Dragon Fruit thread.

[DFfarmer]

Another vote for 8-S as Paul Thomson called it, I think it has the best flavor, and color when added to things like in smoothies. It is also the most reliable for us here. They started blooming in April with only a small amount of first drop and are still putting out lots of blooms. G2, Rixford, and S9 were also early bloomers. Now Armando, Rosa, and a few others are chiming in. Last year it was the Halley's comet that were among the earliest. Labeled "Physical Graffiti" but they had yellow stigmas so not Physical Graffiti. Have a tremendous season everyone!

[John B]

I ripped out most of my dragonfruit plants and just kept S8 and american beauty.  I like dark star and a couple others but they dont self pollinate.  S8 and american beauty take zero effort.

This is disappointing news. I grabbed a couple dark star vines last year after tasting a couple. No fruit yet but I've been juicing them with extra N. The guy said they were self fertile but maybe they were being cross pollinated by his other varieties.

[Rannman]

url]
I’m not sure why growers feel that it is ok to use other peoples photos to promote their products. The pic that is circled is one of mine, from Lockyer Valley Dragonfruit in Queensland, Australia.
If you don’t have an original pic of your own fruit from a plant that you are actually growing in your own collection, you obviously can’t prove that you are growing that particular variety.
I would be wary of this seller🤔🤔🤔🤔

[eez0]

I have a spot in my backyard which is in the shade from November to late February/early March. The rest of the year, it has about 6+ hours of sun.

Would a dragon fruit work there?

[K-Rimes]

I ripped out most of my dragonfruit plants and just kept S8 and american beauty.  I like dark star and a couple others but they dont self pollinate.  S8 and american beauty take zero effort.

This is disappointing news. I grabbed a couple dark star vines last year after tasting a couple. No fruit yet but I've been juicing them with extra N. The guy said they were self fertile but maybe they were being cross pollinated by his other varieties.

If it is legitimate dark star, it is not self fertile. Dark star is one of my favorite for flavor but it's not super easy for successful pollination. One of the harder ones for me. If I had more S8 pollen which is the super juice, maybe I'd have an easier time. I'm probably going to tear out my Natural mystic and replace it with S8. It has not revived since winter where everything else has. I liked the fruit a lot and self fertile but it seems dead.

[John B]

I ripped out most of my dragonfruit plants and just kept S8 and american beauty.  I like dark star and a couple others but they dont self pollinate.  S8 and american beauty take zero effort.

This is disappointing news. I grabbed a couple dark star vines last year after tasting a couple. No fruit yet but I've been juicing them with extra N. The guy said they were self fertile but maybe they were being cross pollinated by his other varieties.

If it is legitimate dark star, it is not self fertile. Dark star is one of my favorite for flavor but it's not super easy for successful pollination. One of the harder ones for me. If I had more S8 pollen which is the super juice, maybe I'd have an easier time. I'm probably going to tear out my Natural mystic and replace it with S8. It has not revived since winter where everything else has. I liked the fruit a lot and self fertile but it seems dead.

It should be legit. I tasted the fruit. I have plenty of S8 but I am like Brad and don't like to do any more work than I have to when my Bien Hoa Red and S8 get pollinated by the bees.

[RobPatterson]

I have a spot in my backyard which is in the shade from November to late February/early March. The rest of the year, it has about 6+ hours of sun.

Would a dragon fruit work there?

Most of my plants are on the south side of my house, shaded by my neighbors closely situated track home. I dont get direct sunlight a few months out of the year, as well. All it does is shorten my growing season by maybe a month, but since i live in warm Southern California, what happens is i lose 2 months at the beginning of the season, but I gain an additional month at the end. I typically dont start harvesting fruit until June/July, but I get ripe fruit almost until Christmas some years, weather dependent. I compensated a little by letting my plants grow taller than the traditional support methods, using a linear trellis, as opposed to the umbrella-like canopy up a single post style, so i have more surface area exposed to the little light I do get during those months. I included a picture as to how I set that up, originally.

[Cfox248]

Are there any self pollinating yellow varieties? I'd like to procure a cutting.

[MorroBay]

I'm probably going to tear out my Natural mystic and replace it with S8. It has not revived since winter where everything else has. I liked the fruit a lot and self fertile but it seems dead.
[/quote]

My natural mystic is also fairly dormant.  Do we not have enough heat?  Everything else is growing great.  Was thinking of pulling my NM as well.

[K-Rimes]

My natural mystic is also fairly dormant.  Do we not have enough heat?  Everything else is growing great.  Was thinking of pulling my NM as well.

