Dragon Fruit Project - Starting June 2012

I am keen to grow all sort of fruit in our suburban backyard but as space is limited I am mindful of space requirement.  Then I came across article about dragon fruit, low maintenance, low water requirement (succulent family) and about 1x1 square meter should be fine.  You can buy this fruit in Saturday market, but they are expensive at about $5 each.  So why not try to grow it myself? 

I found a private Seller who lives in Riverhills, a few suburb away from where I live, and bought $20 worth of dragon fruit plant from him.  If the plant grows where he lives then there is a chance I will be able to grow it too in my backyard.

From what I read on the internet, you need to grow the plant vertical as naturally in the wild they'll climb a tree like orchid or vanilla. So in my mind this is not that hard to prepare, I was going to allocate a small corner of my raised garden bed then support the cactus like plant by a fencing trellis. Easy fix... Not!  Remember how they grow naturally in the wild, the seller told me the support needs to be of wood/timber material such as tree trunk or old timber so its root can stick to it.   Luckily my poor hubby agree to build a purposedly raised garden bed for this special plant, with plenty of back message in return of course!!

Material used: recycled old timber stairs and old hard wood post leftover from house reno. 
Height of garden bed about 30 cm.
Height of timber post about 2 mt.
Used twine (from haybales) to tie the plant to the timber post - in time, as I was told, the plant will send out new roots so the plant will stick to the post

Photo below taken 30/06/12

As at 18/08/12 from a few meters away nothing seem to have happened...

 But on a closer look, new shoot is coming up... See front of the photo, with reddish growth on the edge of the branch.

 And in many places...

 I was told it may take up to a year before the plant bear fruit so be patience my Dear!

I basically have followed all the tips and tricks I found, be it from the internet or from the Seller.  It seems working so far but only time will tell... Fingers crossed!

- Free draining soil (this is why I grow this plant on raised garden bed)
- No fertiliser required but spray it occassionaly with liquid seaweed (ie Seasol etc).
- Mulch around it (nice and cool so the worm will hang around)
- Don't water it too much or the root will rot (remember this plant is succulent/cactus)

01/09/12 Of all the new shoots I can see, this particular one look a bit different.  Could this be.... ????  So I look up the internet and from some photos I found this might be a flower bud.  Yeeeeyyyy.... I hope so!  It indeed turned out to be my first flower bud.

 

 

Growing Banana in Brisbane - 8km Southwest of the City

I have been growing banana in my Brisbane suburban backyard for about a couple of years now, a few bunchs have been harvested.  The bunch has never been as big or as fat as commercial grower though, but taste pretty good and I reckon it's not too bad for a novice although in other word, there are plenty of room for improvement!  Here is my banana corner, on the western side of the house, well protected from the wind by our two storey home but as a result not enough sunshine so each bunch taken so long to mature.  I'll make do with what I have for now.

In the past I never take notice how long it takes from when the flag leaf starts to appear to harvest time so each time I've got a new clump it keeps me wondering. So here is my note.

The small leaf in the centre of the trunk is called Flag Leaf. It is an indicator that banana heart (I like to call it flower) is coming.  Given it is winter time in Brisbane, I am quite surprised it's coming early in the season.  I thought banana will only fruit when the temperature is warmer...  This photo was taken 22/07/12

Another tell tale of flower coming up, apparently, is when the trunk becomes real fat.

Below photo was taken 05/08/12 and I can see that flower is definitely coming up... Woohooo....

Flag leaf in the center and the bulging pinkish banana flower is clearly visible now... 19/08/12.

I will keep you posted on further development....