A Detailed Guide to Growing Pitaya (Dragon Fruit) in Pots: Even Beginners Can Easily Learn
If you want to cultivate your mind and relax your nature, growing potted plants is an excellent choice. Traditional potted plants made from flowers and grasses are overly delicate and only offer ornamental and beautifying value. In recent years, many people have taken to using sprouted plant tubers as potted plants, and some use the seeds of fruit they have finished eating as potted plants. This not only beautifies the home but also lets you experience the joy of a harvest.
How to Grow Pitaya (Dragon Fruit) in Pots
1. Take a fully ripe pitaya and scoop out some of the flesh. Then soak it in water and mash the flesh.
2. Then rinse it several times through a filter cloth to remove the excess flesh.
3. Then strain it several more times through a filter mesh until the flesh and seeds are completely separated. Then dry the seeds in the sun.
4. Take a pot without drainage holes and place some crushed stones at the bottom (most potted plant shops sell this kind of crushed stone).
5. Then sprinkle some soil over the crushed stones.
6. Then you can place a mold, and sprinkle more crushed stones around the outside of the mold, so that the soil is separated from the crushed stones.
7. Next, scatter the dried seeds over the soil and gently spray some water with a spray bottle. Note: do not pour water directly.
8. Then cover it with plastic wrap, and remember to lift the plastic wrap and spray water with the spray bottle every other day.
9. After 3-5 days, you will see the seeds begin to sprout, and at this point you can remove the plastic wrap covering them.
10. After some more time, the little seedlings will start growing taller again.
11. After about a few more weeks, the little seedlings will begin to grow into something like a “cactus” with small spines.
12. Once the little seedlings have grown somewhat thicker and sturdier, you can tip them out of the pot and plant them separately.
13. As they grow bigger still, the pitaya will begin to flower.
14. After flowering comes fruiting, and then you can taste the fruit.
The Growth Habits of Pitaya
Pitaya is highly adaptable; it can be planted as long as the temperature does not stay below 8°C for long periods. In northern areas where winter temperatures are low, it can be brought indoors to overwinter. For growing just a small amount of pitaya, you can buy seedlings or ask a friend for some pruned stem cuttings (10-15 cm long is enough), and generally they will take root when stuck into plain sand. With good care, flowers can be seen more than 70 days after planting the seedling.
Pitaya can flower continuously from April to November each year. Ripe fruit weighs over 500 grams, and large ones can reach 1500 grams. The skin is bright red, dazzling to the eye, and adorned with golden-yellow scales. The flesh comes in both red and white varieties; the fruit is sweet without being cloying, light and fragrant, better than Hami melon, with an excellent flavor.
Cultivation and Care of Potted Pitaya
Pitaya has good drought tolerance, so you do not need to water it too frequently, but you should keep the soil moist. Water once a week with an organic fertilizer solution mainly based on nitrogen fertilizer, which can be diluted first. If side buds grow on the stems and branches, remove them and keep the terminal bud, so that the plant can grow taller.
When the plant reaches about 1 m in height, cut off about 3 cm of the stem tip at the top; this encourages side branches to emerge at the top, and it will stop growing upward. When the top side branches reach about 50 cm, place bamboo poles around the edge of the pot at the same height as the plant, tie a crossbar to the tops of the bamboo poles, and tie the side branches to the crossbar, letting them extend horizontally or hang down naturally.
When the side branches exceed 80 cm, cut off about 3 cm of the stem tip to reduce nutrient consumption, promote flower bud differentiation, and bring flowering and fruiting earlier. With good care, it will flower after 7-8 months.
What Kind of Soil to Use for Growing Pitaya
Pitaya belongs to the cactus family. For the soil, use six parts ordinary field soil / two parts sand / plus two parts mushroom residue or boiler slag (this can be adjusted according to your local conditions; using nutrient soil instead of field soil is also fine, as long as the soil is not especially alkaline; if you do not have mushroom residue, perlite can be used instead. If you have none of the above, just add some sand. What matters is not the soil at the start, but keeping up with fertilizer later).
If you have decomposed organic fertilizer, you can also mix it with the soil described above and place it in the middle and lower part of the flowerpot, that is, in the part more than 10 cm below the surface, where the roots of the newly planted pitaya cannot yet reach; later, once the roots have developed, they will naturally be able to absorb the nutrients (do not fertilize when you have just planted the pitaya, for fear of burning the roots; for seedlings with roots, wait until new roots grow from the old roots or until more than twenty days have passed before applying fertilizer; for seedlings without roots, wait until they have grown a fairly large number of new roots, about two months, before fertilizing); do not fill the pot with too much soil; a soil depth of 25 cm to 30 cm is enough.
Pitaya is a tropical plant. Its seedlings closely resemble a cactus ball, and its temperament is similar to that of a cactus ball: it likes drought. So when growing potted pitaya, be sure not to keep it too moist. In damp and cold places, be sure to give the pitaya seedlings plenty of sunlight, as this helps the pitaya grow better.