Author Topic: Dragon Fruit thread.  (Read 935683 times)

Luisport

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #300 on: November 13, 2013, 08:03:36 AM »
Hi everyone! How much time a cutting nead to fruit? There are any tip to make them flower sooner? Thank's!  :)

From the sea

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #301 on: November 13, 2013, 10:31:36 AM »
I read it is 10 pounds of plant weight, have no idea how to get them to flower earlier.

Sven

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #302 on: November 13, 2013, 11:32:43 AM »
If the plant grows well you should have your first bloom in the 2nd or 3rd year.

thao

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #303 on: November 13, 2013, 02:37:40 PM »
Hi everyone! How much time a cutting nead to fruit? There are any tip to make them flower sooner? Thank's!  :)
Could be 1st, 2nd, even 3rd year. Depends on the maturity of the cuttings taken. If the cuttings, a person is getting is already mature and had fruited previously. Most likely it will fruit again the same year it is planted out. Some advice I got from a Vietnamese DF grower, said to use lots of cow manure mix(1/3 of the mix should be cow manure) in with whatever soil your using to plant the DF cutting in. Let the DF branches hang. So make the stake/trellis not to tall (1.5-2 meters tall is a good height), cut the tip of the branches(once they start hanging over the stake/trellis, that is. And  if too many branches are growing over and hanging, cut 1 out 3 branches off, but only the thinnest and smallest one though. So let the 2 fattest and thickest one continue growing over and hang, but also prune the tips back a little too. One more thing he said too, the more mature the cuttings and longer the cuttings, the faster it will fruit as well. One of my purple haze cutting was mature and had fruited before, I got it, so it even develop a flower bud, but stayed small, dried and fell off. This was also, when it first had rooted too(2 months after it had just rooted)

That is what I remember, what he had told me, when I obtain the cuttings from him. But not sure if, those were the exact advice he'd given, just what I remember atm. Though the cow manure is working, they do grow nice, fast, looks healthy. Also stays very green, even when we had that heat wave back in June of this year in the 110F-115F range. Not any sunburn(very arid/dry summer heat in Central Ca), just stayed nice and green.

BTW Luis,
the ones you got from me is kinda young, so is most likely going to be 2nd-3rd year.

Luisport

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #304 on: November 13, 2013, 02:41:27 PM »
Thank you so much Thao!!!  ;D ;D ;D

Mike T

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #305 on: November 13, 2013, 02:52:22 PM »
Haus, their sweetness rather than their size is notable and they have a lemonade taste.Those yellows are just a selection of Megalanthus and biggest ones are just under 1lb.

HMHausman

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #306 on: November 13, 2013, 03:18:24 PM »
Haus, their sweetness rather than their size is notable and they have a lemonade taste.Those yellows are just a selection of Megalanthus and biggest ones are just under 1lb.

The ones we grow have nice sweetness. However, our's have no acidity.  So, there is no lemonade flavor component. Our's literally have about two teaspoons of edible flesh per half of dragon fruit.  I am not exaggerating.  So, flavor or not, the size is what is impressive to me.
Harry
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Dangermouse01

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #307 on: November 13, 2013, 05:49:20 PM »
Hi everyone! How much time a cutting nead to fruit?

I got my first bunch (7 total) of cuttings in Aug 2011, the all looked pretty much like this in February 2012.


Got maybe 2-3 blooms that year, nothing set fruit.
In July 2013, my Dark Star looked like this.

A month later in August 2013, Dark Star looked like this.


I got fruit from all 7 this year. So from cuttings in Aug 2011 to fruit harvesting 2 years later in Aug 2013.
And not all had as much growth as the Dark Star, here is my Vietnamese Jaina with flowers from Sept this year.

Last fruit harvested for the year (except for my Yellow), Vietnamese Jaina, 1.25 LBs just this weekend (this fruit was from the flower in the previous picture).




DM

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #308 on: November 13, 2013, 09:00:16 PM »
Really nice setup you got there!! nice heavy duty support.
William
" The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago.....The second best time, is now ! "

Luisport

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #309 on: November 14, 2013, 12:59:03 PM »
Thank you for info and photos! Congratulations!  ;)

nullzero

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #310 on: November 14, 2013, 01:04:25 PM »
DM,

What type of wood did you use for your Dragon Fruit support?
Grow mainly fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

Dangermouse01

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #311 on: November 14, 2013, 04:52:23 PM »
What type of wood did you use for your Dragon Fruit support?

Pressure treated pine.

DM

nullzero

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #312 on: November 14, 2013, 06:01:16 PM »
What type of wood did you use for your Dragon Fruit support?

Pressure treated pine.

DM

I was leaning away toward using Pressure treated wood because of the health effects of the chemicals like Arsenic in the CCA pressure treated wood. I have to do more research on the ACQ and CBA wood, from what I gather the latter two are less toxic because they both exclude Arsenic.

I was thinking of using Ipe wood with a tung oil finish. Was hoping the wood would hold up to 5-10 years of wear as a dragon fruit trellis.
Grow mainly fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

Dangermouse01

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #313 on: November 14, 2013, 08:30:28 PM »
You can still get arsenic treated wood, I thought they did away with CCA for the most part?
The tags from the PT pine I have say they were treated CA-C (4x4 post) or MCA (2x4). And for both those the "A" stands for Azole not arsenic.

I'm not taking a stand either for or against using PT treated wood. There are plenty of options out there for everybody to make their choice.

What ever you choose tho, we want to see pictures when your trellis are built.

DM

LEOOEL

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #314 on: November 14, 2013, 08:34:20 PM »
Dangermouse01, thanks for the pics showing your dragon fruit pole setup.

