Dragon Fruit Flower

[MattyB]

Our pink dragon fruit (pitayah) is just starting to open some of its flowers. There's about 20-30 buds so hopefully we'll have a good crop of fruit. Our white one already has a fruit on it swelling. We have another pink named cultivar and a yellow one as well that are too young to flower as of yet. This will be our first year to harvest dragon fruit.

[paulgila]

it looks alot like the night-blooming cereus(not "cereal,"matt!) in my yard.

[MattyB]

Yup, very similar but mine are better because it makes fruit. Nany nany boo boo

[paulgila]

how do the flowers smell,little boy?

[dalmatiansoap]

U need to hand pollinate them!

[MattyB]

I was wondering about pollination. The white one opened only one flower and it self pollinated with no other flowers nearby. The pink one pictured was open for only one day and now it too appears to be pollinated by itself. I thought that another flowers pollen had to be introduced to it, but apparently not. The ants and bees are all over it so maybe that's why.

[BigFrond]

Cool. You should hand polinate them. Just put hour hand inside the flower and shake a couple of times, then repeat it with all the flowers.

I have four plants waiting to be planted. The fruit is not all that great, although the red variety is more tasty.

[Stevetoad]

man i got three cutting this year. only two are growing like crazy. i cant wait to get some fruit off of it.

[Dr. George]

U need to hand pollinate them!

Depends on the pitahaya/pitaya/dragon fruit variety.

Some are self fertile (can use pollen from the same variety) and self pollinating (don't have to hand pollinate)

Some are self fertile but not self pollinating so require hand pollinating

Some are not self fertile (require pollen from a different variety of pitahaya) and require hand pollinating

So, if someone is getting flowering and no fruit, may need to hand pollinate, and might even need to hand pollinate with pollen from a different variety of pitahaya.

A good source of information is this dragon fruit group (as if you need another discussion group) :

Pitaya Discussion Grooup

Also, there is a good reference publication that runs about $20 if anyone is interested:

Thomson Pitahaya Book

Matt - show us pics of your fruit - should be about 45 days from the flowering - gmp

Here are some pics of the less common yellow dragon fruit Hylocereus (Selenicereus) megalanthus:

[MattyB]

We have the yellow, 2 pinks, and a white. It appears that the one pink that is mature and blooming is aborting after flowering and not forming fruit. So I'll try and hand pollinate. Can I apply pollen from the same flower or does it need to be another flower on the same tree? I have many that appear to be opening at the same time so maybe the bees and ants will pollinate if it's accepting it's own pollen. Otherwise I'll just have to wait until my yellow and different pink variety flower and try cross pollination.

[edric]

Spectacular flower, Ed

[Dr. George]

We have the yellow, 2 pinks, and a white. It appears that the one pink that is mature and blooming is aborting after flowering and not forming fruit. So I'll try and hand pollinate. Can I apply pollen from the same flower or does it need to be another flower on the same tree? I have many that appear to be opening at the same time so maybe the bees and ants will pollinate if it's accepting it's own pollen. Otherwise I'll just have to wait until my yellow and different pink variety flower and try cross pollination.

The yellow is self fertile and self pollinating as long as you have a vector like the bees. The yellow are not too prolific in So. Cal. but I think they taste the best of the lot.

On the pink, without knowing the species it is hard to say whether or not it is self fertile. I would suggest hand pollinating some of the pinks with their own pollen and some of the pinks with pollen from the white. Keep track of which ones fruit and it will help to determine whether or not it is self fertile.

(And just to beat Paul to the punch line ...if none of them fruit, then you'd better check your pollinator)

gmp

[ariscott]

the red is the best....

[EmmettB]

[EmmettB]

[EmmettB]

[Tracy]

On 8/5/2011, 3:06:07, MattyB said:

We have the yellow, 2 pinks, and a white. It appears that the one pink that is mature and blooming is aborting after flowering and not forming fruit. So I'll try and hand pollinate. Can I apply pollen from the same flower or does it need to be another flower on the same tree? I have many that appear to be opening at the same time so maybe the bees and ants will pollinate if it's accepting it's own pollen. Otherwise I'll just have to wait until my yellow and different pink variety flower and try cross pollination.

So after a few years, you must have all this worked out Matty.  Are there some of yours which you have to hand pollinate and others you are finding that you don't.  I just got the first bloom on one that I got labeled "yellow pitahaya".

[Palms1984]

MattyB:

How often do you water and fertilize your dragon fruit?  I have the purple one which is red-purple inside.  It doesn't produce much fruit; however, the fruit is of high quality.  I don't water my large plant much and it doesn't get much fertilizer.   I was wondering if that could be the reason why it doesn't produce much fruit. (I do hand-pollinate, though)

My plant is only 15 ft wide and it does produce many flowers several times a year and many flowers 30 to 60 flowers at one time.  I would think it should produce at least 15 fruits at least, once pollinated.  

[WonderKeeper]

This is  how I grow my dragon fruit.                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hkaKiWuXPA