Nice pics! Which dragonfruit cultivars are those?

I was told it's a Vietnamese Giant.

Wow Newgen,
those things are going bonkers! Tremendous growth this year and a beautiful bloom to boot, next year will be even better.

thanks for posting,
-Ethan

I want to live in California :) Those flowers are very impressive. Neat stuff.

Your DF are growing so fast and beautiful. They get really really heavy if you don't prune them back every once in a while. Have you considered growing different varieties of DF to extend your season? The Yellow DF mature several months after the inside white DF. I really like the red fleshed varieties such as American Beauty and Halley's Comet. Let us know how your fruit taste and thanks for sharing the pics!

I just planted Physical Grafitti, and an unknown "Yellow" variety last month. I do prune the branches back, otherwise they'd be hanging down much more. Now let's hope that they all will set fruit, I hand pollinated them all, just to help the cause a little bit.

Thanks,

Yellow Dragon Fruit is its own species, Selenicereus megalanthus, im not aware of varieties.

and of course to keep up with the theme of my latest obsession, I bring you Pitahaya bonsai

very nice mango kush. Did you get the seeds from ebay? I want to grow this just for the pretty bright green leaves. ARe they easy to grow from seed?

mango kush: what cultivars are those? Amazing! Wouldn't it be something if there was a huge fruit hanging off the side of that little pot? 8-)) Since your handle has "mango", can you suggest some easy to grow varieties? I have one in ground that is growing very healthy, only flowered every year, no fruits set, hopefully next year I'll get some. I wanna try both in ground and potted.

Thanks,

Hi. I have my first cuttings of a white fleshed Dragon Fruit...finally! Not a named variety. I just planted them yesterday, and I am looking for hints on growing them to get them as big as possible as fast as possible and those pictures are unreal. I am in south Fla. So it is nearly the temps. and humidity of Calif. A bit hotter and more humid, but it grows here 'wild'. Had I known it made THAT fruit, I would have gotten cuttings YEARS ago. I would see it growing up in pine trees and blooming all over the place. I didnt know the fruit I watched grow was edible! Then I finally got cuttings yesterday, once I knew what it was! What is the best light to give them? East,west,north,south? once they get going, how about feeding. What kind of food? Any certain numbers?
I would sell my let arm for a cutting of something called a Vietnamese Giant! Where did you get it? How old are those?
That bloom is so great! It is even bigger than my Epi. Oxypetulum...which of course produces no fruit. Are they fragrant blooms? Sorry to ask so much. but I have 5 new cuttings with tiny roots and freshly potted up....now I need to know how to get them to grow and maybe bloom next year or the following???

jun
The picture of the Bonsai pitahaya is not of mine, sorry if I misled you. Its actually the picture from the pitahaya Wikipedia stub

newgen
a specimen that small would probably never get enough energy to flower
im going to try and germinate the seeds when i get some more fruit. i am going to try to germinate them in a wet paper towel. I suggest a Pickering mango. there are a ton of mango posts made by people even recently you can search and find my suggestions

Aveo
the best thing about Dragonfruit is that it is the easiest thing to trade. I have Yellow and Delight which is light pink, you are welcome to cuttings as well as anyone else who is local, im looking for more varieties as well.

aveo5,

I'll try to answer your questions as best I can. South Florida has probably one of the best climate to grow tropical fruits (aside from the hurricane blowing them away!), along with southern California. I'm in central CA, which is hot and dry and cold and wet, and if I can do it, you are guaranteed to succeed in your climate. Vietnamese Giant is pretty common, you may want to try searching locally for a source. If you don't succeed, I'll send you some, just pay for shipping. Dragon fruit likes full sun, they can get sunburn, but I highly doubt your summer temps can cause that. Soil is also easy, just don't let them grow in an area where it's wet and soggy all the time, they don't like that, some place where the water drains away reasonably fast. Your area probably gets lots of rain, so that aspect is important. I got my cutting from my aunt. In southern Ca, DF is grown by lots of people. From the time I planted them to the flowers that you see takes a little over a year, it can take longer to get flowers and fruits, but the branches grow very fast. The flowers have a scent to it, I like it, but it's not something fragrant like jasmine or a rose. BTW, DF grows well in ground or it pots, as seen in the photo below. Good luck!
{{!gwi}}

newgen....any updated pics of your dragon fruit project?? It has been over a year? How do those pots above not tip over??
They look great as well.
marin

marinfla:

Those pots are not mine. I just drove by this one house, and stopped by the sidewalk to take the photo. As for my DF, the 1st year I got flowers, less than 15 (Sep 2010), I tried to hand pollinate them, with varying degrees of success, most probably because I didn't know WTH I was doing. Got about 10 fruits. The 2nd year of flowering (Sep 2011), I only hand pollinated 4 flowers, just for practice, and left the rest for nature to take its course. I ended up with over 35 fruits. In fact, there are still 2 on the vines right now, trying to ripen in the winter! 8-)) The fruits taste from average to very good, most of them fall into "very good", as in juicy and sweet.

