Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

I managed to finally find a fresh Dragonfruit / Pitaya ( at the Araluen Chilli Festival , of all places ) for 6 bucks , as opposed to the local supermarket that sells them for 18 bucks a kilo , the one time they stocked em . Been wanting to taste one for a year

Got about twenty seeds , so im going to try grow from seed . Hence Im wondering if anyone is , or has tried this wacky looking fruit in their AP setup , or dirt garden and if so - any advice

From what Ive read they take 4 years or so to get to fruiting , but as a large cactus vine it'd take a great deal of nutrients out of the system . They grow in the tropics but prefer dry sandy / well drained soil , if i go ahead once ive got seedlings I may need a dedicated bed with really sparse drain times

Tastes like Champagne from memory, is that right?

very very mild , the texture was more interesting than the taste . To me it was kinda like a rockmelon mixed with champagne , then diluted in a swimming pool amount of water

I think the problem was
a) it had been picked atleast 2 days before , cause even though I got it in ther fridge straight away , mould started within an hour of getting it home
b) it was a red pitaya with white flesh , supposedly the LEAST flavoursome variety , with the red/red one being more sugary , and the yellow / white one being the tastiest , with a slight lemon flavour

I have the red red type. Bought it from B a few years back. Very easy to grow from sections of the plant - I wouldn't bother with seed. AP IMHO is not the best place to grow cactus. Grow it is the soil - they are very hardy once established.

two years back tried them as well from seeds after seeing the the fruit
at a local shop

had no problem raising them from seeds but didn't grow over four cm high,
tossed them into compost

may have been too cold for them down here