Okay, here's the list of things I've tried and taken into consideration.

I did stem cuts and dried them before first planting them in soil for a few weeks. There was no change so I thought rooting hormone would help. It didn't.

I next attempted to root in water with a bit of rooting hormone mixed in. I changed the water every 4-5 days and gave it a few weeks. The Godzilla rotted and died so I pulled all of them out.

And now they've all been sitting in soil slowly dying. It's been around 60-ish degrees outside lately and these have been indoors for months. I have them in indirect sunlight with a tiny bit of filtered water near the stems. Still nothing.

I tried raw unfiltered honey on the stems and absolutely nothing changed. It's as if they just hate me and would rather die slowly than the grow for me.

The cuttings I took off my own established Vietnam Whites also died despite me knowing their exact history and rooting attempts. I will admit those plants were weak already as they were killed by fungus after I pruned these cuttings. It's possible they didn't really have a chance to begin with.

I'm using cactus soil mixed 50/50 with nutrient rich cork based additive for rooting with the intention of repotting in pure cactus soil once roots are established. There are probably traces of rooting hormone remaining on the stems, but the stuff doesn't do anything. All it is is a placebo for stupid people. The plant wants to root or it doesn't.

I need to know why it works for everyone else EXCEPT for me. Near as I can tell at least one of the methods I've tried should work. But none have. I've spent and lost A LOT of money on this and I don't understand what is wrong. I get that I suck at plant cultivation, but I'd think AT LEAST one would have rooted for me by now. I'm not plankin on tryong agaon ever. But I do want to k ow if there's anything I need to do differently for the prerooted plants I still have. If they're all destined to die I'm willing to give them to whoever wants them.

These pics represent the very last unrooted cuttings I have. If they continue refusing to root I'm tossing them out with the rest that died. I'm not giving away cuttings that will jist end up dying. But I might give up the prerooted ones. Those ones at least won't die on someone else.

And yes, I am unhappy. Virtually EVERYONE I've spoken to about this has had success rooting. Succulents aren't supposed to this hard to cultivate. Natural no one is willing to tell me the truth. I say that because I've done everything I'm supposed to yet absolutely NOTHING has worked. I jist want to know why it's it's so easy for everyone else and not for me.

I also wonder if the rooting rate of these in itself is low. Slim to nil seems closer to accurate. But if someone knows the realistic propagation rate of dragon fruit I really would like to know. I suspect a lot of what I read is exaggerated, or at least only biased on the successful ones. Not like anyone will admit when they have a cutting die. My experience is that they rot and die FAR more readily than they root. So the ACTUAL stastics on it would definately be helpful. And no, I'm not going to buy any more ever again. It's pointless to try.

On case you need it this way, this is a comprehensive list.

1. Dry soil
2. Plain water
3. Water with rooting hormone
4. Rooting hormone and mostly dry soil
5. Light and temprature considerations taken to
6. Mostly proper soil as far as rooting goes
7. Time (multiple weeks in each medium)
8. Raw unfiltered honey on the stems

ROOTING DOESN'T WORK. Not unless you have a greenhouse and money for the best possible soil and additives. I honestly think succulents are a waste of time and moneyall mine have done is waste resources (pots, soil, space, oxygen). If anyone is trying to grow these I'd say prerooted or nothing, otherwise don't bother. I live in Anahiem, CA in the so-called sweet spot of desert fruits. My experience is that that presumption just isn't true unless you can afford a farm and all the expensive soild and such. The big sellers are all lying, or at the very least exaggerating. Propagation rates are EXTREMELY low at best.

EDIT: I added a photo of the last cutting to die. I grafted the last surviving node onto the same plant the last graft didn't take to, and it's very thin and weak. So it's VERY unlikely to take. Grafting is a skill in itself so not tragic of it doesn't work. Point is it should have rooted. I just don't understand why they never root for me.

MrGarak said:ROOTING DOESN'T WORK. Not unless you have a greenhouse and money for the best possible soil and additives. I honestly think succulents are a waste of time and moneyall mine have done is waste resources (pots, soil, space, oxygen). If anyone is trying to grow these I'd say prerooted or nothing, otherwise don't bother. I live in Anahiem, CA in the so-called sweet spot of desert fruits. My experience is that that presumption just isn't true unless you can afford a farm and all the expensive soild and such. The big sellers are all lying, or at the very least exaggerating. Propagation rates are EXTREMELY low at best.
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Wow! Pretty harsh! I would say your biggest mistake is trying all this in the middle of winter, whether you are in the "sweet spot of desert fruit" or not. My experience with dragon fruit cuttings is you lay them on some almost dry barely damp soil and ignore them. They root. They WANT to root. But in the summer time.

DaisyI said:

Wow! Pretty harsh! I would say your biggest mistake is trying all this in the middle of winter, whether you are in the "sweet spot of desert fruit" or not. My experience with dragon fruit cuttings is you lay them on some almost dry barely damp soil and ignore them. They root. They WANT to root. But in the summer time.

But...what is the actual propagation rate? Technically ALL plants want to root. That fact by itself means nothing. Rooting hormone is supposed to bypass the seasonality thing but it doesn't work. The stuff is only a gimmick for stupid people. I've had it fail to root rose chrysanthemums and a few other flowers as well. It's USELESS. The plant roots by itself. I need to know how likely that rooting actually is. I've also successfully grown Thai Guavas indoors in winter, and those are supposedly hard to grow out of season. So I'm not entirely convinced winter alone is the reason. I think it's much more likely I'm just not good enough for this. What is it called, having a brown thumb? That sounds about right.

