Sweet Delight Dragon Fruit (hybrid hylocereus undetus X guatemalensis) is a type of dragonfruit that has light pink flesh on the inside and is very sweet and flavorful. This variety makes a lot of fruit that weighs between 3/4 and 1 pound.
Hylocereus undatus and Hylocereus guatemalensis are the two species that make up Delight Dragon Fruit. It is a very fertile variety that will set fruit on its own because it can pollinate itself.
Description
Paul Thomson created a hybrid dragon fruit called “Delight” or “3-S” (or S-3). It is a cross between the Niezel, which has white flesh, and the Rixford, which has purple flesh. Flesh color is light pink. This variety came from a tropical nursery in Louisiana.
Delights fruit is a fruit that is usually weighs 1 pound. The flesh is a unique shade of pink and tastes great, which is how it got its name. Brix numbers from different growers 17–19.
The flowers only open at night and are over 14 inches across. They bloom all summer. The stems are green and have three sides. Along the rib, there are small spines.
| Genus: | Hylocereus |
| Foliage: | Evergreen |
| Indoor / outdoor: | Indoor & outdoor |
| Type: | Cacti |
| Plant characteristic: | Edible fruit |
| Growth habit: | Climbing |
| Soil pH: | Neutral (6.6-7.3pH) |
| Soil type: | Loam, peat, sand, volcanic with perfect drainage |
| Climate: | Dry, sub-tropical, temperate, tropical |
| Sunlight: | Partial shade, full sun, part sun (50-80%) |
| Time to fruit/flower/harvest: | 2-3 years |
| Fruiting / harvest months: | Between late June and mid-December |
| Outside color: | Magenta |
| Pulp color: | Light pink |
| Taste: | Sweet taste. Texture can be compared to ice cream |
| Plants required to pollinate: | 1 (self-pollinating) |
| Watering: | Drought hardy (little watering) |
| USDA Hardiness Zone (°F): | 13 (> 60 °F) |
| Max height: | 2-5 m - when in the ground with good conditions |
| Flavor: | 5 out of 5 |
| Home planting: | 5 out of 5 |
| Commercial planting: | 4 out of 5 |
How to grow
Dragon fruit are a tropical fruiting cactus. Dragon fruit won’t grow in cold places, so make sure the temperature is above 40 degrees Fahrenheit to keep it from being hurt by the cold. Guard against hard freezes. Dragon fruit can be grown in pots or in the ground. This fast-growing plant needs well-drained soil, full sun, and a strong trellis to support its weight.
Don’t put too many plants in very large pots. Instead, gradually increase the size of the pots as the plants grow. During the growing season, you should use a complete fertilizer. Don’t give the plant too much water in the winter to keep it from dying.
What can be said about this variety?
This variety is an easy grower. The plant, like all dragons, likes a bit of shade on the ground. The outside of the fruit is pink, and the inside is light pink. The flavor is sweet and nice, and the flesh feels like ice cream.
The taste is also said to be nice, which is how it got its name. Mini delight gives medium fruit. The fruit can get up to 450 grams in weight. The plant can make its own pollen.
Don’t wait too long to harvest, because a ripe fruit can burst when it rains. And do not give water 2 days before harvesting the fruit. Then, the taste gets less.
As we say, the Delight is not too hard to grow (requiring little intervention). Next to this, the delight is known for its fertility. It has a lot of fruit and is very popular among people who like dragon fruit. Very helpful, especially for people who want to try dragon fruits for the first time. Very reliable variety! Many people say that this variety’s delicious taste is due to his name.
Plant facts
- Fruits with pinkish-white or light-pink flesh that taste great and grow well in backyards;
- It was bred and chosen by Paul Thomson in San Diego County at the beginning of the 1980s;
- The fruit is oval, medium-sized, weighs ~ 371 grams, and is good quality;
- The flesh is light pink or pinkish-white, and the seeds are small. The skin is greenish red and of medium thickness, and the bracts are short and spread out;
- 18.08 Brix;
- It takes ~ 41 days from bloom to harvest;
- Plant: very vigorous, stems are triangular with 3 well-defined ridges, stems are medium in thickness and length, very straight, and green when mature, areoles have 1–3 thin spines that are 1–3 mm long, segment between areoles is convex and 43.3 mm long, petals are white, calyx is yellowish, anthers and stigma lobes are yellow, plant does well in full sun, good commercial potential.
The Delightfully Prickly Pursuit of Pink Dragon Fruit
You know what they say – the pretty ones are always high maintenance. Well, let me tell you, that adage has never rung truer than with the Delight variety of dragon fruit. These vibrantly hued pink beauties may look almost too gorgeous to be real, but cultivating them is an obsessively demanding labor of love.
