In September, Rare Dragon Fruit distributed three unidentified dragon fruit cuttings to enthusiasts across Australia.
The varieties chose have different characteristics
#1 Hylocereus guatemalensis x cultivar . A thicker dark green skin, with a medium width of branch. That typically has moderate growth
#2 megalanthus cultivar. A thin variety that is typically slower growing plant. The skin on this plant can sometimes be slightly more yellow in colour compared to other varieties.
# 3 undatus cultivar. A wide branched, commercial variety. That can be a vigorous grower but may suffer more rust and disease due to it wider branches, It would have more than 4 x time the surface are compared to the #2 megalantus.
This marks the third stage of our study on how three different varieties of dragon fruit adapt to Australian conditions across various regions, including Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia.
We are now at the end of the dragon fruit growing season in Australia and about to test the dragon fruit cuttings with winter.
Here's how each grower has progressed with the varieties in their specific regions over the 2023 / 2024 growing season.
This season brought a lot of rain to most parts and kept some of the southern states with a fairly miserable summer with cooler than normal temperatures.
Dragon fruit growing in Rockhampton, QLD
Kevin In rocky has a great dragon fruit orchid, I was lucky enough to pop in and say Hi to Kevin and his lovely family in October year.
Kevin grows his dragon fruit on home made concrete posts, His dragon fruit are grown in rows on a gentle slope.
Healthiest looking cutting is number 1. Not really any vertical growth, but healthy looking lateral shoots. I'll prune all except for 1, and start training it up the post.
Number two has gained the most height and looks healthy enough.
Number 1 just looks healthier because of the thickness. More juicy looking.
Number 3 has never looked that happy.
It's growing but seems prone to rust. I've had to treat it twice with copper based fungicide but haven't needed to spray the others. Interestingly however no signs of fresh rust after all that bloody rain we had. The spots you can see in the photo are dried scabbed rust from where I sprayed it sometime before Christmas.
Also shown in the photo is a yellow Isis for comparison. At least I think it's a yellow Isis. I kind of screwed up my labelling a bit.
Grow conditions: full sun, northern facing slope, planted into a mound of clay loam with a bit of extra sand and mulch mixed in. A few handfuls of horse manure, and drip irrigation every two weeks during the hottest driest period. Beyond that, pretty neglected.
Number 1 on the north side of post, 2 on the east, 3 on the south.
Weather here has been bizarre. Hot and dry leading up to Christmas, and then mostly wet, and windy enough to blow a dog off its chain.
I would have expected the cuttings to have progressed more that they have, but then again they haven't exactly been showered with hugs and kisses. I'm intending to ramp up the fertiliser regime before the next growing season.
We've got geese now, so I reckon a bit of goose pond water once in a while will give 'em a boost.
I'm expecting number 3 to have issues with rust this winter.
Dragon fruit growing in Hornsby Sydney, NSW
Who has had the most growth?
#1 started first and has been a front runner all along.
What varieties have had the most growth?
See pictures. #2 has struggled, this one lost structure and went pale before I put it into the big pot in direct sun.
It has only just gotten its first shoot at the base this last week.
May 20th April.
Pros and cons with each variety?
#1 seems more tolerant to conditions and has no signs of insect or plant issues. Does have a narrow growth of shoots.
#2 super moody, slow, the least tolerant to weather changes.
#3 took ages to grow a shoot, grew air roots first. Also has minor evidence of insect attack.
Now that this one has grown a shoot, it seems very strong and the shoot is much thicker and healthy.
Cutting 1)
Approx. 30cm, one small branch starting growing first then a longer second brand and now a third branch is starting. This was the very last one to start growing out of the three.
Cutting 2)
Approx. 120cm, one single branch growth with some aerial roots starting to grow. This is the fastest growing one, it budded a branch first and is also the biggest one so far.
Cutting 3)
Approx. 28cm, one single branch. It is the second one that grew a branch and although it is not as long as cutting 1, the branch is thicker and firmer to the touch as well.
All three was first planted in clear plastic containers, we are not sure if the containers aren't friendly to the cuttings (we never used plastic for cuttings, always straight to a ceramic pot or directly to soil), but the growth rate was quite disappointing for 1 and 3.
We moved them directly into soil for 1 and 3 as we only had two spots and we want to give them a better chance. Would be quite interesting to know what they are as we probably should avoid these two for my area.
Cutting 2 performed similarly to our normal cuttings that we often prepare to give to friends.
As a reference, we planted a Palora cutting 3 weeks after we received your cuttings and it is now about 100cm.
Henry
Dragon fruit growing in Pasadena, SA. Foothills.
Milo has created some beautiful timber dragon fruit trellis, What a work of art.
She has had some fantastic growth too. I like the positioning to even in winter these plant will get radiating heat from the pavers and brick wall.
Who has had the most growth?
#1 started first and has been a front runner all along.
What varieties have had the most growth? See pictures. #2 has struggled, this one lost structure and went pale before I put it into the big pot in direct sun. It has only just gotten its first shoot at the base this last week. May 20th April.
Pros and cons with each variety?
#1 seems more tolerant to conditions and has no signs of insect or plant issues. Does have a narrow growth of shoots.
#2 super moody, slow, the least tolerant to weather changes.
#3 took ages to grow a shoot, grew air roots first. Also has minor evidence of insect attack. Now that this one has grown a shoot, it seems very strong and the shoot is much thicker and healthy.
Soil and fertilizer used?
I use liquid pot ash and seasol. Irregularly.
Problems or how would you do things differently? I would put the one dragon fruit that gets the least amount of sun, in another pot or closer to the front of the pot so that it gets more sun. It's taking off now though. I'm still getting a lot of new growth as weather is low 20s for the past two weeks with now rain. Warm days.
