El Grullo dragon fruit

This dragon fruit variety comes from Mexico and can handle both hot and cold temperatures well. It has red flesh and a beautiful flower.

Description

“El Grullo” is a type of Dragon Fruit. It comes from the Hylocereus genus and the ocamponis species (H. ocamponis hybrid). This variety comes from El Grullo, which is in the Mexican state of Jalisco.

El Grullo flowers bloom at night and have white petals with deep red and yellow calyces (outer peddles). The stems are thick and heavy, with three sides and big thorns. Because the plant is gray-green, it can handle heat and cold much better than other Hylocereus species

The pitaya is large and oval. It has purple-greenish fins on a red skin, and the inside is a very deep red color. On average, they weigh 1 lb. The fruit tastes tropical and has a light sweetness to it. Some growers said it has a beet-like flavor and others did not. 16–18 on the Brix scale.

Plant facts

• Large, red-fleshed fruits with greenish-red skins, excellent quality, thick and heavy plants, and great heat and cold tolerance. Origin: an unnamed selection found by R. Lobo in El Grullo, Jalisco State, Mexico;
• The fruit is oval, big, and weighs 489 grams. The quality is good, and the flesh is dark red. The skin is purple-red, thick, hard, and covered with many small bracts. It takes 40 days from bloom to harvest in Southern California. It’s blooming from mid-July to the end of December;
• The plant has thick, heavy, fleshy, and long stems that are more than 2 meters long when fully grown. The young shoots are lime green, triangular, and have clear ridges. The mature stems get a grayish color and fill in the space between the ridges, almost making a solid triangle;
• Spines are very many and long. Each areole has 8–13 needle-like spines that are 3–14 mm long and arranged randomly. Flowers are large and narrow, tubular, with white petals, a yellowish-red calyx, and light yellow anthers and stigma lobes;
• Self-sterile. So it needs cross pollination to set fruit;
• It can handle both cold and heat very well. Pitahaya grows well in full sun.

A Prickly Passion (And An Even Pricklier Fruit)

You know that old saying about not judging a book by its cover? Well, let me tell you, that’s doubly true when it comes to dragon fruit. This funky looking cactus fruit might appear to be all prickly on the outside, but crack one of those bad boys open and you’ll find an interior that’s smooth, sweet, and absolutely gorgeous.

I’m talking vibrant magenta flesh flecked with tons of tiny black seeds. It’s a showstopper of a fruit if I’ve ever seen one. And while growing the standard red-fleshed variety is pretty mainstream these days, my true passion lies with a much rarer and more spectacular cultivar – the El Grullo dragon fruit.

The Story of El Grullo

This variety originated from a small town of the same name tucked away in the highlands of western Mexico. Legend has it that a farmer there stumbled upon a dragon fruit cactus bearing brilliant yellow fruit while hiking through the hills. He took a cutting and the rest, as they say, is history.

Nowadays, El Grullo is one of the most prized dragon fruit varieties around. Its sunshine yellow flesh provides a striking contrast to the typical magenta hues. And in my humble opinion, its flavor is even richer and more aromatic than the common red varieties.

Of course, getting your hands on genuine El Grullo dragon fruit stock is easier said than done. This variety is incredibly rare in cultivation and its cuttings are highly coveted. I should know – I jumped through so many hoops and called in every last one of my farming favors just to get my hands on a few precious cuttings years ago.

The Trials of Growing Tropical Yellows

From that initial stock, I’ve worked tirelessly to establish my very own crop of El Grullo down here in South Florida. And let me tell you, this variety does not make it easy. Dragon fruit in general is a finicky crop, but El Grullo takes the challenges to a whole new level.

For starters, the plants are incredibly slow-growing and take forever to start producing fruit. We’re talking 5-7 years from a cutting before you’ll see your first pitaya. Talk about requiring some serious patience!

Then there are the specific climate requirements. El Grullo absolutely will not set fruit unless you can recreate its native warm days, cooler nights, and lower humidity levels. Miss the mark by even a little and all you get is a whole lot of beautiful dragon fruit flowers that stubbornly refuse to be pollinated.

And don’t even get me started on just how insanely challenging it is to hand pollinate every single one of those fleeting flowers over a few critical weeks each year. My hands are cramped just thinking about it!

The Reward of Rarity

All that being said, El Grullo is 100% worth the effort in my book. There’s just something so special about producing a fruit that’s not only delicious, but also incredibly unique and rare. I mean, how many other fruits can you think of that have a literal glow-in-the-dark yellow interior?

My family loves it, my customers obsess over it, and I take immense pride in being one of the few commercial growers devoted to preserving such an amazing variety. Plus, El Grullo’s exotic looks and fantastic tropical flavors make for one heck of a great talking point.

So are you brave enough to take on the challenge of growing this prickly yellow gem? Here are a few key points to keep in mind:

Key Features of El Grullo Dragon Fruit

• Brilliant sunshine yellow flesh with a richer, more floral aroma than typical red varieties
• Large, plump fruits that can reach over 1 lb in size
• Striking bright yellow skin when ripe vs typical magenta/red
• Longer, thinner stems on the cactus plants
• Even slower growth rate than standard dragon fruit varieties
• Requires very specific microclimates to induce flowering and fruit set

The Grower’s Perspective From my perspective as a farmer specializing in this variety, the experience of growing El Grullo is a constant balance between unwavering passion and utter frustration. One day I’ll be overjoyed at the sight of our first flowers after years of waiting, and the next I want to pull my hair out trying to hand pollinate those finicky blooms before they wilt.

There’s an incredible amount of attention to detail required, from constantly monitoring microclimates to developing your own fertilization schedules. Not to mention inventive techniques to try mimicking those all-important cool desert nights.

But then you get to harvest time and all the effort melts away. There’s nothing quite like pulling those bright yellow orbs off the cactus, admiring their wild appearance, and reveling in flavors that truly taste like sunshine. Those first few bites of perfectly ripe El Grullo are sublime – a multisensory experience of deliciousness that makes all the blood, sweat, and tears totally worth it.

So while El Grullo may be devilishly difficult to grow, the rewards reaped by those few growers willing to take it on are heavenly indeed. I may be covered in cactus scratches and calloused from years of painstaking hand-pollination, but you’d better believe I’ll keep growing this prickly yellow paradise fruit until the day I die!

Conclusion

A great variety, but not the best for the novice grower. Because our first fruit was small, it got a score of 14.5.

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