Off topic: Hi Peter, sorry we we didn’t get to see you on the weekend. We have only one red one left in the fridge for the time being. I told Wilma not to touch it. I’m saving it for you to try. We have some nice white ones ready to pick, however more red ones will take a while longer.
Sorry about us not getting down to you guys, Maureen wasn’t traveling well, she is being cared for by our daughter Dawn for a few days to give me some ‘me time’.
I am moving my hives 60 meters tonight, still on the Men’s Shed property, so they can build another shed. With a bit of luck the move will go well. Lots of clutter about the entrances so they will re-orientate. Actually a better location with afternoon shade from a shipping container.
I’m thinking the really hot weather might be over, I hope so anyway.
Cheers
That’s ok Peter, I hope the move goes well.
I’m doing an emergency split in the morning. This afternoon I noticed a beard on a hive, so I lifted the lid, it was full of bees. Then I thought, “I’ll split it tomorrow afternoon”. First thing in the morning sounds better.
cheers mate.
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Off topic… I know what you are saying about working on the bees being still an early morning job. Funny how hot it gets when suited up, hopefully it is cooling off a bit.
Cheers
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Still off topic. I just thought I’d take the split, just in case they decided to take off before this afternoon. As it turned out, they weren’t preparing to swarm, however there were some empty queen cells with large openings. That indicates to me that they were preparing for it, then changed their minds. I took 5 brood frames covered in bees. Each frame was about 75% covered with sealed & emerging brood. So the population was well & truly ready to explode. We got a phone call this morning. I’ll talk about it on the other thread.
Just for anyone that stumbles across this thread later, the link below is to some of the trigger posts for this chat about Dragon Fruit. The link should open up to a post with photos of the dragon fruit cactus. The messages continue underneath for a little bit and then thread was cut out into this one.
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Hi Alan, I was surprised that Faroe didn’t move some of those photos while creating this thread.
The good news is: I have some flowers due to open tonight right next to some ripe fruit.
cheers
Here’s some shots from first thing this morning. Only one bee because no flowers had opened for a week. Only the two flowers this morning. More flowers are going to open tonight.
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wow they look spectacular- and delicious. They really have to be one of the most amazing looking fruits there is. I think I first ever saw them in China and was astounded. I am so jealous of you tropical people with your mangoes, dragonfruit, papaya, etc. At least we have our stone fruit and olives. This year was amazing for peaches.
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@Semaphore Jack, I’m pretty sure you could grow dragon fruit in Adelaide. They are a succulent and pretty hardy. I think you could probably even grow them in the hills but it would perhaps depend on how severe the frosts are.
Oh, most people here in Perth and surrounds grown them in large pots with a big central stake to secure them to.
Look at the response from Peter91 near the bottom (3rd from the bottom). Apparently this person grows them in Adelaide
https://www.daleysfruit.com.au/forum/dragon-fruit-in-adelaide/
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It’s hard to get a bee to sit still long enough to get photographed. This bee got rained on & was just resting there for a while.
cheers
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It’s not even 6.00am & the bees are cashing in on the abundant pollen resource.
This is most of the 21 flowers that opened up last night.
This is a not so productive plant shaded by the sugar cane.
The plant on the right is the same as the others, white flesh. The plant on the left is a red flesh variety.
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This morning at 5.30 the sound of the bees working the 16 flowers that opened up was quite loud, to say the least.
Being the first day of autumn, I’m not expecting many more buds to appear. Last year the red dragon fruit budded a bit later.
cheers
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Hi Jeff! I just found over 50 new buds on my recently harvested red dragon plants. Had 2 harvests already. I think they like the recent showers.
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Well done Weber, that’s fantastic. We missed out on any significant showers. I’m going to give it all a good drink this afternoon.
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As best I can work out, this pile of fruit was from these flowers 22 days ago. 26 in this pile, ready for me to cut up to freeze. Total weight = 10.6 kg
cheers
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Yes please, I want to revive this topic.
We’ve been getting lovely displays of dragon fruit flowers over the last couple of mornings. I don’t have to take any photos. It’s easier the copy & paste from 2 years ago.
cheers
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Yes! I wish I had as many amazing flowers on my dragon fruit as you Jeff. Just four here at the moment but they are spectacular. I lost the last fruit to a possum/rat/bat and shed a few tears. I might have to create some wire cages because I’m not willing to share! The bees certainly love them. I had honey bees and natives all over them, including visits by blue banded bees.
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What do you fertilise them with? I can get the cactus to grow but no luck flowering and they are coming up 5 years now…
@JeffH feeds them with cane toads! 
Seriously though, he has a worm farm and makes his own compost. I bet that is his secret. 
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