Dragon fruit growing in Townsville, QLD
Jake has had some fantastic growth and his dragon fruit soil recipe sounds perfect.
Cutting 1 has had the most growth at 65cm on 28/04/24 and was also the quickest root on 30/11/23.
Cutting 2 was much slower to root 07/01/24. it also is slow growing in compared to cutting 1 only 14cm of growth on 28/04/24, not as vigorous.
Cutting 3 was extremely slow to root as of 07/01/24 it did not send any roots out, so I planted in soil but once rooted it was the quickest growing in root mass. growth is only 15cm but I expect this to outgrow cutting one or match it quite quickly.
My preferred rooting method is the water method with morning sun, some cuttings may not agree with this but it's the best overall for my location.
Once cuttings were rooted and transferred into small pots they were placed in a full sun environment.
I don't fertilize and all as my soil is cow manure based at approx 45% with perlite, chunky mulch, bio ash and compost added.
I will normally top the pots up annually with the same mix.
I've made this mix up myself with the cow manure as the base, it holds onto a lot of moisture meaning I don't need to water as much when it's very dry here, and the dragon fruit seems to really love the cow manure, it makes them go crazy.
Townsville's weather over the summer and autumn period has been a mix of very hot and sunny days reaching into the high 30°c and a mix of very rainy and overcast days. Due to the consecutive rainy days during these periods, I haven't needed to water my established potted dragon fruits at all for the past 6 months, this also due to the cow manure in my soil mix as it retains so much moisture.
So far I have not experienced any problems or issues with any of the three cuttings.
Dragon fruit growing in Heathmont, SA
Adam from Heathmont, Victoria has some of the most challenging conditions to over come, this year in Victoria it has been a quiet cold season.
Adam has achieved great growth and still has it plants in pots but this is wise coming into Melbourne's chilli winters. In a pot at least you can move them around
My cuttings were all left to root in a vase containing 5cm of water.
Cutting #2 developed roots very quickly, but #1 took about 3 months.
They were potted up and kept on a balcony that received about 3h of sunlight per day, and all put on some new growth over summer and look very healthy.
The soil I used was Osmocote Premium Plus potting mix, with some Perlite mixed in.
Cutting #2, which rooted first, also grew the most.
Dragon fruit growing in Kiama, NSW
Jason has rooted his dragon fruit in water then transferred to pots. Late potting from mid November
Who has had the most growth? #3
Pros and cons with each variety? Growth in #1 slow as cutting broke in transit but manage to get both cuttings rooted
Growing technique? In 100litre pot with 4 other dragon fruit
Positioning - full sun part shade only for a 1hr in summer sun
Soil and fertilizer used? Osmocote premium potting mix with chicken and cow manure
Problems or how would you do things differently? Nil issue so far but last 2 weeks of very solid rain over 250mls potential for disease
Dragon fruit growing in Emerald Qld
Planted these in pots under a gum tree – the plants still received a lot of sunlight during the day. But some protection from the harsh Emerald sun. The plants have now been moved into a sunnier position over winter
· The pots were half filled with dirt from our large chicken coop. The rest with a cactus type potting mix from Mitre 10. Topped with sugar cane mulch. Bamboo sticks were added to the pots for something for the plants to climb up.
· Over Summer the plants were watered 3-4 times a week. Sometimes more during really hot periods. Less over the school holidays when we were away.
· Fertilised with chicken poo from the coop every couple of months.
· Over Summer the plants were watered 3-4 times a week. Sometimes more during really hot periods. Less over the school holidays when we were away.
· Fertilised with chicken poo from the coop every couple of months.
Dragon fruit plant Number 1
It has grown the least. However this was my fault, I realised at Christmas that I had planted the cutting upside down. Not sure how that happened? I had thought the plant would die, but a new shoot popped out of the side within a week or two of flipping the cutting over. (the brown scaring on the plant is from where it has been planted into the soil)
Approx. 20cm tall.
Seems to be no disease other than the top part of the cutting that I had in the ground initially seems to be scarred
Dragon fruit plant Number 2
· This cutting was slower to start growing, but is now the tallest.
· Approx. 110cm tall
· Seems to be no disease anywhere on the plant
Dragon fruit plant Number 3
· Initially this was the fastest growing plant
· Approx. 77cm tall now
· Some disease
· New shoots and limbs growing
The disease looks to be insect damage it could be Cochineal or caterpillar. it looks like they have had a go at it before but it has scared over with no concerning damage to the rest of the plant.
I sent Rob a second round of cuttings as he didn't get time to plant the first lot. These were sent out at the end of January 2024.
Rob lives in the rainforest in the mountains behind cairns and he is a Landscaper / Horticulturist .
I still found them slow to throw roots compared to other cultivars I’ve grown, not sure why.
Cutting #3 is definitely the fastest to grow roots and show signs of growth.
I’m growing them on a short 50cm trellis to get to flowering age faster, rather than climb 1.5m before they branch out.
The Pot will be elevated on blocks.
Robs Dragon Fruit Soil Mix
Rare Dragon Fruit Control Batch
In Agnes Water, unpotted dragon fruit cuttings were placed in a cardboard box and left in a closet, forgotten and kept in the dark as a control group. These cuttings were stored at the same time as the other dragon fruit cuttings were distributed, around early October 2023.
Cutting number 1 has completely wasted away, while cuttings number 2 and 3 are still in good condition.
I am going to keep these in the box to see how long they can be stored for.
We are still waiting on a few more updates from participants, I will add these in as they come through as I know how busy life can get and I don't want to pressure anyone.
The next dragon fruit update will be at the end of winter were rust and environmental factors may test a lot of the cuttings.
Thank you for reading and BIG thank you to all the participants.
