Dragon Fruit
- Thread starter synclinorium
- Start date
Very nice setup. I made a sauce using a fruit and loved it soo much I'm considering on starting a few plants. How tall should I make a stand for them?
Thanks for the link. I noticed he is in So Cal so I may pick up a few plants if he's not too far away. Any suggestion for a first time DF grower? I would like something that doesn't need cross pollinating unless I can put 2 plants in 1 pot for pollination purposes??
Thanks for the link. I noticed he is in So Cal so I may pick up a few plants if he's not too far away. Any suggestion for a first time DF grower? I would like something that doesn't need cross pollinating unless I can put 2 plants in 1 pot for pollination purposes??
I made mine 6 ft so i could get under it easily with the mower... however lower would produce quicker.
Is their any advantage to having it higher like MORE or BIGGER fruit?
no clue, never got that far. A place down the road has a bunch growing, and there 30 in or so.
I went ahead and bought some seeds off ebay, i figured what the hell I got some patience to let them grow.
I think LGHT kinda half way asked one of my questions, but do you put more than one in a pot or multiple ones cause I was thinking of doing 3 in one 15 gallon or so pot and just in case the mixed seeds i bought arent self pollinating, ill atleast have all 3 plants near each other so i can just hand pollinate anyways.
I think LGHT kinda half way asked one of my questions, but do you put more than one in a pot or multiple ones cause I was thinking of doing 3 in one 15 gallon or so pot and just in case the mixed seeds i bought arent self pollinating, ill atleast have all 3 plants near each other so i can just hand pollinate anyways.
In theory you could do more than one plant per pot like I am, but I don't plan on this being their permanent home... they will likely get diced up at some point when I finally move, as I don't want to deal with trying to transport that thing intact (plus, the support is probably not as sturdy as it needs to be).
I don't know if there's any way to encourage the dragon fruit to produce earlier, but my advice would be to let it get as big as possible since the energy that must go into making 10-15 inch blossoms and fruit of that size is considerable, and you want a healthy plant... I've heard they won't start fruiting until the individual vines weigh about 10 pounds, so that's another consideration when putting multiple plants per pot.
Commercially they let a single vine grow up the support and then clip it at the top to encourage it to branch. This design is extremely top heavy and doing this in a pot is risky, especially if your area is at all windy. I think they use rebar supports to hold up the mass of vines at the top. When designing a trellis make sure it is sturdy in the long term...
I don't know if there's any way to encourage the dragon fruit to produce earlier, but my advice would be to let it get as big as possible since the energy that must go into making 10-15 inch blossoms and fruit of that size is considerable, and you want a healthy plant... I've heard they won't start fruiting until the individual vines weigh about 10 pounds, so that's another consideration when putting multiple plants per pot.
Commercially they let a single vine grow up the support and then clip it at the top to encourage it to branch. This design is extremely top heavy and doing this in a pot is risky, especially if your area is at all windy. I think they use rebar supports to hold up the mass of vines at the top. When designing a trellis make sure it is sturdy in the long term...
Thank you synclinorium for the info. You have some really good points now im second guessing my plan lol. Maybe go with a lower height trellis, and have just 2 plants. It gets really windy here when spring rolls in, then its just stupid hot all summer.
Im thinking a lower height may withstand it better, but im a couple years away from that from what I understand since im starting from seed.
Once again thanks for all the helpful info, cant wait for more updates on your plants
Im thinking a lower height may withstand it better, but im a couple years away from that from what I understand since im starting from seed.
Once again thanks for all the helpful info, cant wait for more updates on your plants
No problem! I'm relatively new to Dragon Fruit growing, so most of what I know is just from hours of searching online. There really isn't a whole lot of information out there about them, certainly very little on trying to grow them in pots.
Maybe someday I'll live somewhere I can just grow them in the ground.
