There are many different designs and materials you can use to make a dragon fruit trellis.
I have put together some ideas I have found from friends and dragon fruit growing forums.
Movable Dragon Fruit Trellis:
Old pallet, 4 caster wheels hessian cloth and 20lt buckets
Party Time Dragon Fruit Trellis
Lights can encourage insect activity which can mean increased pollination rates.
Solar lights are a good option.
Covers for all conditions -
These ideas may help people in areas that get frost. So if you are trying to grow dragon fruit in Melbourne, Victoria or Sydney, New South Wales this could be an option for you.
You could even bring the plastic to the ground for winter to create a mini green house for your dragon fruit plants.
Timber Dragon Fruit Trellis
Timber is a great option but keep in mind pine will rot so use hard wood.
Treated pine is also a long lasting option but some people don't like it because it may leach chemicals
Supported box dragon fruit trellis.
The benefit of this design is your trellis wont fall over and the raised bed at the bottom provides good drainage if you soil is clay and prone to water logging.
The measurements for Karon's trellis design are pine sleepers from Bunnings all cut 60cm to form a square base. A 1.8mtr coppers log wrapped in hessian for the post, 90mm x 35mm treated pine for the top also 60cm then brace with 90mm 35mm treated pine .
Reason... a 4yr old trellis with plant can reach 400kg.
Raised Weathering Steel into Tree Rings & Garden
For a premium looking dragon fruit post these raised steel dragon fruit beds look a bit sexy but this is one of the most expensive ways to grow a dragon fruit. The copper logs have been wrapped in old coffee bags to help the dragon fruit roots attach to the post.
These pots retail for around $300.00
This was at Eden health resort in Currumbin Valley, so good drainage is a must they are situated on a gentle slope and companion plant surround the base of the dragon fruit plants.
Topless on Dragon Fruit Posts.
Steven a commercial grower in Bundaberg doesn't put anything on top of his ironbark posts. The dragon fruit create there own canopy.
Rough Timber Top.
Mick founder of Rare Dragon Fruit is planting out 150 new posts. These are aged Iron bark recycled from a passion fruit farm. We paid about $7 per post. The tops of the post are the off cuts and are split rough chunks of timber that have been baton screwed to the post using the natural shape of the timber to navigate the position of the to.
Timber dragon fruit post Mission Beach
PVC Pipe
Poly Pipe Dragon Fruit Trellis
Poly pipe is a longer lasting alternative you can drill holes to water areal roots, fill with soil for areal roots to bind to. Wrap in jute to encourage areal root growth.
Cement Dragon Fruit Trellis
You can create your long lasting cement post by buying pre- made concrete fence posts.
The rough concrete gives the areal roots something to grip onto.
You can also try making your own, these will be a bit rougher and give more cracks in the cement for roots to hold onto.
Kevin from Rockhampton had this idea to put reinforcement mesh on top of the concrete post and wrap it in old cloth dipped in cement.
This protects the reinforcement mesh from rusting cover all sharp edges and gives areal roots something to grip to
He has also cast his own dragon fruit posts using old guttering, bricks, rio bar and cement that cost around $8 in cement. He has left it very rough to give aerial roots more to hang onto.
You can also leave holes made with pvc pipe to easily fees metal rod through
The Weedy Garden
David from the The Weedy Garden YouTube channel has designed his dragon fruit post with rio mesh on top of a timber post with a timber X to support it all.
Commercial Dragon fruit farm just outside Tully, North Queensland.
They have used for their dragon fruit trellis galvanised wire mesh on top of hardwood posts. They also use bailing twine to tie the dragon fruit to the post.
Simple and effective.
Long dragon fruit trellis
These are similar to a vineyard.
One long fence like structure that has intervals of plants every 1.5 -3 m. Planted directly into the ground.
This is a great option if you are commercially growing only a handful of varieties.
It can get messy if you grow too many as they grow in a tangled entwined mass.
This vertical row will produce more fruit in a smaller space.
This is an example of a of long dragon fruit trellis .
If rows are planted too close together you can hardly walk through the rows as the dragon fruit thrive.
Welded Dragon Fruit Trellis
Sue and Larry have out done themselves with their new trellis design. Larry welded galvanized pipe and fixed the frame to treated pine posts. They get an amazing flush of flowers and they do not hand pollenate as they have so many flowers at once the bees do all the work.
We met Lysa at the Qld Garden expo and she sent me theses photos of her dragon fruit growing on posts in pots.
This speeds up the process of fruiting as the plant just has to hang over and not grow up a post.
Jacqui sent us this image with her dragon fruit pot held onto a post with old horse shoes,
Yana Founder of Rare Dragon Fruit is having a bit of fun with this dragon fruit head of hair for the caved face log.
Dragon Fruit log trellis
We have used mostly log trellis at our farm because we have access to free logs out of our forestry plot. Some are hard wood varieties of timber that won't be bothered by termites. Some will be eaten by termites and rot over time but this does not worry us as we are also trying to focus on improving the soil in and around our plants. Termites add nitrogen to the soil and any beneficial bacteria produced by the decomposing post will improve our soil condition.
Some of our posts are old coppers logs or hardwood we have picked up cheap, second hand or for free.
Fencing dragon fruit trellis
Rare Dragon Fruit has also used our front fence to grow 20 different varieties on. We look forward to adding spot lights on a few posts to help guide dragon fruit pollinators our way. It should look aesthetically pleasing too if you drive past at night time when flowers are open.
Dragon Fruit Trellis Tyre Toppers
We have used timber rectangles when My husband was a carpenter and would bring scrap timber home. Now with timber prices at a premium,
we use recycled motor bike tyres and reinforcement rod.
We cut the reinforcement to length so they fit snuggly into the tyre.
We use a 12mm drill bit to drill 2 holes into the post and cut 2 lengths so there is a cross X going through the post and the tyre is supported in 4 places.
Rio mesh can also be used this photo was taken near Mission Beach, North Queensland.
Make sure to stabilize your dragon fruit pot!
Wind, animals and children can cause pots to tip and break new growth off your dragon fruit plants so make sure you stabilize the base.
The top of the dragon fruit plants do become very top heavy and tip easily.
Glen has produced this is a great dragon fruit trellis idea that provides lots of support and maximizes space. He has 13 plants all up in this raised bed.
Raised bed are fantastic for drainage in areas that are prone to a lot of rain or poor soil.
No space for a dragon fruit trellis??
Some people grow in frangipani trees. The dragon fruit will take over and get heavy but I do love the idea of beautiful dragon fruit flowers and frangipanis grown together flowering at the same time.
Growing dragon fruit up a gum tree can mean your fruit will be producing 30 plus meters up a tree.
Just remember at the end of the day you will not see a lot of your trellis.
If you have any other variations please forward them to me and I will add this on to this blog.