Dragonfruit Pollinating

Not many people know if their dragon fruit needs pollinating. I have just had some flowers show up on my 7 year old dragon fruit plant which has given me many fruit over the years. 

I've been asked how I know when its about open and when I pollinate by hand.

So this first photo shows the flower growing and ready to open. 

 Then the color changes to yellow at the flower end. the fruit end is closes to the plant

The flower end starts to expand. At this point below you know it will open that night, it was about 7pm when it opened. It only opens one night.

This is the majestic flower. The stamen is sitting outside and the pollen is inside. You take your finger or a brush and brush that large yellow bit inside and brush the protruding stamen sticking out.

I collected the extra pollen and put it in a plastic bag and stored it in the freezer ready for the next plant that is self pollinating - means it cannot pollinate it self and needs another plants pollen to do it.

This is two days after I pollinated it. The flower starts to droop and will turn brown, when the fruit appears behind and turns purple I will remove the flower and leave the stamen, this discourages the ants from ruining the fruit.