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Post by ottawagardener on Mar 1, 2011 14:43:50 GMT -5
My kids like dragons so got a dragon fruit one day and saved seeds because they are my children and it just seems natural. I have sprouted said seeds and now they are small, squat plants with baby leaves that keep toppling over when I overhead water. Next time, I'll stand their pot in water instead. What I'm wondering is how long before I see true cactus leaves. I'm as excited as the kids. There isn't that much info out there and of course it applies mostly to the climate that they are meant to grow in. It'll be neat if I get a climbing cacuts plant out of it though I'm not expecting fruit, I'd love to see a flower!
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Post by mjc on Mar 1, 2011 15:22:06 GMT -5
Don't look for growing info in fruit or veggie areas, because if you find anything it will be for growing them on a commercial scale in hot areas, like Mexico, Vietnam, etc. The Hylocerus genus is a common houseplant, though, and you may find info for cultivation in works on houseplants. cactiguide.com/cactus/?genus=HylocereusThey can get big...and grow pretty quickly. Also, if growing indoors, two or more will be needed (not a good selfer) for hand pollination (unless you've got some pollinating moths or fruit bats around...  ). They do flower rather readily, up to several times a year. I used to grow them when I was kid, long before I even knew that they had an edible fruit...and they are very pretty flowers and smell nice, too. |
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Post by ottawagardener on Mar 1, 2011 17:12:47 GMT -5
Thanks for the link. I'm going to check it out now. And no, as far as I know there are no night time flyers living in the house... lots of ladybugs but I doubt they'll suffice.
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Post by steev on Mar 1, 2011 20:42:15 GMT -5
In Guatemala they sold avocado-sized ones to tourists for a nickel, very impressive, violet flesh with little black seeds like a kiwi, insipid flavor. There was another type the size of an egg, white flesh and black seeds, excellent flavor. They tended not to sell those. Smart people. Wish I had seeds of that one.
One of my epiphyllum cacti, a cream-flowered one, occasionally would produce a fruit; small, white-fleshed, black seeds, oddly meaty-flavored.
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Post by garnetmoth on Mar 1, 2011 21:59:43 GMT -5
steev: ew! :-)
I gave up, but mine was about 6 ft tall, and never flowered. Ive never grown them from seed, but cuttings, and they are triangular sectioned, sometimes having little triangular arms off them. weird looking things.
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bertiefox
gardener
There's always tomorrow!
Posts: 236
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Post by bertiefox on Mar 2, 2011 6:25:28 GMT -5
I grew this from collected seed five or six years ago. I managed to get it into a good sized plant, but it really looked just like a prickly pear cactus. It succumbed fairly quickly the following winter even though it was in a frost free conservatory. Not a very interesting plant!
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Post by ottawagardener on Mar 2, 2011 9:38:28 GMT -5
But it's a dragon! My children can love acorns with grub holes or sticks that appear to have beaks. Somehow, I imagine that they will love these cacti too. Actually, now that I think of my odd ball collection of indoor plants - outside of my herbs - they are not stellar specimens so it will be in good company. I have a much greener thumb outside - must be the increased solar radiation. Okay, I admit it, it's just that I don't love my spider plant too much. I did. I have had nice plants but my cat likes to eat this one... so raggedy eared is the best descritpion.
On another note, they were selling little pinapple plants at the local supermarket. I was briefly tempted though I've been meaning to grow my own for some time now.
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Post by mjc on Mar 2, 2011 10:08:55 GMT -5
Easier than Dragonfruit...but don't bother buying a plant.
Buy a pineapple instead.
Then cut off the top and cut all the fruit and rind away from the leaves...so you are left with what looks like the leaves attached to part of the core. Then trim the bottom of that so there is no fruit/sweet part left. Next, you start pulling off leaves...start with the bottom most row and go the first couple of rows from the bottom, up. You may notice little roots or bumps, if you do go another row or two up...eventually you should have about an inch or so of 'core' uncovered. Put into a pot with a good, well draining potting mix...water and wait.
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Post by wildseed57 on Mar 2, 2011 12:59:40 GMT -5
I brought one with me years ago, when I moved from Calif to Missouri. The thing would out grow its pot and would hang down and you grab anyone that would stumble into it. It got to be a very large plant and even though it bloomed and gave me a couple fruit, I ended up giving it away which made my wife at the time very happy as it took up a lot of room. Where they grow it for fruit they usually graft it to a upright cactus so that it would produce faster and be less unruly. I got mine as a cutting. They often take a small cutting from it and graft a small round ball type cactus to it and sell it as a novelty.