That said I don't believe in second chances because if you can't do it right the first time you're wasting money. And I have wasted A LOT of money failing to grow things, not just dragonfruits. All I have right now is curiosity, bewilderment, and disappointment. This post is more about closure than anything else.

There are a lot of YouTube videos on rooting cuttings of dragon fruit. Have you looked at some of them? Perhaps there's one that will help. I've never tried doing it, but I have rooted epiphyllums a couple of times. I got one once in the fall and it didn't do anything until the following spring. I ignored it except to glance at it once in a whil. It didn't show any signs of success until spring. I'd pretty much shrugged it off as a loss by the time it showed signs of new life. Epis may be easier than dragon fruit, but they sure look similar as plants.

needrain said:There are a lot of YouTube videos on rooting cuttings of dragon fruit. Have you looked at some of them? Perhaps there's one that will help. I've never tried doing it, but I have rooted epiphyllums a couple of times. I got one once in the fall and it didn't do anything until the following spring. I ignored it except to glance at it once in a whil. It didn't show any signs of success until spring. I'd pretty much shrugged it off as a loss by the time it showed signs of new life. Epis may be easier than dragon fruit, but they sure look similar as plants.

Yes I have and none of them are accurate. I had the big ones for over a year and I haven't found a single video that actually helped me with it. All the stuff I didnto keep it alive that failed came from youtube. I kept it alive by figuring it out myself. Then the rust thing happened and that was it. No one had an answer and no one I messaged online believed me anyway. All I got was it's hot and dry so it'll go away by itself. So I tend not to trust growers. All they do is lie anyway. (Long story but I left the facebook groups because the dragonfruit community is EXTREMELY insular and racist and I was deliberately given bad advice from mtiple people).

Agree totally with Daisy. It seems the point about not doing this in winter has been brought up on one of your previous threads.

You are getting sound advice from multiple people but are simply not following it. So the conclusion here should not be that the plant or everything succulent related just sucks, but maybe that your approach is wrong. Or maybe not even that - the time you are choosing to do this is wrong.

I'd see if I could keep some of these cuttings that are left and are not rooting, somewhere in a box in a dry place and have another go in a couple of months when it is a lot warmer both day and night and when you can leave these outside. The cuttings may not make it, but at this point what have you got to loose.

As to people not telling when they loose plants... well maybe there is a crowd out there somewhere that is that way, but I think that many here a very honest about their success or occasional lack thereof when it comes to dealing with seeds, cuttings, plants that are being grown out of their usual habitat, etc.

My success rate the one time I had a go at dragon fruit cuttings was 4 out of 6. I gave two of the successes away, killed one during my big house move and have one sitting bareroot in my shade structure because I wanted the pot it is in for something else. It will probably die, but so far looks like if I stuck it back in soil it may be OK. Here the problem is they need too much shade to survive because the sun is too harsh and generally it is too dry for them to thrive without a lot of extra care which I am not willing/able to give. I know people who do and even on occasion get decent fruit from them.

But again it is winter even in Anaheim, CA.

mcvansoest said:Agree totally with Daisy. It seems the point about not doing this in winter has been brought up on one of your previous threads.

You are getting sound advice from multiple people but are simply not following it.

Why don't you believe me? I've posted pictures of doing exactly what I was told more than once. You're probably just lying to me like the others. I mean, why would you just blindly assume I'm not compliant at all? What are you even basing that on? Propagation is never 100% woth any plant regardless of what people tell you. The fact that you don't even know the likligood, even in best case, tells me you're just like the people who were telling me the wrong things. Example: I used neem oil on someone's instruction and my mango plant died. I guess you don't believe that, either.

That said I still think rooting hormone is a useless gimmick. That comes from several different plants, most of which weren't fruit bearing.

It's okay that you hate me. The plants do, too.

EDIT: I have screenshots of people lying to me on facebook messenger if you want to see them. Dragonfruit people are the worst group I have ever had to deal with, and whether you believe me or not I will NEVER trust videos or groups specific to dragon fruit ever again. They saw my turban and did everything they could to sabotage my plants. And yes, it was intentional. I had that confirmed after I left the groups.

I also posted pictures of where I have them. INDOORS in indirect sunlight. So there's no reason for them to die without rooting.

Here. No need to read the thread. Are you done assuming I've kept them outside? The weather alone isn't a factor.

I don't know. Maybe I should put them outside. They'll die no matter what I do, so it isn't like it matters where I keep them. Oh, and while still technically winter, it's warm and sunny now. Which might be why my grapevine is sprouting. Begs the question why these succulents are still actively dying. Shouldn't they at least be starting to root like other spring plants? I alsp know several people who have rooted them in the last month or so. I also have screenshots. Nevermind. I'm not cut out for this. The people on facebook made that much extremely clear. Sorry I'm wasting your oxygen.



On a sidenote if anyone wants a rooted cutting PM me. I have several that should go to others more worthy than me. If I keep them I'll just kill them like all the rest. None are valuable or fancy, but I'll give you the list and you can choose. Not like I'll ever get fruit out of them, assuming they even live long enough.

I would like to ask everyone to take a deep breath here. I have locked this thread. Please take a minute to consider how you treat the other members of this group before posting in haste.