dragonfruit taste - bland?

[quinoah]

hello everyone!

do dragonfruits always taste bland? today I ate one(pink outside, white inside) from the local asian store. there was no sweetness, it tasted like a bland leafy crunchy(seeds) substance...
I planned to get cuttings, I hope the homegrown have at least some kind of flavor. or is the hype because of the look?

thanks!

[pineflatwoods]

Most of them i've tried are bland and not worth growing, in addition there is a fungus now that is wiping out unsuspecting plants.

Dark Star and Physical Graffiti are the two i've been most impressed with. The latter needs another plant around as a pollinator

[Alippincott]

Most of them i've tried are bland and not worth growing, in addition there is a fungus now that is wiping out unsuspecting plants.

Dark Star and Physical Graffiti are the two i've been most impressed with. The latter needs another plant around as a pollinator

I have never heard of this fungus, any more info on it?

[LeafDays]

From my experience with dragon fruit, the ones in the supermarket or Asian stores are usually really bland most likely due to a lot of them being picked off the plant when they are unripe. I’ve tried a decent amount of dragon fruit fresh off the plant and while some of them were better than others, they all tasted a lot better than the store bought ones. The only one that I would ever get from the stores are the yellow dragon fruit/“ ecuador palora” which are a lot sweeter than the other ones you’d see in a grocery store. Again, it might not be for everyone, but I would highly recommend a least trying a few different cultivars ripe off the plant if possible! I hope this somewhat helped.

[pineflatwoods]

I have never heard of this fungus, any more info on it?

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/PP355

[K-Rimes]

I have never heard of this fungus, any more info on it?

https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/PP355

Makes sense that is more prevalent in FL. It gets really bad here on my plants in CA when it rains. Usually the new paddles avoid it for a few years then they fall ill. I just keep hacking it back to fresh, or it dies back from frost, and restarts again.

I see that fungus damage on a lot of the fruit here in CA as well.

[MasOlas]

White flesh is the least flavorful of them all. Stick to red/purple flesh. I've had pretty good luck using my fingers and a knife to remove the soft gooey brown sections but leave the hard inner stem intact. Get all the soft stuff off them and liberally coat the open wound with ground cinnamon. It hardens off relatively quick. This is only for the trunk, the branches get removed or cut back.

[Pouteria_fan]

Every single one I've purchased ripe from a local farm in San Diego has been very very sweet and delicious.

About 50% of the ones I buy from the grocery store are actually sweet, the rest are bland. Me thinks they are harvested far too early in many cases. Don't write them off!