George W.
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Post by blueadzuki on Mar 2, 2011 17:35:06 GMT -5
Where they grow it for fruit they usually graft it to a upright cactus so that it would produce faster and be less unruly. I got mine as a cutting. They often take a small cutting from it and graft a small round ball type cactus to it and sell it as a novelty. George W. That bring up a question I've always wondered about (though since it has nothing to do with food, this may not be the right thread to ask it. Whne I have seen those ball cacti grafted onto the pintaya cutting (I'm still used to using the old name for the fruit, plus I'm not sure the yellow ones are called dragon fruit) quite often the ball cacti is a very odd color, flourescent pink or yellow, with no trace of chlorophyll whatsoever. are those things some kind of mutant albino strain of cacti they create in labs? and if you cut one of those off the graft and try to root it, will the ball turn green again or is it basically incapable of survival if deprived of the grafted bit? Just curios. On a more food related point, re the pineapples, another question. Given the fact that, now that most of the store pineapples for the US are now being grown in Mexico and South America (as opposed to Hawaii), and as a consequence, Dole and such commecial pineapples now actually have seeds (I can explain why this happened if anyone is curios, but it's a bit dull, so I'll only do it if someone asks me) has anyone here tried to grow a pineapple from one of those. I imagine it would take an age (given how small the seeds are) but it should be doable anb might be interesting if you wanted a new kind of pineapple. Plus I think the seeds can be dried if you don't want to start the pineapple immediately (I'll have to look that bit up). There are a few cases where I'd LOVE to have those, for example if I ever get my hands on an Antiguan Black Pineapple (I've never seen one, but I have heard of them on gourmet fruit blogs, and they sound increadible) I'd love if it had seeds, as backup in case the crown didn't take. |
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Post by mjc on Mar 2, 2011 18:31:37 GMT -5
...quite often the ball cacti is a very odd color, flourescent pink or yellow, with no trace of chlorophyll whatsoever. are those things some kind of mutant albino strain of cacti they create in labs? and if you cut one of those off the graft and try to root it, will the ball turn green again or is it basically incapable of survival if deprived of the grafted bit? Yes, they are a chlorophyll reduced/free mutant...probably lab created, no they aren't a GMO (at least in the sense of having spliced genes). And, no, they are not capable of producing chlorophyll, so they'll die if cut off the graft. |
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Post by steev on Mar 3, 2011 15:48:15 GMT -5
Back to pineapples; there are lots of varieties never seen in stores, brown-fleshed etc. I wonder about the possibility of getting material for growing. I had a varigated one years ago, gorgeous plant, never fruited before I lost it.
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Post by ottawagardener on Mar 3, 2011 15:57:05 GMT -5
Okay, so if I cut off the puff ball on one of those cacti would I be left with the fruiting kind of pitaya cactus or just something in the same genus as they seem more or less upright? Antiguan black pineapple? Variegated pineapple? You guys have me intrigued. Thaks for the instructions on propagating pineapple. I've tried unsuccessfully a couple times before. These are better instructions though so I'll let you know if it works this time. P.S. Blueadzuki: I'm curious if you are willing to tell me the story via pm  |
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Post by mjc on Mar 3, 2011 19:07:11 GMT -5
Yes, it would be a fruiting one...not a real big genus and they are all used for fruit. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of selection done on them, either (some work on them in SE Asia...but other than that, it seems to be local selections of wild or nearly wild plants). You really wouldn't know until it does fruit (if it does) exactly what color it is, though.
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Post by cortona on Mar 3, 2011 19:46:34 GMT -5
if yu are looking for some different pytaya here you can find some interessant stuff: www.tropicalfruitnursery.com/dragon/index.htmthe yellow one are not ylocereus but if i remember right selenicereus but good too if you can find natural ripe fruit, same as the fruit of opunzia fucus indica here! and i'm interested too about your story bueadzuki and the fruiting plants are not grafted is the central vascular bundle that lost the green part and start to look like wood but it use more tan a single cuttins planted realy near and wrapped with something that i dont remember so it looks strange! |
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). They do flower rather readily, up to several times a year. 
