Sunday, October 7, 2012

Dragon fruit seedlings

I planted some purple and white pitaya seeds around September 8. It is a month later, and the little hylocereus are growing well.

Saturday, October 6, 2012

Pineapple Flower

I have been so busy with work and attempting to build a greenhouse, that I haven't paid much attention to my plants. The looked a little sad. I trimmed the dead leaves off and watered them. To my surprise, I discovered that one of my pineapples planted in January of 2011 is flowering. I had planned to force it to flower along with its companion this coming December. I guess she has other plans. She should ripen about March or April.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Dragon Fruit

I have developed an interest in dragon fruit (a.k.a pitaya or hylocereus undatus). I purchased the pictured plant at Lowes. It is supposed to be a grafted plant, but the graft fell off. I guess this gave the plant energy enough to grow the seen branches, as the other grafted plants only had one small stem with a brightly colored spherical cactus on top. I don't know if it will give white, pink, red, or yellow fruit. I guess I'll see in a few years. I have some seedling pitaya growing also. It's hard for me to get a good picture of them, but they are about 3 weeks old. I want to experiment a bit with these. I saw a picture of a cactus in a hanging basket, drooping over like a full fern. I want to do the same with one of my pitaya. Additionally, I saw a picture of 2-3 feet tall pitaya with a stem about 3 inches in diameter. These pitaya had fruit growing off the main stem. I wish to try this too. I may trellis one, but I want to avoid this if possible; it might take up to much space.