Pitaya Plans

I am bored and sleepy. This has caused the wheels of my mind to start churning. It would be wonderful if I could grow pitaya plants to the point of fruiting and then sell them at the local flea market. I don't know if there is a market for them, but there is definitely a shortage: I have never seen them in this area, and a search for them at the end of summer proved fruitless, literally. I have thought the same thing about my banana plants. Sell all the many pups. Anyway, if I trim the tips of the pitaya plant so that the plant grows more or less within the circumference of the container. I saw a picture of a pitaya that looked like a weeping willow with an extremely good hair cut. All the weeping branches were trimmed away from the ground at the same height. I would like to replicate this look at some point.

Prune Pitaya???

I want the Lowe's hylocereus to branch more in different directions. I had thought to prune the plant, and my hunch has been confirmed by the following website: http://www.kadasgarden.com/grafting5.html. I hope to do no harm, but I will never know if this will work until I try. My action plan is to prune the growing tips of the two growing shoots. The hope is that they will flush out new stems from other areoles.

O.k., so I did it. I trimmed all the tips and even cut off the very first branch to grow under my care. I hope that many more branches will grow, some of which should climb the impromptu trellis. Other branches can begin to hang down the side of the basket. As I just typed the last sentence, I began to think, "the stems probably will not hang down the side because the sun is coming from above, not below." I guess I will have to wait for spring and summer when I can put the plant outside so that sunlight will reach all parts.

While I was cutting tips off, I tasted a part of the plant. It's a little slimy but otherwise not bad. Breakfast anyone? The 3-inch branch that I cut off is now sitting in the room to cure. I about a week or two, I will put it in a pot to see if I can start another plant from the cutting. I hope the plant gives good fruit.

Dragon Fruit Trellis

I made a make-shift trellis for my pitaya plant. I used bamboo from my neighbor's yard; the only problems is that I don't know how to work with bamboo. I'm not sure how sound the structure is. I originally intended to just let the plant grow and drape over the pot. I still intend to let the plant hang over the container, but if a limb or two decide that they want to grow, now there is something to climb. I will add another inch of soil once the plant gets larger to help the pole be anchor more in the earth.

Seedling Dragon Fruit

The little seedlings that I planted back in September are scattered here and there. They seemed to stop growing after I transplanted them into different pots. The plant pictured is the first one that seems to be growing a second branch.

However, the plants that I placed outside in the greenhouse in the sun are growing thicker stems.

White Sugarloaf Pineapples

The white pineapple plants are growing fabulously.

Pineapple Inflorescence

The pineapple is growing larger each day. It does not seem hampered by being indoors. I hope the pineapple is delicious.

Notice that there is a shoot at the bottom of the pineapple.

Cinnamon

There is a red, 3-inch shoot emerging from the soil of the cinnamon plant. I was concerned that the plant had not shown any signs of growth since I brought it inside for the winter. If the shoot has roots, I may remove it to start a second cinnamon plant.

Hylocereus undatus Lowe's

The plant I purchased from Lowe's has about doubled it size in the past 3 months.

I think that a new branch is starting to form.

Dragon Fruit

I just receive a dragon fruit plant from Wellspring Gardens. It is definitely bigger than my 3-month-old seedlings; however, I hypothesize that this plant is a seedling itself. It may be 6-8 months old. It is interesting to see how different the various hylocereus plants are. This one seems to be paler than my larger plant, and it has really well-defined spines in comparison to my plant.

Meyer lemon blooming

Yes!

Dragon fruit

The new branches continue to grow nicely.

Avocado plant

I brought this one indoors over the winter and left the other two in the greenhouse.  They are all about the same height.  One has a thicker stem than the other two.

White sugarloaf pineapples

This is their first winter. They are looking good; however, the leaves are not as rigid as the yellow pineapples.

Pineapple inflorescence update

It's coming along nicely.

Meyer lemon blooms

My little lemon continues to bloom.

Pineapple progress