“Moonlight cactus” because it blooms at night, also known as Honolulu Queen, the belle of the night, and strawberry pear. It cultivates in tropical and subtropical regions in hot and humid climates. Tiny, black, crunchy kiwi-like seeds are fragile also produce white fragrant flowers. Fruits are round and reddish-pink, and the tree shows a bizarre palm appearance.
How to Grow Dragon Fruit in Pots?
Dragon fruit plants can easily be grown in your home garden easily from seeds and also from cutting and you can relish with your fresh fruit daily by making smoothies and salads.
How is nutritious dragon fruit?
- Dragon fruit is nutritious for health purposes as it contains protein, vitamin C, fiber contents, carbohydrates, and magnesium.
- Prebiotics in dragon fruit promotes healthy bacteria in the gut. It contains betalains that help to combat stress.
- Dragon Fruit helps in colon cancer
- Eating Dragon fruit helps in preventing and curing the infection.
- Dragonfruit improves the immunity system and protects white blood cells from oxidative stress.
- This plant helps anemia patients and boosts iron levels in the human body.
How to propagate dragon fruit from seeds?
| Common name | Dragon fruit/ pitaya |
| Scientific name | Hylocereus undatus L. |
| Family | Cactus |
| Soil | Well-drained, sandy, and loamy |
| pH | 6-7 |
| Propagation | Seeds and vegetative |
| Temperature | Below 0℃ fatal |
| Irrigation | When soil dries |
| Fertilizer requirement | NPK ratio 12-0-0 and feather meal |
| Pollination | Cross-pollination |
| Disease | Fungal diseases due to humidity |
| Harvesting | Fruit color changes from green to red or pink |
| Storage | 4-6 weeks |
- Take a sharp knife, a moist paper towel, and a fresh diseased free dragon fruit; cut the fruit into pieces with a knife.
- Pick out the black-colored seeds from the pulp, wash all seeds, put them on the moist paper towel, and leave for a night.
- It would be best to have germination trays, peat moss, perlite, and a well-drained mixture for the next step.
- Make a mixture of one part peat moss, one part perlite, and a growing medium.
- Fill the germination trays with an adequate amount of media for seed sowing.
- Sprinkle seeds in a germination tray and add a tiny amount of media to cover bases.
- Thoroughly spray good quality water for irrigation on seeds and wrap it with a plastic sheet.
- The seed will take 15-30 days for germination from seed to seedling stage.
- At seedling stage / small outgrowths, germinate in germination tray.
- Seedlings of enough growth and size should be transplanted into the bigger pot for further root development of the plant.
How much time do Dragon plants take to produce fruit from the seed propagation method?
Dragon seeds take only a month to germinate produce tiny seedlings and are transplanted into a pot. Dragonfruit plant needs proper temperature, maintenance, and cares to become a tree. It takes almost seven years to reach the flowering stage or reproductive stage for fruit development. Early fruiting is possible by plant propagation through cutting, and it just takes six months for fruiting.
How to raise dragon fruit from cutting?
If you want early fruiting, you must propagate or grow dragon fruit from a cutting method.
- For this method, you need a sharp knife, fungicide, and a small pot.
- Take fresh dragon fruit plant, cut down segments or leaves with a sharp knife about 1-2 inches from the bottom.
- Discard the end portion of the segment; make sure to cut cleanly all the sides of the segments.
- You need to add soil like cactus, maximum sand, and perlite; the most preferable is sandy loam soil.
- Take cutting and treat it with fungicide for better results and prevent disease or insect attack.
- Now sow the primary cutting into the soil for germination in pots, dig a hole, place 2- 3 inches deep cutting in the ground, and compress growing media firmly for soil and cutting anchorage.
- Limited irrigation is fine to just moisten the soil. Do not overwater dragon fruit plants.
- After new outgrowths of cuttings in small pots, carefully dig near the cutting.
- Timely and properly transplant small pots into bigger pots or your backyard garden where trellising or support for plants is possible.
How to crop dragon fruit?
The dragon fruit tree starts flowering after two years of planting and the fruit needs 30- 50 days for development to reach the fruiting stage. After attainting proper size, color, and shape as 10-15 cm long, dark green to red or pink. Proper oval shape, color, and all appearances show the ripening stage of the fruit. Dragon fruit orchard is established in a square system at a distance of 2-3 meters. Different trellising systems are followed for the support of plants.
How to eat dragon fruit?
- Take a sharp knife and cut the fruit into pieces horizontally or vertically.
- Make cubes; peel off the skin with the knife or with your fingers.
- Enjoy it with yogurt or add in salads.
- Make a dessert from dragon fruit
- Use dragon fruit in making ice cream
- You can drink smoothies
How to make a smoothie from dragon fruit
- For making smoothies you need to add the pulp of fruit, sugar and a small amount of milk now blend it and at the end add ice cubes and serve it.
Read more related articles;