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In case you didn’t know, most large-fruited, temperate orchard fruit varieties, such as apples, pears and peaches are propagated by grafting. Many plant varieties are propagated by cuttings, which clones the plant, are genetically identical to the original. For these tree fruits, grafting is more efficient in making more of a given fruit tree variety than it would be to root cuttings. If you have rootstock sapling trees to graft onto, grafting can save the tree years of growth required  before fruiting, as opposed to cuttings. Also, having the choice of any rootstock of the same species, one can select a particularly hardy or vigorous specimen as the rootstock. Rootstocks are usually seedling trees (as opposed to cuttings/clones), so the genetic uniqueness can afford a little more disease resistance. Grafting is often also a more successful procedure than rooting a hardwood cutting. Grafting has been done for thousands of years and is even mentioned in the Bible!

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What is the “dragon fruit” (Wikipedia article) or pitahaya/pitaya?

I first read about this exotic fruit in Ohio University’s library, about 1990. While in Taiwan for a couple months in 1995, I was delighted to see what looked like this fruit on “night market” stands on the street, along with other fruits I had only read about, such as lychee and mangosteen. The piles of fruit (which my Taiwanese friend called the “fire dragon fruit”) I saw were kind of a “hot” maroon/fuchsia color, with bright, triangular yellow scales. Of course I bought some. Turned out the flavor was kind of bland (which might have been the variety or growing conditions), but my fascination for the fruit grew regardless.

Many others are becoming fascinated, or even obsessed with this strange fruit. What is it about the pitahaya? Maybe the vibrant color of the fuit. Maybe the fascination of eating fruit from “jungle cactus”. The cactus plant itself is a real novelty. While in the wild, tropical forests (even in Flroida), it vines through tree tops, with it’s 3 or more ribbed stems, pitahaya farmers will prune/train them into what looks like an alien, miniature tree. See our dragon fruit page.

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