Really confused. Last year it broke dormancy somewhat early. This year it still hasn't moved an inch. I think it may be a far more frost sensitive variety or something and it got really hurt this year in the cold.

I am more like inland temps at my house since it's on the 154 and it has been blasting 90+ for weeks. It's not heat related for sure at my house. Everything else is tearing it up and I'm afraid some of my trellises may collapse. There has to be at least 500lb of cactus on a few of them. Been adding more screws and trying to align the pots so they're absolutely vertical.

[irun5k]

Hey all! I'm growing a Haley's Comet, Delight, and American Beauty here in Pinellas Co, FL.  First year getting blooms so far- the first round of blooms is complete.  I hand pollinated everything and most nights I was able to cross pollinate.

So far American Beauty is the overwhelming winner.  It looks like it set fruit on virtually every bloom.  From studying the blooms I also feel like American Beauty is the only one that I'd say is self pollinating. I'm not sure a single fruit set.on Delight or HC.

From what I've read, a lot of other folks have had great luck with American Beauty as well.  How about HC and Delight?  It seems like I've already done about all I can do short of cross pollinating with a better (?) pollinator that I don't have.

I am happy to at least have some fruit growing in the garden. The only slight bummer is Delight, because ignoring the fruit production issue, this is a much stronger grower for me than the other two and it is also already putting out a.second round of buds.  I will keep hand pollinating, maybe success will improve in round two.

[bradflorida]

Tommy,

Thanks.  Did you grow your palora from seed or cutting?

Brad

[sc4001992]

Question on hand pollination of my Asunta 3 dragon fruit flowers.
This is from a cutting from Brad, it is about 2-1/2 years old and it's the first time it has flowers.

The DF plant has 3 flowers, I didn't hand pollinate the first flower, can you tell from this photo if it will set fruit or drop the flower?

I just took some photos tonight at 8pm, this is the second flower that is blooming. Does it look ready to hand pollinate or should I wait until moring?

Thanks.

I did pick my first yellow DF fruit yesterday, it was small (Home Depot plant) but it tasted sweet.

[sc4001992]

[John B]

Hey all! I'm growing a Haley's Comet, Delight, and American Beauty here in Pinellas Co, FL.  First year getting blooms so far- the first round of blooms is complete.  I hand pollinated everything and most nights I was able to cross pollinate.

So far American Beauty is the overwhelming winner.  It looks like it set fruit on virtually every bloom.  From studying the blooms I also feel like American Beauty is the only one that I'd say is self pollinating. I'm not sure a single fruit set.on Delight or HC.

From what I've read, a lot of other folks have had great luck with American Beauty as well.  How about HC and Delight?  It seems like I've already done about all I can do short of cross pollinating with a better (?) pollinator that I don't have.

I am happy to at least have some fruit growing in the garden. The only slight bummer is Delight, because ignoring the fruit production issue, this is a much stronger grower for me than the other two and it is also already putting out a.second round of buds.  I will keep hand pollinating, maybe success will improve in round two.

I can only comment on HC since I have grown that. Definitely not self pollinating. I also found that cross pollination was a pain. Try early evening cross pollination with AB and/or delight. I got rid of mine, I don't care to do hand pollination anymore.

[John B]

Question on hand pollination of my Asunta 3 dragon fruit flowers.
This is from a cutting from Brad, it is about 2-1/2 years old and it's the first time it has flowers.

The DF plant has 3 flowers, I didn't hand pollinate the first flower, can you tell from this photo if it will set fruit or drop the flower?

I just took some photos tonight at 8pm, this is the second flower that is blooming. Does it look ready to hand pollinate or should I wait until moring?

Thanks.

I did pick my first yellow DF fruit yesterday, it was small (Home Depot plant) but it tasted sweet.

Too early to tell if the bloom will turn to fruit (IMO). You'll know soon enough. Asunta 3 is in the super model category of DF's. As such, they are a bit more demanding. The flowers tend to stick together and the anthers stay closed until night. You can hand pollinate it but will need to manually open that anther. It would be best at night, though. No harm also pollinating in the morning. When I grew it, the bees struggled to break into the semi closed flowers, and they did not set fruit on their own (without hand pollination), probably because of the delayed and shortened daylight bloom time for the bees. Early morning, the bloom seemed to wilt earlier than the other DF's as well.

[sc4001992]

ok, I did notice that I will need to open the anther on the last flower that will open in another week. The pink flowers look nice, but it does close rather quickly in one night/day.

[sumognat]

Is Vietnamese White prone to fruit drop?

I live in SE FL (near the Everglades) and have 2 Vietnamese white on trellises and fruit drop/flower pollination is about 50%.  It can get a bit of rust in cool, rainy weather, too, but it's manageable to to treat with a bit of copper spray.

