Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Cool

Here is a picture of a flower that is open on my Dragon Fruit tonight. I have had a closer look at your pictures Gnash and I think I may have jumped to conclusions. Your plant is different looking to my dragon fruit plants. The main part of the plant (green bit) looks different and also your flower sits at the end of a this stem - while my flow sits straight off the cactus branch. Dragon fruit fruit sets right off the main cactus stem.

Oh well - will wait and see I suppose. Time will tell.

PS - a lot of my plant was damaged by hail a year or so ago - which explains the brown patches. I also have an undiagnosed disease on a lot of my plants which is like a brown spot which is incorporated into the main stem??? You can't see that in the picture.

I think you my be right VB,but the flowers are very similar and they are both a form of cacti (some sort of cousin perhaps?)
Either way both of the flowers are slowly dying off and I will see what happens and post results.
Do you think I could get DF at local nursery or are they a special order thing?

Got mine at the dreaded B. Some fool on ebay sells the cutting for some ridiculous price (mainly postage I think - usual rort). Wouldn't think he would sell many. I think these days they are readilly available. Will be interested to see what yours turns out to be.

VB, any way to edit and put the two flowers side by side?

Yep - done

Different but similar heh

Yeh but no cigar

I'm no flower person - but they are certainly beautiful looking. The chicks would dig them - just need to get them out there at night

Yes i can just see it now
"look at my loverly flowers

:downtown:



:triplets:

Don`t blame me, you started it

I`m NOT going to get myself in trouble with this one .
I`m off to bed to see my other dragon

wheres monya when you need a deviate? LOL

They are some sexy lookin flowers! what climate will they tolerate?

white or red fruits but the red fruits are high in lycopene which is a natural antioxidant that is known to fight cancer and heart disease.

Botanical name: Hylocereus sp.
Family: Cactaceae
Origin: Central America

obviously from the cactus family and so characterised by low water requirements (Nobel 1988, 1994).

some information taken from the following publication-

Mizrahi, Y. and A. Nerd. 1999. Climbing and columnar cacti: New arid land fruit crops. p. 358–366. In: J. Janick (ed.), Perspectives on new crops and new uses. ASHS Press, Alexandria, VA.

perhaps i included too much, but it should cover most temperature ranges

Temperature tolerance. Sub-freezing temperatures damage the climbing cacti, and for most species 0°C is the minimal threshold for cultivation. Among the investigated species, Hylocereus sp. (10487) was the most sensitive to low temperatures and suffered cold injury when the temperature fell below 4°C. In the areas of the Negev with low night temperatures, the climbing cacti have to be cultivated in plastic- or glass-houses. Symptoms of cold injury are round lesions that expand along the stems. Plants recover easily when temperature increases.

Our long-term observations showed that in the hottest parts of the Negev (Arava and Jordan valleys), where extreme summer temperatures (Fig. 3, 4) may rise up to 45°C, (average 39°C), annual flower production was very low, being about 15–20% of that obtained in areas with more moderate temperatures (where the average summer temperatures are lower by approximately 7°C). The timing of flowering was also affected by temperature. In areas with more moderate temperatures, flushes of flowers appeared in Hylocereus species from May to November and in S. megalanthus from September to December. In the hotter areas, flowering of both genera was restricted mainly to the cool seasons, May and Oct./Nov. for Hylocereus species and Nov./Dec. for S. megalanthus. In physical terms, H. undatus showed the greatest sensitivity to the extremely high temperatures of the hot valleys: segments of stems at the surface of the shrubs turned brown and became liquefied. The spell of unusually high temperatures during the past summer in Beer-Sheva (4–5°C above the multiannual average) (Fig. 3, 4) resulted in extensive damage to H. undatus, but very small to the other species and nil to Selenicereus megalanthus (Fig 2). The damage becomes more intensive when combined with high light radiation (Fig 2). Raveh et al. (1995) also reported physiological damage to Hylocereus undatus when grown under 35/45°C night/day temperature regime. The results of these studies indicate that these climbing cacti should not be planted in extremely hot areas. H. undatus should be avoided, others may be manipulated with different shading regimes and/or other agrotechniques, the feasibility of which should be tested.

Wow. I want one.

Are you referring to the flower Janet? - hopefully not commenting on G6