Dragon fruit?

[JohnAndSancho]

Is this little nub enough to sprout? Sprout from the green bits around it? Or are we doing this from seed? Or just go to YouTube lol. Anyway I am gonna grow dragon fruits. 

[Jubaea]

From that I would save some seeds and go from there.  I would expect that they would grow quickly in summer for you in the south but they would need protection from cold in winter.  I have a seedling growing here that has not yet bloomed but we lack heat to get things to grow.

[JohnAndSancho]

I just dumped them all in some Tupperware with coir and put them on a heat mat. All of these sprouted in less than 72 hours. The fruit tastes awful btw, it's like Styrofoam soaked in a very low dose of artificial sweetener. 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

30 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

The fruit tastes awful btw, it's like Styrofoam soaked in a very low dose of artificial sweetener. 

I tried yellow, not any better. Tasted like gel with 1% sugar. I’ll try to grow the seeds too, maybe homegrown is better.

[JohnAndSancho]

12 hours ago, TropicsEnjoyer said:

I tried yellow, not any better. Tasted like gel with 1% sugar. I’ll try to grow the seeds too, maybe homegrown is better.

My YouTube dive showed me that dragon fruit people are like SUPER SUPER hardcore into grafting. I mean, I've been on this forum for a little over 5 years and lovingly refer to people like us as palm dorks, but some of these dragonfruit people are like WAY out there, grafting a hybrid of like 4 other hybrids onto rootstock that's like a hybrid of 2 or 3 different hybrids mixed together and all I wanna know is if they've ever made anything that tastes good and if they did, why hasn't one of the big factory farms cloned it yet? Sort of like how Costa Farms has done with the rare houseplant market - like the variegated Monstera plants that used to cost $1000 for a cutting just 5 years ago are now $25 at Wal Mart. 

[TropicsEnjoyer]

11 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

My YouTube dive showed me that dragon fruit people are like SUPER SUPER hardcore into grafting. I mean, I've been on this forum for a little over 5 years and lovingly refer to people like us as palm dorks, but some of these dragonfruit people are like WAY out there, grafting a hybrid of like 4 other hybrids onto rootstock that's like a hybrid of 2 or 3 different hybrids mixed together and all I wanna know is if they've ever made anything that tastes good and if they did, why hasn't one of the big factory farms cloned it yet? Sort of like how Costa Farms has done with the rare houseplant market - like the variegated Monstera plants that used to cost $1000 for a cutting just 5 years ago are now $25 at Wal Mart. 

Yeah that’s too complicated to me, if it’s that difficult to make it taste good it’ll just wait a few years for a new mainstream variety. I’ll gladly keep enjoying mango and passion fruit and other tropical fruits that don’t require as much effort.

[rprimbs]

I like Ecuador Palora.  Ours has given fruit that almost has an orange flavor.

[meridannight]

On 11/1/2025 at 4:21 AM, JohnAndSancho said:

The fruit tastes awful btw, it's like Styrofoam soaked in a very low dose of artificial sweetener. 

I love the taste of it! And the yellow fruit as well, although I don't find them all that different.

Curiously, I just had the yellow Opuntia fruit (which I also find tasty) a couple of days ago and saved the seeds. Will be planting them next week some time. I don't expect them to sprout as fast as yours though. Opuntia seed coat is tough. I've germinated them before (though not the same ones) and they took weeks and months to come up. Your results being so encouraging I gotta try sprouting the dragon fruit myself then.

 

[JohnAndSancho]

9 hours ago, meridannight said:

I love the taste of it! And the yellow fruit as well, although I don't find them all that different.

Curiously, I just had the yellow Opuntia fruit (which I also find tasty) a couple of days ago and saved the seeds. Will be planting them next week some time. I don't expect them to sprout as fast as yours though. Opuntia seed coat is tough. I've germinated them before (though not the same ones) and they took weeks and months to come up. Your results being so encouraging I gotta try sprouting the dragon fruit myself then.

 

I was honestly shocked. I've never seen anything sprout so fast.