So this last spring, @papa-pepper brought over some dragon fruit (pitaya) cuttings to our booth at the Baker Creek Spring Planting Festival. They were some extra cuttings he acquired and told us to sell them or give them away. I decided to take a couple home with me and sure enough I planted them and they are now sprouting.
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Now the other day, I saw a video on my social media feed of a pitaya (Dragon Fruit) being harvested. I could not believe the size of these plants. They grow huge and they are tropical and sub-tropical plants. The problem is that I don't live in the tropics. They are supposed to grow in zone 10-11. I'm on the border of zone 6. DEATH!
So these dragons are gonna die. I can't see how I'm going to keep them going. They get too big to bring in the house and they won't survive outside. Either way they are a very interesting plant and we at least got them to grow!
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They looks so small and innocent in the pot. They grow up to be monsters! There might be a parable there. @ironshield
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Yes, they get really big you will definitely not be able to keep them. They are Yellow Pitahaya. They also do not like a lot of water so if you see the plant start turning Yellow on the stim then you know that you are giving them to much water. I made a video on this a little bit back here is the link to it.
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The other videos and instructions said they like lots of water. Thanks for your video!
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Hey Zac...I am growing Dragon fruit called Edgar's Baby. I got 2 plants from Baker's Creek. I plan on growing in a pot indoors all year around seeing as I am in Illinois. This variety grows between 6 and 8 feet and I have a 9 foot ceiling in my living room so if it does make it I should have room for it!
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Oh my goodness! That would make one incredible conversation piece!
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Oh my goodness! That
Would make one incredible
Conversation piece!
- hebrewhousewife
I'm a bot. I detect haiku.
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That sounds great!
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So the big question is, where did @papa-pepper get them from?
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I got them from a grower in Florida who sent me some cuttings when they pruned. That was about two years ago now or so. The ones that @mericanhomestead got are cuttings from mine.
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So does this mean yours have survived where you’re living? Because then @mericanhomestead’s should survive too?
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Big mystery. I haven't talked to him in a while.
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You are going to need a heated greenhouse for these baby dragons and bananas. Anything tropical, where you live, requires a greenhouse for winter. Or build n atrium on your house! LOL Depends on how badly you want to grow tropical fruit... sort of like us in the tropics if we ant apples, cherries, peaches or anything along those lines we need a cold house
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Great update, and it sounds like a great challenge. I love trying to grow new things. This would be great umdee the tag #ghsc !
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Hey, Zec I was thinking about what you should do to keep the pet dragons. What you need to do is let them grow to a size that you could keep in the house than just keep them cut to that size. They will not give as much fruit, but at least you will be able to keep them in the house. As for the pot, you may need a pot just a little bigger but not much because they do not have very big roots. Make sure when you put them into the new pots you put a mixer of sand and dirt. One last thing you said that they do not need full-time sun, but that is not true they do better in full-time sun. So maybe better to try to see if you can keep them in you greenhouse over the winter. Do you have a heat source in your greenhouse that may keep them warm?
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The greenhouse is heated with a stove...so I would need to be keeping that going all winter. I'm not going to try bothering with that. I'd rather grow stuff that I don't have to stress over keeping alive. But thanks for the info!
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Totally understand.
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Put them in your greenhouse!
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You could over winter them inside and next year take cuttings for the year after. That way you could have fruit every year and let the "Old" plants die off.
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I trim them back and bring them in the house for the winter. This will be the third year now.
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My house gets cold in the winter. We have our wood stove and the morning are cold. I will keep one and try it.
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