Had two extra Yellow Dragon Fruit plants. I potted them into two large hanging baskets, and hung them from the greenhouse support. The greenhouse is 12 ft high at the center. Both plants have about a dozen branches, with one main leader. The longest leader branch right now is 3-ft. long. So far so good, we'll see how a hanging basket Dragon fruit does. Citrus Joe and I board a United Airline's flight tomorrow morning (Sunday) for LAX Los Angeles airport. Citrus Joe and I have a private tour on Monday at UCR Riverside's citrus offices, citrus groves and research labs. Should be fun and a great learning experience.

Millet
Janet Monaco - American Hero

Millet, it will be interesting to see how your DF grows in a hanging basket.
Glad you mentioned you'll be gone .... was going to send a plant on Mon .
Let us know how your trip went! (and when you'll be back). I have something for Joe too that I want to send.(not DF)

Here is a pic of the top of the DF:


Here you can see all seven buds (some more clearly than others):



Today I ordered some more DF to fill up the pot! I got a yellow DF, 'David Bowie' and 'American Beauty,' along with Sapodilla 'Makok' and Spondias dulcis (from Pine Island).

Robert...excellent pics! I think it's great they are all growing from the top of plant too. Now with the warm weather and some ferts, they should really take off! I hear that a 10-10-10, or Peter's 20-20-20 is good, but william Chow told me that a high phosphate (5-15-5) is good for FD. I think I will alternate them.
Seems I remember someone here saying you would get no lateral growth by lopping off the top, so this is good news.....congrats!
I broke off a one inch nub of yellow & just stuck it back in soil a month ago & it has rooted & has 2 branches growing out of sides
These DF should be fun... esp w/ Millets hanging basket experiment.
Thanks for the pics.

Hey, thanks for the pics! Pretty cool how the new growth is coming from points even way below the cut. I didn't expect that.

As for when to prune? I've been wrestling with that. I put this question out to the yahoo pitaya group forum and here is the response that I got:

"If the stalks are within a couple of inches from the top of
the support, then cutting them back to encourage branching is
alright. I mean, what does it matter if it is at 5'10", or
6'0"?"

I also put the question to Roger Washington, owner of the Red Dragon Fruit Company in Florida. His response confused me:

"let a few main branches go through the grid. they will bend back down under their own weight. you might want to single leader the trunk up to about 4' to encourage top sprouting. we are working on hybrids for indoor growing. i'll keep you informed. we do not treat cuts with anything due to extensive labor costs. i have never seen damage but it never hurts to try a few treated and a few not treated. that's how we learn. "

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I was a little confused. His followup:

"Sorry for the confusion. Single leader means to prune any growth coming off of the main stem or trunk. This means that you want to have a single trunk that is clear up to 4'. Let everything from 4' and above go through the grid."

Okay...so I'm taking this to mean that 4' is the magical number. Prune at 4' and let everything else go up thru the grid. Here's my two cents on this... pruning prior to going thru the grids(upper support) would allow multiple branches going up and thru. Now each branch would be supporting itself instead of one leader branch going thru and supporting all the new branches. Aww crap...I think I just confused myself again! I think I'm going to prune my fastest growing one prior to the grid and see how it goes. Any thoughts??

Almost forgot...I watched a video interview of this Roger Washington talking about dragon fruit. He mentioned that they can do quite well as a hanging basket. It should be pretty impressive. I'd make darn sure you were attached to the ceiling quite well.

Thanks Jay, I have a hard time dealing w/ the Yahoo Pitaya group... they don't answer.
I will definately do a hanging basket with the small yellow & red cuttings.

Well I made my very first pruning cut today. The weather has been warming up quite a bit and the plants are jumping. The knife just hovered above the plant for what seemed like forever. Cut it here? Cut it there? Cut it now or wait? You'd have thought I was ready to perform an operation on someone!

I made the cut about 8 inches below my grid. The plan will be to bend and force the new, pliable growth in the directions I want them to go. Hey SB, how long after your prune did it start to push new growth?

LOL, Jay!

Those of us who do operations (on people) don't ask those questions before we cut!

See one, do one, teach one!

I believe it was about 10-14 days...not too long. Eleven days have elapsed between the last set of pics and today's pic, below.

Wow! I didn't expect it to branch so much. Should be interesting that's for sure. Thanks for the pics

SB, I hope those new branches at top will lay gracefully over the rack on top - without falling over & breaking.
I'd like to see more pics of yours & Jays at top now that you both lopped off.

Here's some pics of my trellis I promised, made of PVC. The 2 bigger poles are (& upper sides) wrapped with canvas as I could not find burlap.
It looks top heavy, but the top is really lighweight & the pot is 19X16 X 9 inches high. It has some pea gravel in to add weight. My problem will be getting it out the dam door as it is 83 inches high & doors are 80, but I will do it with my dolly- just tipping it.
A friend said it looks "Japanese" LOL


It is 6ft from soil to top. Notice how looong & skinny the yellow one is on left- all winter growth...there are 2 yellow branches .


The one on right is white fleshed Jaina. The longest is three segments. Should I cut the other 4 branches off or let then grow up pole?

The top:



The top is about 36X36inches...ooooh, more fun getting it out door LOL. Nothing is glued so I can take apart if I have to.

Here's the red one yr ago: I marked where new growth was starting.

I'm sure by end of summer, these will be monsters!

Nice pics Patty. Looks like they are well on their way. I agree you should have LOTS of fun getting them out the door!

Not sure about the pruning of those 4 branches. I know the experts all say to have one lead trunk up to at least 4-5 feet before pruning. I have one that has two going up from nearly the bottom of the plant. This was before I knew any better and now that they are both nearly at the top, I'm afraid to cut one of them. Both seem to be growing quite fast. I'll query a buddy on this and see what he thinks.

I'll try and post some pics in the next couple of days.

How old are those plants Patty? I have some I am growing from seed and they are still only a few inches tall.

So, if Im correct, I should be cutting all the new growth sprouting till the main branch gets big... this could be a problem. I have new growth EVERYWHERE. dang things are going crazy with the sun hitting them. Seems pretty shocking that we have sun already. Have to get a pic taken so you can see.

As for hanging baskets, the place I got mine from grew his in large hanging baskets with great sucess, he allowed all the branches to hang and he was able to get fruit I have a few hanging baskets laying around, might put them in there, it'll open up more room for all my citrus and their pots.

My new growth is gracefully drooping toward the ground. I'll try to get some pics this weekend.

My new American Beauty DF is putting out new growth already, just a few weeks after transplanting.

SB