merce3

i have mostly reds (phoenix red, houghton, bloody mary, maria rosa, american beauty, hailey's comet, physical graffiti) and have a killer idea for a trellis in a pot. i want to grow four different varieties in each pot and try to keep them distinguished from one another.

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kubali

I can't wait till I see a flower. I got 3 ab,hc,and yellow. All hanging over trellis just have no flowers yet, this is second year growing. So they are about 18 months old............how long did it take to get a bloom merce?

merce3

took until the end of the second year (around fall). i had one flower and i didn't catch it until the morning after it bloomed so i got poor pollination and the fruit was really small--not even enough to taste. i hand pollinated mine last night and have three more buds forming, so hopefully i get better luck.

i'm not sure if yours are self-pollinating, but i would hand pollinate at night. it's supposed to give you bigger fruit with diminishing returns after 12 and 24 hours.

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Richard

Mostly what you have are named selections of H. undatus X polyrhizos -- with the exception of American Beauty.

A selection of H. ocamponis that is more productive: now that would be killer.

Hand pollination will help with pollination when no other pollinator is present. But the idea that it will give you bigger Dragon Fruit - that is unfounded gossip.

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merce3

nuts... didn't you say the polyrhizos aren't that flavorful? what about undatus? sorry, i guess i could google the answers.

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merce3

Regarding fruit size, here is a table that shows the relationship between pollination time, fruit set and fruit weight:


http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/.../1487.full.pdf
"Flowering Behavior and Pollination Requirements in Climbing Cacti with Fruit Crop Potential" (Weiss, Nerd, Mizrahi 1994:1491)

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Richard

I think this study has merit with regard to lack of pollinators. Further, I think it is a well designed study and well written report. Also, you should note that the stated weight is an average and thus it is not that individual weights have increased but instead the total weight of the crop; i.e., there were more fruits formed in the hand-pollinated group. To the authors this is totally reasonable because total weight is what farmers care about most.

Otherwise, the paper is not relevant to your environment or mine. Nor is it relevant to Hylocereus species of interest to cultivation in my garden.

As a contra-positive, I will also state that I have always attempted to hand pollinate my Hylocereus fruits when observation or circumstances permit.

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merce3

i don't think it has anything to do with the total weight of the crop. the way i read it, the weight of each individual fruit increased on average meaning that if you pick a fruit from a 12hr and a fruit from 24hr hand pollinated flower there will be an average difference of 92g (for polyrhizus).

although the environment is completely different (arid vs humid) and so are the cultivars, i would expect to see a similar trend across climbing cacti to a certain degree.

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Dangermouse01

First wave of flowering is over. Had 117 flowers opened, from American Beauty, Purple Haze, Physical Graffiti, Halley's Comet (just 1) and Dark Star, only 5 turned yellow and fell off. American Beauty and Physical Graffiti both still have 1 or 2 buds still to open in a week or so.
Vietnamese Jaina, Halley's Comet and unknown (planted on one side of my driveway last year) all have a good number of buds showing, probably at least 2 weeks before they will be opening.
Yellow still has 4 flower buds yet to open.
Dark Star, Physical Graffiti and Purple Haze are starting to show tiny buds, looks like a second wave of flowers from them is coming.

DM

Richard

More like a tidal wave.

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Dangermouse01

Getting close, maybe a week before the first are ready. Maybe a couple ready for the fourth of July.
Purple Haze today.


Physical Graffiti today.



From July, 2013:
1 year later, has about a dozen buds.


DM

merce3

here's a trellis i put together yesterday and today. i got the concept from the web somewhere.








also built this out of a spare piece of fence i had

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Worm_Farmer

Does the size/height of the trellis matter? Will it take longer to flower if my trellis is 6ft vs 4ft tall?

Danger Mouse, Did you harvest any fruits yet? Please, please please if you have any extra fruit to spare I would LOVE! to buy some!!!! I have only been able to find the White flesh type at our local supermarket.

Richard

The height of the trellis should be shoulder height of the person(s) harvesting. For the first year or so of growth on the trellis your emphasis will be on training. In the years that follow, the emphasis will be on pruning; i.e., controlling the growth to a manageable quantity. Flowering is dictated by the age of the pods in extremities, water, climate, and availability of mineral nutrients. For some varieties, pollination is also a concern. Most of the types that are viable in portions of the subtropical U.S. are either native or derived from natives in non-rainforest areas of Central America.

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Hammocked Banana

Ok I got another DF question. My american beauty flopped over in the move and took some damage in the narrow connection between segments. It kind of cracked halfway through this narrow section, and I am worried it isn't sending enough nutrients to the segments up top. Here is a pic of the whole plant and a close-up of the damage. Please ignore all the tying tape, I'm training the limbs so I will have a manageable structure long term. The damage is at the top of the segment which is planted in the pot. It has recently been sending out a lot of new growth below the damage so I feel like it might be telling me its connection to the upper portion has been interrupted. The top pods are still growing but I'm not sure if this is because of reserves stored in the pods, it doesn't have that many aerial roots yet. What should I do?

harveyc

I have had something like that happen a couple of times (usually because something sipped while I was tying up a section, etc.) and I just put it back in place as well as I could and it seemed to heal up okay. It looks like you can leave it go for a while to see how it does. I would probably see which one of the new shoots is strongest and then thin out the others and then use that strongest one as a replacement after the growing season is over this year.

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Richard

I'm watching you go through a learning process. I think you are making good choices.

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Hammocked Banana

So you suggest I leave the top as it is and just narrow down the new growths to one, which will serve as a back up, incase things go wrong at the injury?

Dangermouse01

Harvested my last 2 Dark Star of the season this morning.
23 and 20.5 ounces.


DM

Richard

Yup.

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