Dragon fruit stems breaking!!

Joined
May 15, 2016
Messages
847
Reaction score
360
Location
Miami, FL
Hardiness Zone
10b
Country
United States
We’re having strong winds and rain and 3 big stems broke off. Is there something wrong with my support? How can I prevent this?

C1337334-4773-4969-B0ED-C883A79255E3.jpeg
8F973FA2-6EA2-4E71-8964-6322F72AF8E0.jpeg
10DE2BE5-6C0E-43DD-A034-747728E36753.jpeg
77E27821-280C-4222-8921-0F527E73C3C6.jpeg
521582C1-BB74-4F7D-98C0-FA6DE49E7D26.jpeg
45EFCAB2-A574-4519-801F-36CBADCBC783.jpeg
 
Joined
Oct 8, 2017
Messages
6,997
Reaction score
5,128
Location
Birmingham, AL USA
Hardiness Zone
8a
Country
United States
We’re having strong winds and rain and 3 big stems broke off. Is there something wrong with my support? How can I prevent this?

View attachment 43717 View attachment 43718 View attachment 43719 View attachment 43720 View attachment 43721 View attachment 43722
Your support must be wider. Do not let it dip below 90 or really 105 degrees back toward the ground. The thing is, if you support it, and do not let it grow naturally what does that mean at the end stages of fertility? Tomato cages suffer the same problem.
 
Joined
May 15, 2016
Messages
847
Reaction score
360
Location
Miami, FL
Hardiness Zone
10b
Country
United States
“you support it, and do not let it grow naturally what does that mean at the end stages of fertility?”

What does that mean?

Does the wood need to be thicker, or does it just need to be more spaced out?
 
Joined
Oct 8, 2017
Messages
6,997
Reaction score
5,128
Location
Birmingham, AL USA
Hardiness Zone
8a
Country
United States
fair question. it comes from my observation of elongated stems supporting fruit. When bent at an acute angle, mother nature often drops the now strangled downstream fruits. This comes from my observations of tomato vine in my own garden.In the picture, traditional barrel shaped wire frmes are to the left, and modified horizontal cattle panel support is to the right. My suspect is the abrupt bending of cellular channels of course. In the case of the picture OP provided and in the case of the picture I provided, acute angles preclude nutrient flow in either case and should be avoided. However, the plant support OP has provided is very attractive and stylish, but without the actual prevention of stem crush as a stem drops downward with the gravity of a fruiting body, a problem seems to be caused by the very design of the pretty support.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20180827_152820.jpg
    IMG_20180827_152820.jpg
    484.3 KB · Views: 352
Last edited:
Joined
May 15, 2016
Messages
847
Reaction score
360
Location
Miami, FL
Hardiness Zone
10b
Country
United States
So the frame needs to be longer? Not the wood itself? I want to know if I should use longer wood, or if I need a thicker wood diameter.
 
Joined
Oct 8, 2017
Messages
6,997
Reaction score
5,128
Location
Birmingham, AL USA
Hardiness Zone
8a
Country
United States
So the frame needs to be longer? Not the wood itself? I want to know if I should use longer wood, or if I need a thicker wood diameter.
Whatever you need to to to not only support the plant but also display it as it propogates. Seriously it should point you ti the dirextion of support it wants. Use malleable wire so you can customize support and formalize the support with wood or whatever next year.
 
Joined
Oct 8, 2017
Messages
6,997
Reaction score
5,128
Location
Birmingham, AL USA
Hardiness Zone
8a
Country
United States
So I had to go look up dragonfruit. It appears you can root the broken pieces so that is nice. It also looks like people trim the plant at the height they want and it shoots out horizontally below the cut and they are trained to the supports. That probably means tied to the support. They certainly tie the plant when it is young to follow up the trellis.

A horizontal or 90 degree growth is typically stronger than one that grows upward and can be peeled downward. My pear trees grow this way and big branches fail. My oaks shoot out at 90 and never lose live limbs. It has to do with torque somehow, or how a break gets started easier when one side of the branching has a weaker collar, so this is the goal from what pictures I see on the web.

It looks like the dragon fruit is trained up, trimmed off, grown out sideways from the top, lashed in place to some degree around the top and the rest cascades down from the horizontal crown branching. I do not know how you intend to use the trellis so I drew a finger painting.

Screenshot_20180904-021838.png
 
Last edited:
Joined
Feb 2, 2014
Messages
11,597
Reaction score
5,677
Location
La Porte Texas
Hardiness Zone
8b
Country
United States
This entire subject will be moot during the next high wind no matter what design or acute angles or obtuse angles or whatever you come up with. What you have to do is figure out how to protect the plant from the winds because in a high wind no design will stop the whipping and thrashing about of the plant. This whipping and thrashing about is what damaged your plant not the structure. My advice FWIW is to make it portable and move it into the garage during high winds.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
27,983
Messages
265,510
Members
14,712
Latest member
Beverly Zabane

Latest Threads

Top