I also have Dragon Fruit up a pressure treated pole. I've noticed that the 'roots' of the dragon fruit hate the chemicals on the pole. I suppose this is why you wrapped your pole with those thread-sacks, very ingenious. I'm cosidering doing the same thing.

Also, thanks to your photos, I'm getting the idea of 'crowning' the top of the pole with the same wood structure that you're using. It looks very aesthetic, very nice.

Finally, I noticed that at the bottom of the pole, between the pole itself and the wood board planks that keep the worms out, I see in the photos something with a black coloration. If you don't mind and shine some light on what that is, I'd appreciate if you'd let us know what that is and its purpose, thanks again for all the wonderful photos.
'Virtue' should be taught, learned and propagated, in order to save others and oneself.

Dangermouse01

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #315 on: November 15, 2013, 08:00:42 AM »
Dangermouse01, thanks for the pics showing your dragon fruit pole setup.

I also have Dragon Fruit up a pressure treated pole. I've noticed that the 'roots' of the dragon fruit hate the chemicals on the pole. I suppose this is why you wrapped your pole with those thread-sacks, very ingenious. I'm cosidering doing the same thing.

Also, thanks to your photos, I'm getting the idea of 'crowning' the top of the pole with the same wood structure that you're using. It looks very aesthetic, very nice.

Finally, I noticed that at the bottom of the pole, between the pole itself and the wood board planks that keep the worms out, I see in the photos something with a black coloration. If you don't mind and shine some light on what that is, I'd appreciate if you'd let us know what that is and its purpose, thanks again for all the wonderful photos.
I have not noticed any of my DF not wanting to attach roots to the PT wood, except maybe the yellow, which doesn't seem to send out as many aerial roots as the others. The others all have varying amounts of roots attaching.










The burlap wrapped around the post provides both a structure for the roots to grab on to, and retains moisture when spraying the DFs with liquid nutritional sprays.

Top of my trellis is loosely based on how I saw them done at the Fruit & Spice park.

Frames around the base of my posts were to re-direct my dogs running path and also was a planting bed for butterfly plants and stuff.

Something with black coloration? If it is in the picture of the held fruit, all that stuff is chopped up banana tree stalks rotting away. Is that the picture you saw it in?

DM

Luisport

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #316 on: November 15, 2013, 04:24:24 PM »

Mike T

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #317 on: November 15, 2013, 06:33:17 PM »





My Columbian Red has some flowers. A few years ago a giant fruiting (routinely over 1kg) self fertile red with fruit of great flavour of unknown origin was found in a Brisbane backyard.It was dubbed something suitably exotic.....Columbian red and now is the most sought after backyard dragonfruit in Queensland.

LEOOEL

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #318 on: November 15, 2013, 11:30:45 PM »
That is some great root attachment to the pressure treated wood.

That is a very ingenious use of burlap attached to the pole. I definitely have to give that technique a try. I think it'll help pick upt the pace of my DF growth.

I definitely have to pass by Fruit & Spice Park to check out how they did the top of their trellis. I must have missed it when I've passed by.

Chopped up banana tree stalks! Great idea, I'm planning on doing the same thing and see how things work out with time. Thanks for clarifying this mystery in one of your pictures.

I'll do just about anything to speed up the production of fruit. Based on what I've learned from your posting(s) the pace of growth of my DF should increase substantially, many thanks.
'Virtue' should be taught, learned and propagated, in order to save others and oneself.

Luisport

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #319 on: November 22, 2013, 01:41:02 PM »
Hi everyone! I just try for the first time a dragonfruit! I buy it as a red vietnamese pitaya (but was white inside). It was very expensive (21,99E/Kg) with a weight of 352g. I like it! Not a great flavour but very fresh and mildly sweet... Just hope to try the really red ones!  ::)

 


Luisport

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #320 on: November 23, 2013, 01:00:05 PM »
After i heat my first dragonfruit i let the outer shell dry for one day and made an excelente tea! I love it, with a nice pink colour and a mild flavour of cactus that we can join other tea or spices...  :P

 

« Last Edit: November 23, 2013, 01:02:00 PM by Luisport »

thao

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #321 on: November 23, 2013, 01:30:51 PM »
Luis,

That's a nice looking store bought one, but if it were home grown, might have been a lot sweeter. The 4 varieties, I sent you are all red/magenta flesh kind and should be a lot better than that white one you got. How are they doing so far, any little roots  forming yet?

Luisport

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #322 on: November 23, 2013, 01:55:58 PM »
Luis,

That's a nice looking store bought one, but if it were home grown, might have been a lot sweeter. The 4 varieties, I sent you are all red/magenta flesh kind and should be a lot better than that white one you got. How are they doing so far, any little roots  forming yet?
Yes, i imagine that home grown dragonfruits are much better... well cuttings are very well but no new growings yet... i will update if they grow!  ;) Thank you so much!

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #323 on: November 23, 2013, 02:56:40 PM »
I went outside to check my dragon fruit trellis and train/ tie up some new growth and found these babies growing underneath!!!
I have been tossing the decaying flowers and the small fruits that aborted after not developing into the pot so maybe could it be possible that after they rotted the seeds germinated?? Just amazing to me. This trellis is now approaching 2 years old on Dec 31st and it's doing great. I got 2 dozen fruit off it this fall and they were all well over a pound with the highest brix reading at 18.6 (you have to click on pictures of the babies to open it then click on it again to get it to open to full screen...they are tiny!)




Luisport

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Re: Dragon Fruit thread.
« Reply #324 on: November 23, 2013, 03:08:57 PM »
WOW very interesting... maby this aborted fruits have some seeds allready.  ;)