It's very easy to care for. I keep mine in full sun and feed it infrequently. The blooms are gorgeous but I haven't had any fruit yet. I had mine for several years before it began to flower. This plant needs careful staking starting very early. I made the mistake of not doing that and now have over 8' of cactus growing in all directions and they are difficult to support, especially when I have to move it in and out of the greenhouse. In areas where they are grown comercially they are trained almost like a topiary.

Treat it like any other tropical fruit, not like a cactus. They do like a lot of water. I would start designing some sort of support system. This will depend upon whether you will be keeping the plant in a container or planting into the ground. Lots of info out there on the web. It's a fun plant. Good luck. Here's a pic of a couple of mine.

That plant looks beautiful the way you have it supported, although I can't tell what you did for it at the bottom. Thanks for the photo.

It's a 4x6 post set about 3' into the ground. It's almost like a mini raised bed. I have the plant directly into the ground. It really took off after that. The top support is made up of a 2x2 grid on top of 2x4's. The support starts around 5'7". I'm a little over 5'8". Until the plant got to the size you see in the pic, I whacked my head more times than I care to count. I whacked my head more times than I care to count. I whac... sorry. I also thought that I could keep the plants hanging more towards the front so I didn't build much of a support grid in the back. Ha! The plants thought differently. I ended up having to put a support back there. What fun that was! The pic below is when I first put them into the ground back in October of 2006.

Karyn's sound like her plants are farther along than mine. I acquired mine in the spring of 2006. They have not bloomed yet. Karyn...maybe increase the humidity around the plant next time they bloom. Have you tried to hand pollenate? Got any pics? Thanks. J

J I love your set up. Do you have heating cables underground? How do you keep the soil warm enough in your zone? My GH is attached but is built off of the second level of my house so there no ground underneath. I break sections of the plants off everytime I move them. I've never had more then one bloom at the same time so I haven't been able to cross pollinate and have no idea if they are self pollinating. I have a couple varieties. Here's pics of a bloom. In the close up you can see how perfectly the flower is formed to be pollinated by a bat. The inside is so cool looking.
Karyn

Ohiojay, if you live in Ohio, what do you do to protect this plant.

Karyn, what beautiful pics! Almost seems like you could crawl right in. A lot of DF's are self fruitful. Hopefully ours are. I'm pretty sure one is at least. I've read that higher humidity aids in pollination.

Pat,
My plants are in a heated greenhouse. Most plants experience growth flushes all year long. Still, the growth is not as dramatic as you would get from them in their natural environments. I try to get as close as possible without going into a partnership with the gas company!