I still vividly remember the first time I laid eyes on a Delight dragon fruit. I was meandering through a vibrant outdoor market in Bali when this almost neon-bright sphere of hot pink covered in vivid green scales quite literally stopped me dead in my tracks. It looked more like an exotic prop from a sci-fi film than something you’d actually eat!
But being the ever-intrepid fruit voyager, I decided to gamble a few thousand rupiah on the alien-esque specimen to see what all the fuss was about. One slice into that blazing fuchsia exterior revealed the most delicate light pink interior flesh positively loaded with endless tiny edible seeds. But it was the first bite that really blew my mind.
An utterly unique sweet-tart taste explosion danced across my taste buds – like a harmonious fusion of kiwi, pear, and coconut but with intriguing floral top notes. Each luscious, creamy spoonful managed to strike that elusive balance of decadent richness and palate-cleansing refreshment. I Was instantly, utterly hooked on this spiky little flavor enigma.
So it should come as no surprise that upon returning to my humble farm, I immediately set about trying to grow Delight dragon fruit myself. Well, let me tell you – if I thought simply acquiring the fruit was challenging, actually cultivating the stuff is a whole other level of madness!
These subtropical cactus plants are some of the most finicky, high-maintenance divas in the entire botanical kingdom. Too much heat and the delicate fuchsia blossoms get torched into oblivion before they can even open up to be pollinated. Too little sun and humidity and the stubborn things sulk without ever fruiting. And don’t even get me started on their wildly inconsistent moisture needs – overwatering leads to root rot while under-watering causes the precious developing fruits to shrivel up into inedible duds before they’re even ripe.
Then there’s the truly savage process of harvesting the Delight fruits themselves once you’ve managed to coax them from the earth. Those vividly hued green scales may look pretty from a distance, but get up close and personal and you’ll find they’re covered in nearly microscopic spines capable of slicing your flesh apart like you’ve been pricked by millions of minuscule needles. It’s full body armor and hazmat suit territory unless you want to spend ages extracting splinters from every inch.
And let’s not forget the tedious labor of love that is hand-pollinating every single one of those finicky blossoms during their laughably brief 12-hour window of opening. If your timing is even slightly off during that comically slim pollination opportunity, you can kiss your Delight dragon fruit crop goodbye for an entire grow cycle. Talk about anxiety!
Yet despite the endless challenges and tests of will…I wouldn’t trade this delightfully thorny obsession for anything in the world. Because one taste of a perfectly fresh, ripe Delight variety straight from the vine makes every ounce of the struggle worth it.
There’s simply nothing else like cutting into one of those blazing hot pink orbs with neon green scales to reveal the delicate light pink interior loaded with crunchy little edible seeds. Each subtly sweet, impossibly creamy bite offers this utterly unique tropical experience that’s somehow decadent yet refreshing all at once. It’s like some exotic fruit sorcery!
While these precious pink jewels are also magical in refined desserts, cocktails, and more, there’s just something extra special about savoring a fresh Delight dragon fruit in its raw, unadorned state. Whether chilled or at room temperature, that first spoonful is like being instantly transported to a vibrant tropical oasis – pure, luscious bliss in every bite.
So while dragon fruit farming is undeniably not for the faint of heart, growing this particular prickly pink variety is a true test of dedication and perseverance. The endless coddling required to maintain perfect growing conditions, the bloodshed inevitably involved during harvesting, the sheer commitment of pollinating each individual blossom by hand…it’ll definitely put your sanity and passion to the test over and over again.
But for those fleeting, glorious moments when you bite into one of your lovingly cultivated hot pink spheres and experience the tropical ambrosia that is fresh Delight dragon fruit? That sublime flavor revelation makes all the labor and obsession so worth it. Sure, the juice is worth the squeeze – but with these vibrant pink beauties, embracing the thorns is half the delight.
Conclusion
The reddish-orange fruits that Sweet Delight Dragon Fruit grows have green tips and pale pink flesh that tastes good and is refreshing to eat. Sweet Delight is a great variety with a mid-high yield and self-pollination. It is medium in size: delight fruit is a fruit that is about the size of an apple and usually weighs 1 pound.
This beautiful night-blooming cactus can grow in a wide range of conditions and soils. It makes the most fruit when it is allowed to climb on a burlap-wrapped totem, trellis, or your favorite tree. The huge, round flowers are between 10 and 16 inches in diameter and have a beautiful shape. They usually only last one night.
