Jan–MarApr–JunJul–SepOct–Dec
Planting
Days to maturity
Seasonal yields
Sow indoors · Direct sow · Transplant outdoors
← Explore Plants
Plant · P-530
Pitaya Yellow
Selenicereus megalanthus
Yellow pitaya is a climbing, often tree-perching cactus grown for its spiny yellow fruit, a sweet, thin-skinned pulp that some growers rate as the best-tasting of the dragon fruits. A cutting-grown vine can start fruiting in under a year and keep bearing several crops a season for around twenty years, but it has to be trained onto a trellis strong enough to carry hundreds of pounds of stem. Its night-blooming flowers are pollinated by moths and bats rather than daytime insects, so growers plant more than one genetic line since some selections will not set fruit alone.
Record at a glance
Growing profile
- Sun
- Full Sun · Partial Sun
- USDA zone
- USDA 10–11
- Soil
- Sand · Loam · Clay
- Moisture
- Dry · Well-Drained · Moist
Vertical layer
Vine- Soil pH
- 5.3–6
- Plant type
- Vine
- Mature height
- 20 ft
- Mature spread
- Not yet recorded
- Plant spacing
- 8 ft
- Root type
- Fibrous-shallow
- Spread pattern
- Root
Keep exploring
Similar plants
Discover more plants with shared forest layers or growing conditions.
Achocha
Cyclanthera pedata
Achocha is a fast climbing vine that gives three edible parts off one plant - young fruit eaten raw or cooked with a cucumber flavor, mature…
Vine · USDA 9–11
African Walnut
Plukenetia conophora
African Walnut is a fast-growing evergreen vine of humid tropical rainforest, grown for an oil-rich seed usually boiled or roasted and served…
Vine · USDA 10–12
Banana Passionfruit
Passiflora tarminiana
Banana Passionfruit is a fast-climbing vine that produces a deep yellow to orange fruit with sweet aromatic pulp, eaten raw or turned into…
Vine · USDA 10–12
Betel
Piper betle
Betel is a fast-growing woody climbing vine grown for its leaves which are chewed with areca palm seed and lime as a mild stimulant after…
Vine · USDA 10–12
Bitter Melon
Momordica charantia
Bitter melon is a fast-growing tropical vine grown for its young green fruit, cooked the way cucumber is used across the tropics. Left to…
Vine · USDA 9–11
Bottle Gourd
Lagenaria siceraria
Bottle gourd's real value here is not food but craft: the mature shell dries hard enough to become a bottle, bowl, dipper or birdhouse…
Vine · USDA 2–11
The deeper layer
Plan what comes next.
- Primary
- Locked ecological function
- Secondary
- Locked ecological function
- Byproduct
- Locked ecological function
Behind the record
- Locked research reference
- Locked research reference
- Locked research reference