harveyc

The Pitahaya Festival in Irvine, CA on Saturday was a fun day, albeit uncomfortably hot. Between trading with Leo and some other friends at the festival and getting some cuttings from the trial there as well, I've probably added another 8-10 varieties and am now up to about 35. Kinda crazy, I think.....

At the trial they don't do any hand pollination and most varieties (19 formally on trial with another 20+ also planted) produce quite well with the exception of Valdivia Roja which opens up late and doesn't get pollinated very well from bees, etc. One plant of this selection had 28 out of 28 flowers drop due to lack of pollination. Physical Graffiti (Thomson's 1-S) is by far the most productive variety. Since I have a plant of this with fruit on it I was looking forward to tasting it at the festival. Unfortunately, I was quite disappointed with its taste. I tried it about five times, taking pieces from a different area of the large tray to make sure I was trying from different fruits but they all were similar. Haley's Comet was my favorite by a long shot and 'Delight' (another Thomson variety) came in second, both with decent sweetness. Oddly, the trial results show that Physical Graffiti averages a higher brix than Haley's Comet. Haley's Comet is one of the varieties I've now got added to my collection.

Edit: I'm hoping that Haley's Comet and some others in my collection might come close to Physical Graffiti's productivity with the use of hand pollination.

__________________