrow, thats cool you got fruits the first time! I assume you cross pollinated yours to get them to bear?



Sc4001992 , i started them from the bases of grafted moon cactuses. I bought 2 moon cactus plants, cut out the graft on top and left the rootstock to grow. Back then i didnt had the chance to buy named varieties, so thats the route i chose. Now some 4 to 5 years later they are blooming.
I dont think they will be palora or another megalanthus tipe, i have megalanthus seedling plants( grown up), and the branches are very distinct. They are both something else.


I have another question, are most dragon fruit varieties white flowered? Or are there just a few of them that have the white flowers? Since they are unidentified, this may help the id if there are just a few types with such flowers.

Kaz is probably correct. Those Moon cacti are grafted with predominantly white varieties since they are commercial available. The most telling sign that Kaz saw are likely the vines/branches.

To your other question, yes most are white but that certainly is changing! So, it would be extremely difficult to tell the variety by bloom in your case.

Not sure how the taste will be for these, but you may want to consider grafting a superior variety. Good luck!

My season is just getting started here, and it's off with a bang. Never seen any of my DF perform like that Asunta is with a bud on every node, a shame the fruit is not that great... But it'll be pretty with the purple flowers.

Cosmic charlie, Purple Haze, and Dark Star are also all firing up.

This year is my first year with bees on the property and I don't really know how I will manage to pollinate with them "robbing" the pollen. My concern is that they'll be fully loaded off one flower and not cross-pollinate the self sterile varieties.

Looking great. In regards to the cross pollination, you could lightly tie the tip of a few flowers with a rubber band so the bees can't get to the pollen. I used to use my daughter's hair bands to do this. At night, I would take it off and save some pollen...usually from the S8. Now I let nature take its course. Black star and purple Haze have taken a hit with fruit set. I'll likely just graft everything over to S8 since fruit set is so consistent and I'm lazy.

All Gone!