Hi, I grew some dragon fruit from seed last year and this year the tallest is over 2 feet. I just discovered I would need another species for pollination/fruit. Does anyone out there have seed or cuttings?
dragon fruit
Hello, I bought a pitaya, or dragon fruit plant at the Rare Fruit & Nut Society's plant sale here last fall.
I asked the seller if I needed a cross-pollinator and she said no, but I would have to pollinate the flowers with a little paint brush to get them to make fruit. She says the flowers are huge, and very fragrant so they are not easy to miss. But they open at night, so maybe whatever pollinates them in their native environment isn't present here in North America.
I'm also looking at Logee's Tropical Plants catalog where they offer one variety of dragon fruit, and it says the same thing "Hand pollinate when the flowers are open". Their description also says "our plants may take up to 2 years to reach maturity" which means you might not see flowers on yours for a couple more years.
From what I've seen, they can get to be big plants and take up a lot of room since they're quite spiny. You don't want to grow two of them if you don't need to.
Up there in the GNW are you growing it in a greenhouse? Love the San Juans, as I am originally from Vancouver, Canada.
The information in Plant Files for Hylocereus says they can be propagated from woody stem cuttings:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/124842/
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/54131/
Same here: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/hs303
And, here: http://pitaya.foodlywise.com/how_to_grow_pitaya/growing_pitaya_commercially/growing_pitaya_from_cutting/pitaya_stem_cutting_pitaya_/
Here's a quote about pollenation I found by searching further in Lin's Foodlywise link:
"The pitaya cactus blooms only at night and only a few times each year, blooming with beautiful huge fragrant blooms. Pollination is by nocturnal creatures such as moths and bats rather than the more common pollinators of the day such as bees. Pollination by fruit bats is actually a very important natural process, in spite of a lot of people's aversion to the fuzzy little creatures! Since the pitaya cactus only comes to fruiting after a successful pollination - even self pollinating pitaya plants can fail to create pitaya fruits when they don't get the help of these essential nocturnal creatures to enable them to pollinate properly."
Sounds to me like the little paint brush might have to substitute for the fruit bats to pollinate the flowers. My plant is about 4 feet long, and I'm (warily) making it espalier on my fence, so hope to see a flower this summer. But after reading what I have about it, sounds like it might take another year.
Do you have Hummingbird Moths there ? They pollinate many of the night bloomers here.
I do have hummigbird moths here, and they love my ginger blossoms. Guess I might plant the dragon fruit cactus near the gingers, once I get up the nerve to put it in the ground. I've been moving it in and out of the shop to keep it warm. It's very thorny!
But colchie won't have hummingbird moths up in Washington, especially if they're growing the dragon fruit in a greenhouse.
IF it's being grown in the greenhouse, better just plan on hand pollinating it.
I grow several varieties of dragon fruit. Some kinds require cross pollination and you can do it with hand pollination. They like to climb and kinda hang down over something like a brick wall or some people make sturdy trellises for them. I have mine in the greenhouse this winter since some got a little frostbit. I think they will all be okay. You can start them from cuttings. Just cut off one section and lay it in the shade somewhere until the cut heals over. Then place it in some soil and just lightly water the soil and dont water again until it starts to grow. It is similar to rooting other cactus or even plumeria cuttings. If you water too much before they have roots, they will rot. I fertilize mine with fish fertilizer but you can use Miracle Grow if you want to. I keep mine in full sun here once they are rooted and growing because you will get more flowers that way. It is humid enough here that I can get away with full sun. When I lived in the desert I had them in afternoon shade.
Angel_tree_baby, now I have more questions! Sounds like I won't know if I need another variety until mine blooms despite what the seller told me? If I get flowers, hand pollinate and they still don't make fruit I'll need another variety, right? Also don't know what variety mine is, so I could get the same variety of the second plant. Can you tell different varieties apart before they bloom or make fruit?
Yikes, I don't know if I can find room for two of them. I have a nice spot by a 6ft. fence in sun all but the middle of the day, but if it likes its place and gets as big as people say, there's not room for two. Can I maybe plant them right together and let them intertwine? They might keep each other from getting so big. Or can I grow them both in big pots side by side?
Plus it might take another year or two for the second plant to bloom so I can cross-pollinate the first plant. arg. Gardening sure takes patience, doesn't it.
Will the tendrils on the stems twine or grab onto the fencing? Or should I plan to tie it up until it's tall enough to lay along the top of the fence?
It is very difficult to tell what kind of dragon fruit before they fruit and even then some kinds look very similar. There are probably some oober dragonfruit experts who could tell the difference before fruiting but that's not me LOL!
You can plant two together. Shouldn't be a problem.
Thier 'tendrils' are really roots. They will adhere to wood structures and also root themselves into dirt or whatever. Tying it up is a good idea until it gets tall enough to lean over the tops. The long stems can get very heavy.
For some good info on different cultivars here is a link. If you scroll all the way to the bottom, you can see how some people trellis thiers.
http://www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/dragon/index.htm