I have a cutting of Sugar Dragon and Neon that I am debating replacing them with.  Should I just bite the bullet and replace the 2 above with them?

[kalan]

Is Vietnamese White prone to fruit drop?

I live in SE FL (near the Everglades) and have 2 Vietnamese white on trellises and fruit drop/flower pollination is about 50%.  It can get a bit of rust in cool, rainy weather, too, but it's manageable to to treat with a bit of copper spray.

I have a cutting of Sugar Dragon and Neon that I am debating replacing them with.  Should I just bite the bullet and replace the 2 above with them?

Fruit drop or flower drop? I have never seen fruit drop with VW and I am in your neck of the woods. What I have seen, on many varieties including VW, is flower drop after failure to pollinate. Typically this for me happens if we get any rain during the 12 hour bloom window.

That said, sugar dragon is bullet proof. No problems is full sun, handles drought quite well, tasty productive fruit, albeit quite small. No experience with neon.

[sumognat]

Kalan,

Thanks so much for responding!  It's great to find someone living in the same area, who is growing in the same conditions. 

I think I meant flower drop.  I think you are right, that the rainfall caused the flower drop; I think it rained around the time the flowers opened.  I haven't had much issues with fruit drop, but it seems bugs can get into the fruit during the summer.

I may just go ahead and take one VW out and replace it with the SD and Neon cuttings.  Neon is very similar to SD.

Do you have issues with your DF yellowing in the summer?  I have mine planted in the ground, which I know probably keeps a bit more moisture than what is ideal.

[K-Rimes]

Asunta, can't recall the number



Purple Haze



Cosmic charlie

My Df are hitting really hard this year.

[K-Rimes]

Overall really happy with the plants. They are easy to take care of for the most part. Got some really bad rust on that purple haze but cosmic charlie is a champ for health. Dark Star is ok but gets really shrivelled up, if I get some energy I'll up pot it to 45 gallon - it's on the stand closest to the house. 

Not shown is the whole asunta stand, which also has a frankie's red on it and I added another stalk of asunta to make it mostly an asunta stand.

There is also one other stand with Isis and baby cerrado but the dark star stand fell over on to it and really damaged the Isis stalk. It did grow above the damaged area but it's not very vigorous so I may just cut it back to below the damage. Baby cerrado is growing really well after a hard winter. I think it's way more frost sensitive.

I had a really nice natural mystic but it died at the roots - maybe frost don't know. It's in the DF graveyard now.

[RobPatterson]

My American Beauty is showing very good signs of flower retention this year, even with the 100+ degree days we had over the last couple weeks (Ontario, So Cal). I generally dont get this many flowers that survive to full bloom, as most die off in the first two weeks from summer heat exposure. Im back to hand pollinating in the mornings before i go to work, and Ive been lucky enough to have a few cooperative S8 flowers that opened later then the rest of their fellow Sugar Dragons, as those tend to pop up in distinct waves, or 'flushes', as the other growers say.
BTW, if anyone is on need of cuttings (S8/sugar Dragon, Orejona or American Beauty) in the Inland Empire area of California, Id be happy to oblige. I also have a heirloom Costaricensis and my experimental (aka home grown cross-pollination) plant I call Pink Lemonade (its good, but tart), but they aren't ready to be cut back as of yet.

[kalan]

Kalan,

Thanks so much for responding!  It's great to find someone living in the same area, who is growing in the same conditions. 

I think I meant flower drop.  I think you are right, that the rainfall caused the flower drop; I think it rained around the time the flowers opened.  I haven't had much issues with fruit drop, but it seems bugs can get into the fruit during the summer.

I may just go ahead and take one VW out and replace it with the SD and Neon cuttings.  Neon is very similar to SD.

Do you have issues with your DF yellowing in the summer?  I have mine planted in the ground, which I know probably keeps a bit more moisture than what is ideal.

My Halley's Comet is in full sun does get a bit yellow and sunburns. But my Sugar Dragon and Dark star grow on the same trellis and don't get it. So I have always chalked that up to varieties handling sun exposure differently. My VW is not in full sun all day, so I can't really compare them.

That said, give these guys all the water they can take in summer. They can take a surprising amount of water.

[Cfox248]

Wondering if Delight and Delight 3-S are the same? It looks like they're hybrid plants crossed from the same parent plant. I've come across several websites saying they're likely the same (pic attached), however the site I bought my 3-S from says it's self sterile and every other Delight I've found is self fertile. I'm trying to only keep self fertile varieties, so I'm very curious if this one will need cross pollination or not. It's from Wallace Ranch farm.