correction; they have buds now, flowers soon

thanks. Looks like they're going to bloom two at a time, so I don't think I've got much choice in fertilization partners.

the first two blossoms opened last night; here they are this morning. I used a paintbrush to move pollen from one to the other, and vice versa.

Can anyone tell what variety from the blossom?

Did you get any fruit to set? If so, any pictures?

Thanks,

Rick in CT

the big white flowers haven't set fruit, whether or not I hand pollinated. But 2 or 3 fruits have appeared where I didn't pollinate (presumably a different variety, I didn't see them bloom). I'm guessing the white flowers need something they aren't getting, like the right pollen. The plants have gotten even bigger than the picture above.

Here are couple of developing fruit

and more (white) buds coming along. This plant-or-plants has tons of buds; there are 4 buds on that one "branch" on the left. Plus a spent bloom on the right. Maybe that one will produce a fruit!

hopefully, I can post pictures of (and enjoy) ripe fruit soon!

That first picture doesn't look like epiphyllum. Those look like multiple fruits, which (in my very limited experience with these) I didn't think was typical of this genus. The stem looks different too. It will be interesting to see how they ripen--please keep us posted. I'm a little envious of those who can grow these tropicals so easily!

--Rick in CT

I've been assuming they'd somehow smooth out as they ripened, but now that you mention it, that doesn't seem likely. So I've been googling around; it looks like some yellow dragonfruit are pretty segmented ( yellow+dragon+fruit ) so I'm going to assume that's what these are.

I used to know someone who boasted he had 8 of the top 10 dragonfruit varieties. Too bad he's gone, he probably would have cleared this right up.

I'll try to remember to post when they're ripe, including one cut open. Unless it turns out poisonous... :-}

The first picture with fruit looks like the yellow type (Selenicereus megalanthus) of dragon fruit. They take months (3-4) to ripen verses the 30-something days for the Hylocereus types. They are still tasty.

Yellow Dragon Fruit

DM

Thanks, Dangermouse! Great link, and it's good to have confirmation on the variety!

I think I have the yellow dragon fruit too. It bloomed twice this year and I used hand pollination each time between the hours of 10-11pm when the blooms started to open big. Unfortunately, both these blooms dropped off with no sign of fruit formation. This makes me wonder if this variety is not a self pollinating variety and it needs other variety to cross pollinate. I haven't read the link dangermouse tagged here, but I'll go and read and see if i can find out more info. So, thanks for the link.

I didn't hand pollinate the yellow. The link says they're selfies.

Is there a list of which variety is self fertile and which is not? Which is self pollinating and which is not?

see the link in dangermouse's post above. Has pictures, too!

Found a good chart on this page. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs303

Congrats, they look healthy and lots of flowers. The white flower is the type that has pink outside and white meat inside. My Mom and I hand pollinate the flowers from the same tree. We used to have the pink and ryellow meat varieties too, but didn't find it worth growing mainly because the fruits are smaller, lower production, and I don't like the thorns LOL. I prefer eating the white meat type anyways, its flower and fruit are both pretty.

the other day, there were 4 white flowers in bloom. I cross pollinated between all of them. Hope I get fruit this time...

I visited a friend's farm yesterday; he's growing hundreds of dragonfruit. He said "If it doesn't fruit on its own, tear it out." Buh-bye white flower plants!

He plants 7-8 cuttings on each side of a frame made of two pallets leaning against each other (with additional support), and says to try to keep the fruit at a level for easy harvesting. They don't seem to mind poor soil.

Then he gave me Thompson and Frankie's Red (yummy!) cuttings that he says are abundantly self-fruitful.

We're building a screen house for plants that don't need the heat of a greenhouse, but can't handle all the rain we get here (170" a year). The new dragonfruit will be our first tenants.

Steiconi--what happened with that segmented fruit of yours last year? Did it turn out to be yellow flesh, and how was it? I'm trying to picture the two palettes being used to support 7 or 8 df's. Next time you go to that ranch, maybe take a picture or two?

Here are my 3 plants that I bought as cuttings a year ago. There's dome discussion about whether the 17" pots are adequate or not. Moving them to larger pots would be a real challenge.

I'm thinking of building a sort of 'box' around the pot, 5' high, using 2" × 2" wood, screwed together. This would make moving the plant easier, and offers lots of options to support heavy growth.

What do you think?

Rick in CT

Anyone want a cutting?

The segments of last year's fruit filled out and merged, then turned yellow. The fruit was kind of blandly sweet. Sorry, I didn't take pix. The white flowers never produced any fruit.

We did tear all the DF out of the greenhouse, but didn't build the screenhouse. We put the new cuttings at one screened end of the greenhouse, and strung up wire-core laundry line to encourage them to grow up that wall. The Thompsons have grown well and are now 5 feet tall or more. The Frankies Red haven't grown as fast, but gave me one fruit--it was tasty, hope for more next year.

17" pots might work. I have a few DF that have been sitting around in 1 gallon pots for a few years but have never bloomed. I assume they want more root space, but they're the junky yellow ones, so I'm not going to bother.

The pallets at the farm make an A-frame, their bases about 18"-24" apart. Can you picture that? We might visit the DF farm in the next couple of weeks, I'll try to remember to take pix.