I started my trellis a couple of weks ago. I planted Haley's Comet and American Graffiti in the planter. I also have a small cutting of American Beauty in a small pot that is one segment of cactus length tall. I was thinking of adding a white fleshed variety to the trellis/pot since all what I have is pink or magenta. I would love to see an updated picture of your progress!
Marin

oops Physical Graffiti :)

From what I've read, Physical Graffiti is supposed to be very delicious. I've never tried one,however. These photos were taken this morning, really not much "progress" in these cold months. I cut back a lot of the branches last November. They just grew too much. I wanted the energy to go to fruits and not branches.
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}
{{!gwi}}

They are doing amazing for 1 year later! When my physical graffiti gets bigger and i need to prune it...I would gladly send you cuttings if you want.

Would love to get a cutting of PG.
Thanks!!

That is really nice, how do you protect them from the cold? I noticed you are in zone 9 so it must get cold sometimes. I grow dragon fruit in south GA but I have yet to set fruit, though my plants are rather large.

greyghost61:
I don't do anything to protect them from the cold. In my area, the cold months can get down to the low 30s, dragon fruit seems to be OK with that.

Wow, what an awesome thread. Thank you for posting the impressive photos. Now I know how to train my potted plant. I bought it 3 years ago as a cutting off of ebay, it has been sprawling all over, and of course, many arms have broken off and gone back into the pot. I now realize it needs to be trained to grow UP and then OUT. Sounds like a good twenty minute weekend project for me to repot it and and get it started growing in the right manner, rather than the out of control octopus look it has right now.

Wow, your dragon fruit looks great. I have a question does new dragon fruit cutting go temporarily dormant in the cooler months? I got some cutting off ebay in October and it hasn't even rooted yet(Dec), the cutting have gone bright green to a yellow green and the cutting has also shrunk a bit in thickness. What is wrong why aren't the cutting rooting yet? I have email the ebay seller I got it from and he said that in colder months they will go dormant, then start rooting again in spring. Have you had experience like these for new cuttings? In the first picture with the fruits, is that a cherimoya on the right? I saw on another post you said that you're from Fresno, well so am I. I have some cherimoya seedling going now and I want to plant some in ground and leave some in pots. How has your cherimoya plant been handling this Fresno winter? Sorry, you can disregard the cherimoya question if that isn't a cherimoya.

soaht,
Yes, the little plant you asked about is a cherimoya, a Fino de Jete to be exact. I got 2 fruits from it a few months ago. I also have an atemoya in the ground, about 6' tall. Neither one needs any protection from the heat and cold, but I did cover the atemoya to protect from the hurricane wind that happened one time, and that was when the tree was small. Your DF changed from green to yellow may be due to the weather, and they're still tender. Did you plant them in the ground or still in a pot?

They are in 1 gallon pot outside on the patio that's has an over hang, yellowish green but still tender. Ya, I think it may be the weather temp changing since when i got them the weather was still warm. They were bright green and plump,but now have shrunk a bit in the size but still tender.

I am excited to see so many people growing dragon fruit! I am hoping someone can help me. My dragon is about a year and half old and I trellised it straight up using a 4x4 in a pot. It is now a little over 5 feet tall and although I have a few little sprouts from the base, the top of the initial dragon has not branched out. Should I be seeing branching from the top of the plant? Do I need to do something to encourage branching? I posted a few pictures of it. Any advice you can provide is greatly appreciated!

Here is a picture of the original plant - about 5 feet tall now.

When your top D.F reach the top of your trellise , tip it to encourage branching and to build up its "body" for future.

what are you feeding it ?
what type soil is it in ?
The base is not very thick.
maybe too much Nitrogen is making it reach for the sky
(or, not enough sun ?)

Thanks for the comments! I was scared to tip it but I finally got brave and cut the top 6 inches off. Hoping for some branches soon! I was concerned about the skinny base too. The base of the plant does not get very much sun (it's about 8 inches below my windowsill). It is planted in a mix of organic soil and cactus potting mix and I have only fed it a couple of times. I've been having trouble finding something with low Nitrogen. Any suggestions?