irecenty started some dragon fruits from seed and i was wondering how long it takes until they will make fruits. i couldnt really find much out about them
They have to be pretty large, around 20 pounds or so, but given the right conditions they are rapid growers, so you could have fruit the second year. Not all varieties are self-fertile, though.
One does not usually see a plant's relative size referred to in pounds? Can you give us an estimate of size in a linear measure of diameter, maybe pot size, number of branches, etc?
That is what I was told when I got mine! How is THAT for passing the buck? I stuck it in the biggest pot I had (18 inches), tied it to a philodendron pole and upended a garden ornament that resembled a giant tomato cage onto it. They will climb anything, too. Expect it to get four or five feet tall, pretty heavy, and really "chunky" looking before it blooms. Picture a Christmas Cactus on steroids... Mine bloomed (like hibiscus, they are a one-night-stand) but never set fruit (it wasn't self-fertile). I traded it to my son a couple years ago, but I am getting more as soon as it is safe to ship. I am getting them from an AWESOME place in Florida called Pine Island Nursery. They know way more than I ever will, and are very helpful in helping pick the right varieties. One Green World in Oregon has some, new this year, but they don't know what cultivar they have. I don't really want to take the chance again, but may pick one up just to see what it grows into.
A twenty pound pitahaya plant is about 4 to 4 and a half feet tall/long. I've only ever started from cuttings, so I don't know how long it will take yours to get that big. Then again, I grow mine outside up the trunks of my fiqui (redthorn acacia) trees, and the mass of the larger ones actually tilts the tree a bit. I have no idea how pitahaya deal with living indoors, nor what kind of heavy duty support you'd need for them once they get to blooming weight. I generally let the bats pollinate them. However, I do have a friend who trained his to grow up a brick wall, sort of like an espaliered tree. It doesn't seem to have hurt his house any, but sometimes he needs a ladder to get the fruits.
