One night while channel surfing between two stations, accidentally the controller of the remote went the wrong way and landed on the ABC where a program called Landline was showing the same "very ugly cactus looking thing" being grown commercially in the Northern Territory. An idea germinated, that this plant may be usable as a source of additional income.

We now had to decide where to plant these so we could irrigate them regularly. Before having this first fruit, an area to plant a commercial crop had been decided on but on reflection it was unsuitable.  It was on the top of a hill with full sun and directly open to hot north-westerly winds. After re-assessing this we came up with a hill that faces north and is situated between two of our dams.  The initial planting in this area involved the removal of some of the already established plants and in some cases their poles and transplanting them to the new area. This was achieved over a period of a few weeks. It was also at this time that we realised that the ground on our property is not made exclusively of soil.  Shale and some soil is the order of the ground. So using a borrowed manual post-hole digger, crow bar, and hands we dug out the holes required for the poles to be placed into.

Sixteen poles with three plants per pole were initially re-planted to this new area. These were still being watered by hand but now they were at least together and not spread over the property.  Very early in the setting up and formulation of planting these commercially it was decided that the growth of this had to be cost neutral.  The dragonfruit had to pay for themselves as much as was possible.

To build the soil that was around the poles we added filter press, this is the remains of sugar cane after processing at the mill. A mixture of other organics and in-organics were also added to help build up the very poor soil we have. It was no longer possible to hand water this many poles so the initial irrigation system was bought by Grant and installed during winter. This was set up still under the idea that the plants needed to be wet down during the hot summer months at least three times a day.

As Grant and Lisa were investing both time and money into this venture, a partnership agreement was set up in July 2003 between, Stephen and Bev Duff and Grant & Lisa Lea thus Duff/Lea Partnerships trading as Little Valley Pitaya came into existence. During the Christmas period of the same year when Grant was up helping, it was suggested that a move up to Gin Gin from Brisbane would be required to help expand the crop even further. After some deliberation in late June of 2004 Grant, Lisa and family moved up to Gin Gin and started working Dragonfruit full time.

In the first few months of being up in Gin Gin an additional 170 poles were prepared and set up for planting. By the 7 September 2004 these poles were ready to have the soil added to them and planted.  Prior to this the land had been cleared by hand, the holes dug, wood cut and set into the ground and the day previous the poly pie had been laid to set up the irrigation system. Then we had a grass fire go through the property.  We lost most of the new poly-pipe, but we saved the existing dragonfruit. (Click to see Photos) 

 The next season we had fruit and started to market our Dragonfruit through the local Gin Gin Markets. Samples were supplied to people passing by and we found that once tasted about 80% of people would buy some.  We also asked what they thought it tasted like, the answers ranged all over the known fruit spectrum. Our conclusion, they have a taste all their own.

During 2005 we only added a further 31 poles, our focus was on getting the plants to produce the best we could. Included with this were 19 poles of the Red Variety. In all we now have 271 poles with dragonfruit with about 813 plants (some had more than 3 plants per pole added and some did die off.) 

2007 season has been a good one so far (Photo taken 31 Jan. 2007)

We plan to add an additional 124 poles during 2007, this should take the total number of poles to 395 poles with at least 1185 plants. Another issue was the necessity to replace a number of poles which had rotted out or fallen over.  The reasons for this was either not using suitable hardwood in the initial set up process or not setting the poles deep enough into the ground.  This job is a hard prickly job requiring the removal of the established plants from the old poles and carefully removing the pole and digging out the hole by hand then replacing the pole without damaging the root system of the plants.  The trimmed plants are then re-tethered to the new poles.  Surprisingly these plants usually thrive and shoot out new shoots within 2 weeks of re-poling.

Well the plan was to expand but it did not happen due to a number of circumstances.  We have as of 1 July 2008 de-registered as a business and are no longer growing Dragonfruit on a commercial basis.  We are continuing to grow them but on a reduced basis as a hobby only.  We will continue to inform people who want to know about the fruit and its value, but will no longer be selling the fruit to markets.