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Pitaya season

Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 5:19 pm
by leland
I tried something new--pitaya yoghurt. Mash hylocereus fruit with a fork, mix in plain yoghurt and sweeten to taste. Not bad.

Re: Pitaya season

Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 6:16 pm
by majcka
Looks yummy. =D>

Re: Pitaya season

Posted: Fri Aug 30, 2013 9:37 pm
by tumamoc
I think you may have something there :D .

Re: Pitaya season

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 3:04 pm
by gemhunter178
Does look pretty good. :D

Re: Pitaya season

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 3:45 pm
by BobbyZ
The gourmet cactologist sports a nifty desert. Someday I will be picking my own Pitaya. Till then I appreciate its fine drooping architecture on my patio Hylocereus. Hey the fruit are 3-5$ even in Florida, I do buy occasionally.

Re: Pitaya season

Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 4:22 pm
by leland
My wife was happy with the yoghurt and posted a pix on her fiesbuuk page. she said next time we should add a tablespoon of lemon or lime juice to punch up the flavor a little.

Meanwhile, just in the last year I have started planting hylocereuos cuttings at teh base of all large permanent trees on our property. Don`t know why I didn`t think of it earlier.

Re: Pitaya season

Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 4:47 pm
by BobbyZ
Happy growing and harvests with many more pitayas to come

Re: Pitaya season

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2013 1:34 am
by Brunãozinho
Oh that picture made me hungry! I have planted some hylocereus wich are still small, I wonder how long it takes until they have fruits... nice idea with the yougurt, I want to try that with some other cacti fruit!

Re: Pitaya season

Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2013 3:01 am
by leland
I planted some on top of brick walls and the process was very slow, even with occacionally spraying the plants and walls with water. Then some of the roots that grew down the walls went into the ground and the plants really started growing. Now I am planting them in the ground at the base of walls and tying a piece of wood to the wall to give them a better surface to climb up. I expect 2 or 3 years to fruiting.

if you look online, you can see how the vietnamese plant 4 cuttings around a post and grow them out to make a tree like planting. Thats on my agenda , too.

Re: Pitaya season

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 3:04 am
by Brunãozinho
The second method must be definetly better! :wink:

leland, these ones are native to your country, aren't they?
I will make an experiment with the cutting around the post, and maybe give a try with this method of pots and wire, like in this video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXAFrCIT6as" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Re: Pitaya season

Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 7:43 pm
by leland
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In the one photo you can see a plant growing from a cutting placed at the base of a tree earlier this year. It has a great start and the rainy season is not over yet.

The other photo shows a plant from a cutting also planted earlier this year. You can see it has reached the top of the wall and the lead stem is now hanging down. In the upper left of the photo you can see another hylocereus that was planted on top of the wall several years ago and is not making much progress. Just recently I attached the scrap of rotting pine board to the wall to provide moisture and nutrients for both of the hylocereus. On my other new plantings on this wall I have attached tree branches of 3 inch diameter to the wall for the plants to grow up. I have started hosing the garden to provide humidity every morning if it did not rain the night before.

Both cactus are rooted to the wall for support but this is a little hard to see in the photo. The large horizontal roots on the wall are from the native philodendron growing on the other side.

The plants I think are native I am growing out as part of my native cactus project. The others are of ``horticultural origens`` and are for the fruit.

Re: Pitaya season

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 12:41 pm
by Brunãozinho
Nice to see the pictures, oh they will surely do better with the woodboard! the first one also seems to be doing good! ;)

Re: Pitaya season

Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 10:21 pm
by apfire

Re: Pitaya season

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 1:35 am
by BobbyZ
I can't wait for mine to bloom, but the UF IFAS pub says to expect 18 months before flowering. I thgought buds were forming just aerial roots. Someday soon.

Re: Pitaya season

Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 2:38 am
by leland
Here`s another interesting one I'm working on. I think it is H. escuintlensis. I picked the first, and only, fruit today and will let it fully ripen before I open it. I am very curious to see the color of the pulp.