Wednesday, November 30, 2016

DRAGON FRUIT / PITAYA


Dragon Fruit
Pitaya, commonly known as Dragon Fruit is a tropical  cactus which normally grow in trees in the forest, originally from Mexico. It can easily be grown here in central Florida. You can grow it from seed, but it is much easily grow from cuttings. With in 2 to 3 years it will be mature and you will begin to get flowers followed by fruit.

How to grow your Dragon Fruit
You can either plant it in a Large pot or directly into the ground. In either case you will need a 6 foot trellis for it to climb. Plant in full sun. Water it twice a week and keep it weed free. Mulch it with pine bark as it needs a little acid.



Ripe Dragon Fruit
Unripe Fruit


Dragon Fruit almost ready to pick

Dragon Fruit plant



Dragon fruit with tentacles looking for a place to climb.




Sunday, November 13, 2016

PLANT ZONE BY ZIP CODE

Posted by: Steve Lohn
      Email: tropicalfruittrees@gmail.com

Ive been asked many times, how I determine what planting zone I'm in. Well here is a web site put out by the USDA Agricultural Research Service.

http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb/InteractiveMap.aspx

In this web page  all you do is insert your zip code and the site gives you you're planting zone. For those of you outside of the United States, I'm sorry, this only works here.