when do you pick the fruit, jay? how many days after the fruit becomes fuchsia in color? can you show us your dragon fruit vine support pole? I believe the pole is wrapped in burlap?

cheerios.

GREAT PICS J- VERY EXCITED FOR U-

You're so lucky. I have mine for 3 years now but no flowers. And of course I planted in pot. Guess I'll have to wait and wait. Keep use updated.

Thanks all. The 3 blooms that were opening had their grand fanale.

Good closeup. You can see the pollen that has shed onto the petals. I was taking a brush and knocking the pollen off and then scooping it up into the palm of my hand. I would then brush it off onto the stigma. I was trading back and forth amongst the different flowers. Lots and LOTS of pollen. If they don't develop fruit...then it is not for lack of trying!

Oh...and by-the-way, I have coconut fiber matt wrapped around the post. One of our nurseries had it in a big roll.

Looks great. I hope you get a couple fruit. Do you know if your plant is a red or white fleshed variety?

thanks a lot, jay, will give it a try.

at least if you get fruit you won´t fight birds, iguanas, etc for getting the fruit first!. >=D

Your pitaya looks super healthy, great pictures! Since I reworked my trellis, mine isn't looking as pretty. It's usually right around 34 days from flower to fruit, give or take. My Giant Viet right now has the most huge fruit, its the size of a softball. I'll probably pick it today or tomorrow. I manually cross pollinated pollen from the Giant Viet to a hylocereus costaricansis which now has a couple fruit, one of which hopefully contains now hybridized seeds. This will be my first harvest of the costaricansis. The flower bud and fruit looks different, as the flap edges have a red fringe. I may try to grow some of the seeds to see if I get a hybrid, and may trade off to a guy the rest of the seeds for him to try to grow as hybrids.

I recently built a couple new pitaya beds and planted 'Dark Star', 'Delight' and the Yellow variety.

Fun stuff!

Gary

I have a white and red fleshed variety that I got from Eggo 2 years ago. I just brought home a yellow pitaya cutting from Florida. I believe it is the white fleshed that is blooming right now. Disappointed that the red didn't flower as well. Maybe there will be a late summer bloom.

Gary, do you have any pics of the flower with the red fringe?

beautiful blooms Jay, your plant is doing so well. I hope you get the fruit to form.

on a side note, the guy naming PI's dragonfruit varieties must be an old hippy. American Beauty (the Dead), Physical Grafitti (Zep), Bowie, Hendrix, quite a list. I dont think Delight was named for the pop group (Deelite) though.

good luck Jay,
-Ethan

Jay, its actually the little green flaps on the base of the flower bud (which becomes the fruit) which has the red fringes. If the fruit hangs on I'll definitely want to get a picture, and it will depict what I'm talking about. I'll try to post a pic of my huge DF fruit I picked yesterday. I have a few more flowers going on a couple of different vars.

Ethan, it does seem so about PI DF names. The Delight looks neat because it looks half way between magenta and white fleshed.

Great pics, Jay! Those blooms look great.

Thanks everyone. I have had two blooms, far from opening, that have turned yellow and mushy. Both were located at the rear of the structure. Sort of odd. I thought maybe reduced sun exposure but not sure.

The blooms are spent and just hang there now. Hoping to see evidence of fruit forming in the next couple of days. Can I hope to expect another set of blooms to hit before summer's end?

You certainly might get more blooms, maybe after harvesting fruit from these flowers. If the base of the flower doesn't change to yellow in a few days then drop off, they'll probably swell up and ripen as fruit. My American Beauty produced a crop of 10, then a crop of 8 about two months apart last year.

Gary

gary, how do you know when is the right time to pick dragon fruit up?.

cheerios.

I usually pick them when the 'flaps' get slightly wilted, seems like around 4 or so days after they turn color (if I remember right).

Noticed my Physical Graffiti is flowering tonight. Ate our Giant Viet fruit the other day, best one of that var so far, somewhat sweet, real refreshing. Probably 3 weeks til any other pitaya excitement happens for me. Let us know if your buds are hanging on so far.

Gary