In August, we planted some Yellow Dragonfruit that my grandparents got from the authentic Asian stores. My friend Braxton probably grew his dragonfruits from cuttings rather than seeds. Cuttings have a higher success rate for growing and producing fruits, and also root very fast.
Yellow Dragonfruits, AKA the ecuador palora, are the sweetest kind of dragonfruit. They are smaller, and are of a different genus of your average Hylocereus (pink) dragonfruit. The fruit can be physically distinguished from their Hylocereus cousins, with spikes around the whole fruit, and a yellow color. Paloras are generally smaller and sweeter than normal dragonfruit. They have less flesh, but bigger seeds. That's why i choose them over red dragon fruit. Now let's get to the reveal.
The last time you saw an image of our 4 dragon fruit trees was in August. They looked like ordinary sprouts, but a little cactus head poke out.
Their leaves, however we're thick with moisture, kind of like a thin succulent. I wasn't sure if they would grow bigger than this.
Then around came October, and the temperature swelled inside the TMAD, where they were growing. Fun fact: dragonfruit is a tropical cactus and actually prefers moist, warm environments. It grows in Vietnam and southeastern Asia, where it's humid and hot, rather than in California, where it's dry. If I water them more frequently inside the TMAD, it grows faster and mimics the south east Asia climate.
Here they are later in October. You can see the little cacti starting to form. Dragonfruit are fast growing cacti compared to our native cacti such as cholla or saguaro.
Lastly here they are now in 2024. From top to bottom, each measures one and a half inches. For some reasons their cotlydons (the bottom leaves on the plant) have not disappeared yet. In normal plants like apple or tomatoes, the bottom leaves, which look nothing like the mature leaves, disappear within a month or too. The dragonfruit cotlydons have not gone yet. We can't wait to track our dragonfruit in the future. Please feel free to come in 10 or so years when the plants are mature and start producing fruits.
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