Not Dragon Fruit related, but another one of my random plant purchases of the past year was a Makrut Lime, which so far is doing just fine indoors. I've moved it to an area with less light as the other location was too close to a heat vent, so I'm waiting to see how it adjusts. It doesn't look like it has grown much since the last time I posted photos, but in reality I've clipped off about 2 feet of growth over the past year and I have containers full of leaves in my freezer. Easily the lowest maintenance citrus I've ever dealth with (though the fruit is inedible, unfortunately).
Maybe someday I'll live somewhere I can just grow them in the ground.
Not Dragon Fruit related, but another one of my random plant purchases of the past year was a Makrut Lime, which so far is doing just fine indoors. I've moved it to an area with less light as the other location was too close to a heat vent, so I'm waiting to see how it adjusts. It doesn't look like it has grown much since the last time I posted photos, but in reality I've clipped off about 2 feet of growth over the past year and I have containers full of leaves in my freezer. Easily the lowest maintenance citrus I've ever dealth with (though the fruit is inedible, unfortunately).
After more thought, and after reading that growing from seed can take up to 5-7 years till fruit, i ordered 2 cuttings off ebay. They are supposed to be Purple Haze, but like you said synclinorium they are from ebay so you never know. They were really cheap, like 3 bucks and another 4-5 for shipping for both so I pulled the trigger.
I will be anxiously awaiting some more updates from ya synclinorium
I will be anxiously awaiting some more updates from ya synclinorium
Nice. Probably the same person I got mine from. The reason they're so cheap (or at least, should be) is because when you have a mature plant you have a regular source of cuttings with almost no effort... once they get going the growth rate is nuts.
I just pruned some of the scraggly growth back... it's getting to the point where there isn't enough light to keep the new growth nice and plump, so at this point my plan is just to maintain it until I can get it outside in the spring...
I just pruned some of the scraggly growth back... it's getting to the point where there isn't enough light to keep the new growth nice and plump, so at this point my plan is just to maintain it until I can get it outside in the spring...
Sounds about right... some of mine shot up about 2 feet in 2 months.
That'd probably be the same person, heh.
That'd probably be the same person, heh.
I bought from that dude too, because of price, shit better be as described
...I planted them last weekend into a pot that I made after seeing your idea...I went way gullier with it though. I'll post pics tomorrow.
I bought from that dude too, because of price, shit better be as described...I planted them last weekend into a pot that I made after seeing your idea...I went way gullier with it though. I'll post pics tomorrow.
Think his name was Vien, he seemed like a decent guy. I could care less about the variety as long as they are self pollinating(im new to DF so as long as they grow im coo lol)
Ive seen bats here but i dont think they would pollinate for me(doubt they are even fruit eater, no idea lol) so id hate to have to do it myself. There is an a older gentleman who has several beehives not even a 1/4 mile down the road so maybe they could show up first thing in the morning.
Ive been obsessed more and more with this species lately, i wanna see more pics and stories lol.
Thanks again synclinorium, by the time this thread is done we will have a whole database on DragonFruit
.That'd be cool. Anyone else who decides to grow Dragon Fruit should feel welcome to post progress picks... didn't really intend this to be a personal grow log. You probably won't see too many more updates from me until spring since I'm just going to be keeping the plants at a manageable size. The new growth has been too wimpy to bother saving for cuttings...
One thing I'll say is that the cuttings can sometimes take a long time to produce new growth... some were growing within a couple weeks of being rooted, others a month or two. I have one that's still in its pot from early last summer and hasn't done anything since then... still green and plump, so I know it's healthy at least.
One thing I'll say is that the cuttings can sometimes take a long time to produce new growth... some were growing within a couple weeks of being rooted, others a month or two. I have one that's still in its pot from early last summer and hasn't done anything since then... still green and plump, so I know it's healthy at least.
Mine have just started puttin out new growth points, I will be pickin a few off thats for sure. One of the wild nes i have has finally started to grow a lil, but it grows way smaller and slower.
