Daleys Fruit Tree Blog: February 2007

Dragon Fruit at Mount Warning

Mount Warning Holiday Park has a massive dragon fruit growing on a palm tree near their swimming pool.

Notice how the yellow flowers are drooping. This is because it is night flowering. The dragon fruit is quite happy to hang itself off this tree and it loves getting all the sun near the pool. It climbed to the very top of the palm tree with ease.

Because the Dragon Fruit is self pollinating it does need ants or bees to pollinate it so sure enough it was covered in ants.

The above pictures are of a Yellow Dragon Fruit and it will still be a while before you can pick the fruit. However they had another Red dragon fruit again on a palm tree which was fruiting.

I notice that in Brisbane at the moment some shops are selling imported dragon fruits (around $4 each yet you can grow your own for $12.90) from Vietnam however after seeing these huge dragon fruit vines there is no reason why in the near future we will be eating commercially grown dragon fruit from Australia hopefully a bit cheaper as well.

Another thing I noticed is that they don't have any roots in the ground. I could be wrong but once they are established they seem to dig themselves into the host tree and I assume feed themselves this way perhaps like a strangler fig however not as aggressive as they rely on the host tree for survival. Am I right?

Fig Black Genoa

The Fig Black Genoa is in our Australia's top 5 most popular plants so when I was down at Daleys Nursery it was on my must have list.

Figs have an amazing flavour but you need to eat them at the right time as they are highly perishable once picked so I am guessing that is why supermarkets and fruit markets have a hard time keeping them on their shelves and charge like a wounded bull for them.

Because I live in the city I am growing it in a pot to keep it dwarfed and also it means that I can move it into the perfect sunny position. I have 5 figs coming on even though it is only a baby. No wonder people like the fig black Genoa so much they fruit from a young age and for a large part of the year as well - October through to March.