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.

Dragonfruit poles 2020 - 2022

 I cant believe I never posted about my dragon fruit poles. The first 8 poles went in on 27 Jun 2020. 

This is the construction of the top support made by Len the Worm Farmer. 18 months later Jan 2022 these are the results. I've negelcted them over time and not pruned them or fed them as much as I should. This year I shall do a better job I promise.

Below mulching in between the beds on top of the cardboard so the weeds dont grow again and if I want to use the space I'll put the raised beds inbetween on top of the mulch

In the photo below you can see cuttings I've left in the wheel barrow and they have grown lol, this proves you dont have to baby them too much

These three fruit below are from my  7 year old cutting I got from my Uncle Devlin. You can see the original plant HERE that I treated poorly lol 

January 26, 2022 photos taken

This one is ready to open. I have been checking them everyday

Dragonfruit and new garden bed

This is my newest raised garden bed built by the wonderful Worm Farm man Len, he is very talented. I gave him the tin and the wood and away he went. He may start a business building these on the island. I had it tailored made for me with the edges so I could sit on it when gardening.

So my awesome dragon fruit (wish I had treated it better when we brought it over from the mainland in a pot and just dumped it by this tree with plans to plant it properly but it grew so fast while we were settling in. 4 years later it has grown out of hand and give us a few fruit each year that is just the juiciest and sweetest. The tree is 7 years old. You can see the pot plant I dumped HERE

This is the tree I want to plant the dragon fruit on and will do so this season after it fruits.

Found these three flowers about to fruit when we weeded, they were growing in the ground.

 

Dragon fruit and Cardboard

What a combination you ask!!  Well not a good combination but they are in the same area in my back garden. I was very busy on the weekend cleaning up all the mess as you can see beside my taro plants. Recently we've had a lot of rain and with me working during the week, I have had no time to weed so they took over my back garden where my raised beds are.

You can see in this POST what it looked like before weeds lol

Weeding is back breaking work so I have been collecting cardboard from all over the island and have now put it down before I put down mulch to contain the weeds once and for all. I've instructed the garden boy (husband) to put down some mulch everyday (while I am at work) so we don't have to do it all in one hit and break our backs lol.

Next post will show you the amazing compost bin and newest raised garden bed, stay tuned.

Winter Photo Scavenger Hunt

Here are my first photos for the Winter Photo Challenge (strange for me to write Winter when we are sweltering in heat lol).

One of Many and measures- Dragon fruit flower in my neighbours yard that is now flowering. One of many that will be coming out between her plants and mine

A set of three - funny story to this. I ate some Chiffon cake at a friends house. I have always wanted to make one of these cakes but was overwhelmed by the process. Well I hunted all over town one weekend and could not find a chiffon cake tin - seems like no one makes these any more.

My friend found she had too many of these tins which she got overseas, her sister had one that she never used and hubby ordered one for me online, all three arrived on the same day lol

I installed this new worm farm on the weekend, its a work in progress, I hope this one will give me more worm wee than I have ever not gotten out of my other worm farms. This one is very well made with a proper draining hole and smaller holes to keep out the bugs.
 

Peek inside my kitchen - crushing eggshells to feed my worms and vegetables

Over at A Bracelet of Days, Eileen runs a Winter Photo Challenge among many other challenges 

you may be interested in. I enjoy the Scavenger hunt on that runs on the 4 Seasons (it gives me 

time to hunt down photo opportunities).

1. A set of three
2. Round and round
3. Peek inside
4. Glass
5. A treasured item
6. Horizontal
7. An opening
8. A sign of the times
9. Weather conditions
10. Work in progress
11. Measures
12. In the distance
13. Something beginning with C
14. One of many
15. Something with legs
16. A face
17. Comfort food
18. Something you do every day
19. Something yellow
20. Marking time

Alt A. In pieces

Alt B. Textured

Alt C. Black and white

If you'd like to play the first link up is HERE

5 in 5 - May 2020 - My Backyard

Today I am joining Sandie from itchifingers to post photos I have taken in 5 minutes.(Interesting concept)

I stood in my backgarden and took 5 minutes worth of photos and these were the best:

 Red Dragon fruit 

 Bird planted chilli tree

 Pine cones ready for the fire

 Blue string left by hubby, not sure what he was using it for

Chopped wood ready for the fireplace

Here's how it works:

1. Choose a location.
2. Have your camera ready.
3. Set a mobile timer for 5 minutes.
4. Take as many photos you can until the time is up.
5. Choose 5 photos to download and share by using the linkytool. 

We have until the 25th of the month to add your photos and if you want to know more about 5in5 there are details HERE.