Dragon fruit fails to bear fruit mostly due to seedling plants; grafted plants bear fruit quickly

SummaryIf dragon fruit is grown from seedlings, it usually only flowers and rarely bears fruit, while grafted dragon fruit can bear fruit quickly. If the rootstock used for dragon fruit is queen of the night, it may also only flower without bearing fruit. During dragon fruit cultivation, fertilizer must be applied frequently, and pinching, branch pruning and pest and disease control must be done well; this is also an important reason for increasing dragon fruit yield.

Dragon fruit is one of the very easy fruits to grow, but for people just starting to grow it, it is not especially easy. Generally speaking, for dragon fruit to bear fruit, artificial pollination must be used; dragon fruit cannot bear fruit without pollination, and to achieve pollination, more dragon fruit plants must be grown. If too few are planted in the early stage, the pollination problem cannot be solved.

Why dragon fruit only flowers but does not bear fruit

1. Seedling plants grown from dragon fruit seeds will most likely only flower and rarely bear fruit. This is because dragon fruit must be pollinated to bear fruit. If seedling plants are used, many plants need to be grown together and then naturally pollinated to bear fruit, which is generally quite difficult. Therefore, dragon fruit is usually grown by grafting, which allows it to bear fruit quickly.

2. If the rootstock for grafting dragon fruit is queen of the night, it may also cause the situation of only flowering without bearing fruit.

What to do if dragon fruit flowers but does not bear fruit

1. Apply more fertilizer

The harvest period of dragon fruit is relatively long. To ensure yield, heavy applications of organic fertilizer and nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium compound fertilizer are basically needed every year, which can promote healthy growth of the dragon fruit plant. In dry weather, watering once about every 4 days is enough.

2. Pinch in time

When dragon fruit branches grow to about 1.4-1.5 m long, pinching should be carried out to promote branching and allow the branches to droop naturally.

3. Prune branches

After the dragon fruit picking period ends, the branches that have borne fruit need to be cut off so that they send out new shoots, thus ensuring the yield for the coming year.

4. Pest and disease control

Dragon fruit has relatively few pests and diseases. Throughout the growth cycle, it is mainly the seedling stage that is susceptible to damage by snails and ants, which can be controlled with ordinary insecticides. In hot and humid seasons, dragon fruit may also be infected by diseases, causing branch necrosis and mildew. At this time, it is enough to use triadimefon, strong copper oxide, etc. for control. As long as it is handled in time, the common pests and diseases of dragon fruit are all easy to control.