Yellow pitaya/dragonfruit

I’ve never understood the appeal of (pink) dragonfruit, which always taste vaguely like vegetal styrofoam every time I decide to give them another chance.

However, I ordered a fruit box from Miami Fruit last week, and it included three of the yellow type, and this tastes like a completely different fruit! Very sweet and flavorful, excellent texture. Suddenly I have a strong desire to add one of these to my greenhouse…

From a little googling, it looks like there is a wide range of fruit quality, so I’m curious if anyone knows what cultivar/variety this is from the fruit appearance. I’ve reached out to Miami Fruit to see if they have a cultivar name, but figured I’d ask on here too.

I’ve started germinating some of the seeds, too, but looks like cuttings are the recommended method of propagation.

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You should try to root the small piece of cactus that is attached to the fruit… i did one.

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Those are palora variety dragonfruit. Very distinctive, and the commonly seen yellow variety. They’re a very sweet variety. There are a lot of really good ones, the super common red/white dragonfruit in stores just happens to be one of the blandest (vietnamese white)
Dark star, townsend pink, and sugar dragon are some of the sweetest, much more so than palora.

Dragonfruits from seed take 4-10 years to fruit, much like fruit trees. Cuttings are the best option.

Growdragonfruit . com is where I get my cuttings. They give brix ratings and flavor ratings (and you often get a free cutting included)
Palora naturally has spines on the fruit, so I’d recommend a variety like dark star to try growing. They’re purple/pink fleshed. I have an australian gold plant as well, for a spineless yellow one. Hana is supposed to be a good white flesh red type but mine hasn’t fruited yet.

I also recommend the youtube channel “grafting dragonfruit” to learn about growing them! Super awesome gardner who gives all the info you could ever want, from growing, grafting, and fruiting to taste tests and varieties

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Thanks! I’ve started trying to root the bit of cactus on the fruit, but it looks pretty dried out so I’m not too optimistic. I’ll check out the growdragonfruit website too.

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Try to rehidrate it first, for some hours… you will get the real thing if you are succed! :grinning:

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They sell out really fast, especially of the super in demand varieties. You can definitely try growing off that lil piece and it would be palora variety

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Yellow pitaya seedlings take a long time. Planted in January.

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The bit of cactus on the fruit got moldy and rotted when I tried to sprout it, but the seeds are germinating nicely:

Can’t wait for that delicious fruit in a decade or so! (I’m sure I’ll buy cuttings sooner :joy:)

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It’s a race for who will shed their seed coat first…

And what is this? Looks like something from the yard hitched a ride on the topsoil I used in this soil mix:

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I remember those days for my yellow dragon fruit seeds.

Fukushu cutting rooting away to the right.

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One of mine has a 3-leaf cotyledon. Wonder if the cactus stem will be a different shape than normal?

I too have a 3 cotyledon. It is growing nicely. I do worry that with this mutation

it might grow up to be a fire breathing dragon fruit that will kill us in our sleep. We will find out

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How’s your triple cotyledon seedling doing @poncirusguy? Mine seems to be the most vigorous out of my dozen or so seedlings:

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It died from drought. I have 2 left alive.

Oh no! Well hopefully those two make it.

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Just a quick photo update, here’s the largest seedling, which I just planted in the ground (burying a few more inches of cactus, so it looks shorter now):

It already had a small air root coming out of the back side, so I’ll be able to remove the twine before too long I’m sure.

The runner up will go into the ground soon (this is the one that had triple cotyledon):

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My 2 yellows

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Curious if anyone knows whether these should be pruned to a central leader, or allowed to get bushy instead. This is my only seedling that has grown this spring in the greenhouse, though most of them are just dormant and healthy looking (other than slug nibbling) like the one to the lower right of the main one below.

I’m thinking I’ll make these cuts and try to root what I remove:

I just planted this from its pot today and added the old Christmas tree trunk (upside down) as a post for it to climb. Hanging out next to the banana:

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@Richard’s other thread about this species reminded me that I never followed up after I removed those cuttings from that most vigorous seedling, which is still being harassed by slugs but it is still growing a bit:

The cuttings all grew really well, and I planted three in the ground in the greenhouse last week and there are three more still in a 1 gallon pot:

The one seedling that was in the ground all winter was eaten to a stump by the slugs, but is trying to recover even though it’s smaller now than it was a year ago:

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The other thread by @clarkinks reminded me to update this one. The seedling that made it through last winter has once again survived, but looks sad:

Both of the other seedlings that managed to regrow last year look dead or nearly so. Here’s the better looking one:

The rooted clones of the first one above have made it through ok, so its winter hardiness does appear to be legit:

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