I'd thought you' get a kick out of the way these rampant growers.. grow... since moving it inside in the late fall.. near a window.. it sent out a shoot that was about 7' long.. up to the top of the window ..and into the air conditioners inside fan unit and back out... I can see by just this winters strong growth ..how it can make 6 crops of fruit a year .. the first pictture I've pulled the growth tip out of it's place and it's wrapped about the window... before rewinding it on the trellis.. I've got a red and a white fruited version of it...
So... how big/old do these have to be before seeing some flowers... and perhaps fruit..

I believe the fruit is in mid to late summer, it's quite common here but I can't remember when I start seeing all the fruit. I have several but haven't gotten any fruit from them yet. My understanding is that they don't fruit until they start to fall back down, after they've gotten as high as they can. I'm not sure though. My friend has tons of fruit and blooms every year, mine have grown a lot but never bloomed.

It is said here that you plant pitahaya (that's its name here) for your neighbors because the vines always go to the top of the wall and then bloom and fruit hanging over the other side.

If so, my neighbors should be happy pretty soon as all of mine have reached the top of the 15' wall and are hanging over the other side. Maybe I should go over there and ask if I can plant some on their side

The kind grown here is red to an almost day glow burgandy on the outside, with white flesh. Farther south in Honduras and Guatemala I've had the ones with the red flesh, I don't recall much of a taste difference. The blooms are white, at night and have a good fragrance. I think they are pollinated by the large, black night moths here in the tropics, there are a lot of superstitions about those too.

Wow Gordon! That sure is one plant with steroids! Though I cannot answer your question, thanks for sharing this kind of growth habit..my hubby will hit the roof if any of my plants grow like that! Dragon fruit..that's the fruit with scaly like skin and reddish pink fleshy juicy core right? Would really like to see how it grows in your garden!

Dragon fruit cactus has to weigh in around 10 lbs weight before it will flower.


This jumbled mess actually grew arms through the dining room and started it's way under my bedroom door! After that I gave it a really good cut! lol People had even commented that instead of it growing towards the light....it was going for me! lol

Here are some pics I have. This is the vine blooming in a tree at a friend's country house. The bloom was way up in the tree, I had to use the zoom and it was my iphone so I had a friend hold a flashlight on it for more light. It's kind of blurry, but it was gorgeous. I smelled the blooms walking by and had to get a flashlight to find it.



Here are some of the fruit along with some mangos and my cat Raui for size if that helps. I notice that I took these in August and the picture of the flowers in July, so I think I'm right that the fruit starts in the middle of the rainy season.



A fruit I cut at my friend's house, shows the stem.



The inside of the fruit, you eat the seeds normally. All of my vines are from fruit that I thought was particularly sweet so I put about a tablespoon of the fruit and seeds in a nook in my rock wall. The rains washed some of it down into the soil and I have vines coming from both places now.



Now, I just wish they would bloom. I'm actually more interested in the blooms than the fruit, I can buy the fruit on every street corner when it is in season. The blooms are so wonderful though. I really need to talk to my neighbors about putting some on their side of the wall.

extranjera said: I really need to talk to my neighbors about putting some on their side of the wall.

GOOD THINKING!!!

YUM!!

tropicalover said:Dragon fruit cactus has to weigh in around 10 lbs weight before it will flower.


This jumbled mess actually grew arms through the dining room and started it's way under my bedroom door! After that I gave it a really good cut! lol People had even commented that instead of it growing towards the light....it was going for me! lol

I have the plant but no blooms/fruit yet. Not large and heavy enough, I guess.

Revenge of the Dragon Fruit.

It's possessed!

I sure believed that also tarev! It was the most unusual thing to see lol

it's a rampant grower..
Jonna.. here's the look your neighbors have...


interesting comercial growing.. they grow up a few stems ..tied together and and tied to a pipe,or a wood or concrete post.. these are sometimes wrapped with burlap.. the burlap is wet with plant food so the aerial roots can also be fed..

at the top of the post they will often have a wire form like in an umbrella or in this picture a wire platform to support the plant as the branching trails back to the ground

Gordon, I've proposed your last picture for the Plant Database, but you can add the others as well; very interesting!

Wow! Those are amazing photos Gordon! Seems to remind me of Medusa's head..

I wish I had room to do that. I've been thinking of putting some of the small ones around the fish tail palm and see if it will grow up it a bit and then fall back - inside my yard. I've noticed that the one that has reached the top of the wall sent a long branch out into space and then presumably fell back on the neighbors side. However, at the top of the wall there are 2 new branche starting and I'm hoping they will come towards me (and the sun).

Jonna... just pull them back to your side... tie them till they get heavy enough to stay in place on your side..
as far as when they will flower and set fruit... these seem to be fruiting pretty small.. although they might be a big cutting from an old plant... rather than the 6" bit mine have started from.. mine seem ready looking at the size of these

Very cool pictures, Gordon. Thanks!

According to the website of dragon fruit growers here in Fallbrook, some varieties require a pollinator and some are self pollinating.

Thompson is self pollinating, but greatly benefits from a pollinator.
Undatus is self pollinating.
Polyrhizus needs a pollinator.
Guatemalan needs a pollinator.

Since mine is seed grown, i won't know whether or not I'm going to need a pollinator, but am interested in the flowers if nothing else.

interesting Sherry..I was amaised at the variety of them being sold .. there must have been dozens of them.. lots with white... red ..and yellow flesh inside.. I've two types of them..a red and a white fleshed ones.. so perhaps if one or both aren't self pollinating.. they might be able to help out one another.. I'm mostly interested in the flowering too.. and have some thought if there is fruit it perhaps is better than the few I've tried from the markets here.. I wouldn't willingly try any of them again.. but I've had reports of great tasting ones.. and how bad the ones found here are... might just be they are picked too young for shipping and sale purposes.. I've also heard they are helped out by the addition of sugar ... which I didn't happen to add to the ones I tried...

I've heard from others that they are not all that tasty, but there again, it's probably going to depend on variety...and like you say, if all else fails...add sugar...lol..

MMM yes... I'm working on preservation after death... when I finally go they will find I've done so... having turned to marzipan... so perhaps I'm not real good at tasting/enjoying things that aren't as sweet ..
I saw one comercial site there where they had them growing in greenhouses in San Diego.. are they grown outside there.. I couldn't understand why the greenhouses.. just maybe to really spur them on.. or it was apart of their research on them..