The Tropical Fruit Forum

Quote from: Plantinyum on September 22, 2023, 10:42:36 AM

In order for me to know how much light i gain with this is to have a lightmeter and make some measurements, i may get one one day,

If you have a smartphone, especially Android, it almost certainly has a built in light meter to enable adaptive screen brightness. That sensor can be revealed with various apps, my favorite for it is the GPS Status and Tools app, which I have the "Pro" version of. It looks like this (I removed my GPS coordinates, the light level shown is under an indoor ceiling light):


I don't know how accurate it is, but based on the full direct sun reading, it seems pretty good.

Nice one! I have to check that out.

So a year later, my idea has finally came to life.  I decided to do it with the upper suggested emergency blankets,  3 of those, sandwiched between 1 layer each side of strong nylon.
The 3 layers are then weaven together at several places. The sheet is then fixed to 4 m long metal rods. The whole thing is 2m by 4m. The way i mounted it, at least for now, seems very sturdy, we havent had a very strong wind for now, so I'm interested when that happens, how will the sheet respong. I weaved the layers with a very strong sewing thread, about 25 sm apart lenghwise, so it should hold up well for a while.
I cant tell if the angle is correct, compared to the sun, but thats what i could do, whiwe using the full size of the sheet.
I definitely can tell that it does reflect quite some light on the shady side of the greenhouse, the base of the greenhouse has warmed up, like it does when directly lit by the sun, just not as warm. The tiles also look quite brighter ,compared to before.
On the inside, the sun facing part is considerably brighter, but again, the shady part that faces the house got much brighter, compared to before.
Anyway, i dont know if this will be much of a benefit, but anyway, it has been done and i will monitor how the plants behave from now on.
The dragon fruits, which face the shady side, are in bud wright now ,should benefit from any additional light.

I have 3 Vasconacaela Pubescens plants, planted in one hole. The biggest of them has theese flower clusters, to me they look like a hermaphrodite tipe flowers. Can someone with more experience tell what gender would those be? I dont know if this species is like the regular papaya, gender wise?

Quote from: Plantinyum on September 17, 2023, 02:53:04 PM

I had several yellowing ones on both plants, removed them as soon as i was sertain they were to be aborted.
Well, i am not that fussy about fruit size, i would be happy with big fruits, but i woudnt remove some of them as to have a few bigger ones. Its hard enought to grow them here, dont want to be that picky...

My family is spoiled.  They won't eat small fruits, lol.

Haha, i may change my mind, if i find myself in overabundance one day, i do thin for bigger fruit, but only stuff like nectarines and apple's.

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.