I just use Organic Xtra, plus other organic liquid fertilizers (worm juice), sometimes 24/7 liquid urea. I gave some plants some liquid Sulfate of Potash to see if that helps in the coming weeks. I probably should do all the plants because it’s supposed to promote flowering. One thing I should mention is the Mother plant. Did your plants come from a reliable producer?
@cathiemac, one tip I got from the internet is to tip prune the branches this time of year. I did some of that this year on the new branches, but not the old ones. Look for new buds after a decent rain event. I’m hoping for one in the coming days.
@JeffH, thanks for the tip. I was disappointed with the lack of rain (despite predictions) last week. Do you ever give them an artificial deluge in the form of a big watering- say a thousand litres - to encourage flowering???
Hi Cathie, I have tried giving then an artificial deluge but not the amount you suggested, however it never worked for me. I was also disappointed with the amount of rain we got last week. They keep reducing the expected amount of rain for today & tomorrow. We’ve had some light showers this morning. I’m hoping for some decent rain later on. Fingers crossed.
@SnowflakeHoney, I’d love to be allowed to send you some cuttings. I shared some cuttings with a lady who lives next to my second bee site. Hers seem to be doing better than mine. Maybe it’s just an illusion. Anyway my advice would be to ask around to find someone with a productive plant, you might be able to barter for some cuttings. A local garden club would be a good place to start. cheers
Your dragon fruit is beautiful! The variety I have isn’t self pollinating, so there are both male and female plants. I can’t tell them apart, but they do produce fruit. I’ve been trying for a few years to get them to climb a 12’ tree stump in my front yard. (I had to take down a giant pine tree that had become too dangerous to keep, but I kept the trunk. At first I thought it would make a good totem pole, but decided to try to make a dragon fruit tower. So they would climb up about 10 feet and then give up and peel off the trunk. After many attempts, one of the branches recently reached the top. It seems to be up there taking stock of the situation, and meanwhile, about 10 other branches are catching up. It’s starting to look interesting now!
That’s an Agave Attenuata and yeah, the bees love it! I have a big patch of them down below. They’re really easy to propogate – all you have to do is cut one off and put it on the ground. They have a lot of surface roots, and are good for holding a slope. They’re so dramatic. I like them because although they look pointy, they’re nice and soft. They’re also edible, and used to make agave nectar-- but no tequila from this variety!
I’m replying to my post #16 where I showed 26 fruit that weighed 10.6kg. This photo on the 10th Feb. is 25 fruit weighing 15.92. The total of my first harvest of the season.
Hi Eva, I just now put my desert bowl down after my first feed of them to find your question. I have it diced with honey & grated crystallized ginger, a piece of Wilma’s boiled fruit cake, then drizzled with plain Greek yogurt. Wilma likes them fresh, as they are.
I dice them before freezing them, then I use them all year round, basically every night of the year for desert. They’re beautiful as a desert when half thawed.
Still in awe! We just had a monster storm here and I believe there’s more rain due this week. I’m going to feed mine with dynamics lifter and potash and! pray
Hi Cathie, you’re more than welcome to some cuttings from these plants. They really produce well. It recently occurred to me that the branches facing the full afternoon sun do the best. That was after visiting my #2 bee site where I shared some cuttings with the neighbor a few years ago. On the morning I went, I counted 30 flowers for that morning & most of them were hanging over the fence, facing the afternoon sun. The side that didn’t face the afternoon sun only had a few flowers. That prompted me to look at my own plants, which reaffirmed my theory.
Another person I shared some cuttings with a few years ago phoned me up one day real excited to tell me that he counted 44 flowers on his plants. I was taken back a bit because my plants weren’t doing that good at the time. Just thinking, it must have been the position his plants were in, that made the difference because none of my plants really have branches facing the afternoon sun in the same manner as the ones at my #2 bee site. That bloke sadly died shortly after, so no updates from him.
I have one plant that has produced quite a few flowers & fruit, however the side that faces the afternoon sun is crowded by a lemongrass plant. It hasn’t produced one bud on any of the branches that are crowded by the lemongrass. I’ll plant a lemongrass somewhere else & remove the one crowding the dragonfruit.
Thanks Jeff, I’ll keep that offer in mind if I can’t get these ones to pick up their game! I suspect mine don’t have as much sun as they’d like but I plan to take some branches off a mulberry to the north of them and that might help a bit.
and very cool, Claire!!! What is the fuzzy flowering foxtail-thing called? I bet the bees will like that.
