Tips, Ways, and Things to Pay Attention to In Planting Dragon Fruit

Dragonfruits are tropical fruits with a ton of benefits and rich in nutrients. This certainly makes the fruit highly favored by the citizens of Indonesia. Aside from being delicious, it is also highly nutritious. Are you one of the fans of dragonfruits?

Have you ever thought of planting dragonfruits in your own home? Aside from saving costs, planting it on your own may also prove to be a rather fun pastime.

For those of you interested in planting your own dragonfruits at home, here is the ultimate guide for beginners. Let’s go through the steps!

Things to Pay Attention to Before Planting Dragon Fruit

Before you find out how to plant these well, here are things you ought to watch out for before planting dragonfruits. Listen carefully!

1. Pick the type of dragonfruits you’d like to plant

There are 6 types of dragonfruits available in Indonesia, the red, white, yellow, orange and black dragonfruit. However, the majority opts to plant either the red or white dragonfruit. Whereas the most expensive and smallest dragonfruit is the yellow one.

If you’re looking for dragonfruits that are easy to plant, you may choose the white or red one. Pick yours!

2. Pick the right seed

If it’s your first time planting dragonfruits, it is best you purchase a dragonfruit seed beforehand.

Characteristics Of A Good Dragonfruit Seed:

• Pick the dragonfruit stem cut from a parent tree that has already bore fruit to accelerate the fruit growth
• Pick the dragonfruit stem that is not too old
• Minimum height of the seed is 30-40 cm

Things To Prepare For Planting The Seed

A dragonfruit tree typically lasts for quite a long time, up to 20 years. With the right care, a dragonfruit tree may bear fruit once it turns 10 months old. Here is how you can accelerate its fruit growth:

1. Pick the right spot

Dragonfruits are a type of cactus plants that stores water inside the tree. For this, pick a location that gets enough sun exposure and clean of grass. An environment that is too wet and lacks sunlight may cause to plant to wither.

2. Create a pillar

A pillar is much needed for a dragonfruit plant. Its stem and branch may spread and requires a sort of crutch to help bear the weight off the tree.

You may also create a pole for the fruits made of concrete iron with a diameter of 8-10 cm, or you may use a sturdy block of wood that can last long, considering the age of the tree that may reach tens of years.

Planting A Dragonfruit Inside A Pot

For beginners, you may plant dragonfruits inside a pot filled with sand, soil, fertilizer and compost with the ratio of 2:1:3:1. You may also add brick powder sufficiently and dolomite as much as 100 grams, mixed well with the planting medium.

Next, the planting medium needs to be watered until the soil is saturated and leave for a day or a night. Afterwards, plant a pole with a depth of 10 cm. However, avoid planting the seed to deep as this may result in poor growth results. Once it is planted, press on the seed to avoid collapsing.

Finally, water the planting medium and place the dragonfruit plant in an open space where it gets enough sunlight exposure.

How To Maintain A Dragonfruit Plant

Once you have successfully planted the dragonfruit seed inside the pot, the next step is maintaining it. Maintaining the plant in a pot is more or less the same as if it is planted onto soil directly. Maintaining a dragonfruit plant includes fertilizing, trimming, thinning to providing a lamp in night time so that the plant can keep photosynthesizing.

For its fertilizer, you may give it compound fertilizer consisting of high levels of Phosphor (P) and Potassium (K). Let’s say the NPK fertilizer 15-15-15 with the dosage of 50 grams per tonne. Also add fertilizer to increase the level of organic materials to the planting medium, followed with watering the plant in the mornings or evenings.

For 2 to 4 weeks after the fertilization passes the roots, give it foliar fertilization. When the plant grows a flower, immediately start fertilizing, applying fertilizer with triple super phosphate (TSP) and KCL or fertilizer NPK 15-15-15.

Other maintenance of a dragonfruit plant in a pot is trimming its branches to keep the plant looking tidy. The intention of trimming is to help shape new branches. However, it is best to start trimming once the plant is 2-3 months old.

To optimize its growth, make sure the plant is no higher than 140-170 cm. The amount of productive branches should be kept to 3-4 branches, trim other branches.

Once it grows flowers, you should start thinning to provide more room for the plant’s growth.

Thinning may be done once the plant grows flowers and is done to optimize the growth of the plant. On each branch, leave a space of 30 cm between two flowers.

During nighttime, make sure a LED 15 watt light stays on so that the plant may photosynthesize at night. With the light staying on during the night, the plant will help it to ripen perfectly.

Fruits from the plant that are ready to harvest should weigh around 400-700 grams. The space between the appearance of flowers and fruit are around 18 days, and the fruit is considered ripe once it reaches a concentrated red color. It requires a lot of patience to be able to harvest your own dragonfruits at home. Good luck!

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