Dragon Fruit In Pot Flowering Hanging Down
Mark

Dragon Fruit In Pot Flowering Hanging Down

I'm keen to see how much fruit I can get off this hanging pitaya in a pot thing!
Wow Mark your dragon fruit flowers & fruit shape are quite different to those I have previously seen.
Is your the yellow one?
 
I cant find but i know, mark, that i asked once about my dragon fruit. It wasnt blossoming. Now, more than two years later, loads of other research, and this site's lengthy discussions, i have decided to toss the plant. It has not only never blossomed but has not produced new branches in more than a year! It has recently been moved from a tub into the ground and is just hangin' around as if nothing is different. At first i tried pruning but then was told not to, now thinking i should have continued to prune. Sigh
 
Bea, DF often like a lot of fertilizer to prompt them into growth.
When they are dormant it can take a fair bit to get them going.
So if the potting mix that the plant used to be in, had run out of nutrients, the plant might have gone dormant to survive.
When you moved it to the ground, it would have needed a huge boost of food to force it into life again.
And plenty of water in the form of evenly moist cool soil, air warmth and sunlight.
Also, if the plant had not made new segments, it could have been planted upsidedown!
People have a desire to plant a DF with one end in the ground.
Whereas it should be laid flat on the ground with some compost and leaf litter covering most of it.
That way, it can sprout from wherever a shoot wants to come and that shoot will be able to grow upwards into the light.

I've recently been getting about 50 segments ready to make new plants for a commercial planting.
The ones succeeding best are those where I've thrown the pruned off segments onto the ground in light shade under the tree they've been growing on.
I am keeping each strain of DF separate because some are fruiting better than others. So putting the new cuttings under the tree they've been growing on is the best way.
These new cuttings get some sun each day as the dappled shade passes over.
I've thrown moist compost filled leaf litter over them and they have direct contact with bare soil under them.
They've rooted very well and have several new segments shooting upwards.
When I plant them in a truck tyre sitting around the base of a 5ft tall fence post and filled with compost, they will be shaped right to grip the post and head upwards. But their roots will be able to stay on contact with the compost in the tyre.
I know from experience I can leave them laying under the tree 1-3 years. But the longer I leave them the bigger chance they will shut down after sending up a few new segments.
Understandably, I don't want to fertilize them because I don't really want the cuttings growing too big until they are planted in their permanent location.
So if they lay on the ground too long and also because we've had drought conditions for several years, the soil they are laying on and the leaf litter over them gets dry, so the young plants shot down.
These ones will need a good shot of high nitrogen fertilizer to shock them back into life once I plant them.
 

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Self-Sufficient Photo of the Month Mar/2017
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Mark
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samsung SM-G935F
Aperture
ƒ/1.7
Focal length
4.2 mm
Exposure time
1/120 second(s)
ISO
50
Filename
dragon fruit in pot flowering hanging down.jpg
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Date taken
Thu, 09 March 2017 5:24 PM
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800px x 450px

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